Love Classic JDM Cars? Read This!
As you might know, our corporate parents and partners run a whole bunch of forums. One that might interest you if you like Japanese Domestic Cars (JDM) is Classic JDM forum.
Take a look here and "join the conversation about classic cars from Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and many others."
This is your one-stop shop for Supras, GT-Rs, 3000GTs, and more.
Many of you grew up with these cars, and now you can talk about them online ad nauseam while wasting your boss's time at work.
Look for barn finds, classics for sale, advice on how to build a Fast and Furious replica car, and more. Give it some love -- and do the same with our other forums and editorial sites. They're our friends, so please show some support.
[Image: Screenshot of JDM]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Heres a serious question that I can not seem to find the answer to myself.
Why is there so much of a draw to JDM car culture? I understand that Polyphany made huge waves in the US once they released Gran Turismo in 1999(?), but that can not simply and solely explain the phenomena.
I also fully admit to- in large part, completely despising most of the cars that are the prime targets of that forum, I believe that the Mk4 Supra is one of the most overrated cars in history (and I'll die on that hill), and (subjectively) most Japanese modifications and overall outrageous styling changes are absolutely abhorrent. I don't get it. The Aussies have had some fantastic metal and engines (Barra, anyone? Falcons and Commodores, etc.) and European cars are also magical (no VW, not you).
Someone help me understand.
So I finally saw an R34 Skyline in the wild last year (or the year before, they run together) at a traffic light, and it was disappointingly small (like the first time I stood next to a Countach). If I've told this story before, sorry to waste your time.
Japanese Domestic Market cars are interesting in the same way that other vehicles that aren't available here are. Check out the Honda S660, the used car auctions in Japan, the Seats, Peugeots, Dacias, et cetera in Europe, the utes in Australia, the wierd and wonderful stuff in South America and the nice try copycat stuff in China.
The nice thing about JDM is it's pretty much very well built and engineered vehicles with complete inspections and available at, for the most part, very reasonable prices. Some states here actually let you register and drive them, if they are 25 years or older.
A right-hand drive Miata would be very cool...
I really enjoyed the show JDM Legends on Motortrend, and I was disappointed that it didn't get renewed.