Vintage cars Archives - Club4AG

Toyota Automobile Museum, Nagoya, Japan

MotoP — Sat, 08 Dec 2018 19:11:34 +0000

Toyota's main headquarters museum, features a chronological and theme-oriented display of automobile history from design standpoint, and historical assets. It is a gallery of all makes and models with tribute from Toyota as a car crafter, to all designers and engineers in automotive history.

It isn't so much a fan-zone, but more a very good reference of cars around the world in one of the best restoration crafted state, performed by the extremely capable fabricators and curators within the museum.

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Just a another tip for buying your car parts from Japan, or any other rarities...

MotoP — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 18:56:53 +0000

Just a another tip for buying your car parts from Japan.

I've been recently getting a lot of inquiries for random classic/vintage car parts to be bought from Japan.

The thing to remember folks, is that for anyone in bigger cities in Japan, it is very different for people in Japan.

It's one thing, if the shop has it and is willing to deal in English language and takes payments from foreigners, and wants to ship. But for most cases, these guys are older, and is content with doing business locally, and for many are reluctant to deal with foreigners. We can't blame them as Japanese culture and community is very uniform and safe. A lot of foreign transactions from many countries are thought to be unsafe, and people are not willing to deal with it. Period. Also, because they have plenty of demand within Japan, they are not really eager to start anything out of the ordinary, though anyone looking in from the outside feel they should. It doesn't phase them though...

Secondly, for folks in Japan's cities can't just hop in a car, drive somewhere, and fetch something, and return home like many of us Americans. Their gas prices are more than twice the US prices, and highway tolls are few bucks every few miles, and parking prices can also be as much as what you'd pay in Manhattan. For many, it often takes a few train trips and a lot of walking too. They are hard working people who have much less time in the day from their daily chores and work too. When they pick up large pieces, they have very little room to store anything for long periods between shipping too. So having a third party or a friend do a favor of buying and shipping something is also something a bit more involved than most of us in the USA.

Lastly, for many of these shops the foreign transactions are something secondary. You see in Japan car parts shopping is done almost strictly by shop owners and repair/restore industry personnel and not generally by hobbyists or owners from public domains. So not only are they accustomed to public inquiries, but also aren't in need of setting up vast catalogs for public viewing on the internet either.

So having said all this, it isn't like they don't want to sell you stuff. It's just that we need to take these things into consideration, and be considerate and patient, and willing to spare then extra fees and expenses too. If you are prepared and thoughtful of how things are in Japan, you can avoid issues, and frustrations and deal with importers and dealers in Japan too, smoothly. You may also consider buying from a reputable shops online like Bend Brothers for a hassle-free process.

Take note of these if you're buying random collectibles from Japan, not just car parts but most other rarities as well from anime goods, art, and trinkets to tools. Good hunting!

PS: If you have large items to ship, consider talking to a expert importer who can arrange logistics and payments that are easier BEFORE YOU leave. That way you have a place to ship to in Japan and whoever you buy from can ship them directly to that agent where he will ship them for you, so you don't need to carry it around trains in Japan during your trip either.
KJ Takahashi of MyJapanDirect is such a guy, and he can make arrangements like this, or even hunt and order things for you without you having to leave Japan! https://myjapandirect.com/

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2016 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion - Mazda R100 Rotary Coupe - Team Tamaru Sets another first for the event.

MotoP — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 01:25:42 +0000

2016 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion - Mazda R100 Rotary Coupe - Team Tamaru Sets another first for the event.

Another summer means another week of Pebble Beach Concours, and all of the related activities of the festival at Monterey Bay Peninsula of Central Coast of California.
The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, better known as Monterey Historics Race, has had yet another first ever entry for a Japanese model.
Team Dainichi-Tamaru brought two examples of mint-restored 1970 Mazda R100 Rotary Coupe, known in Japan as the Familia Rotary Coupe, all the way from Japan. This mind you, is also the first time these R100 had eligibility in this event, just like in 2014, when Team Tamaru brought over the Toyota Sports 800.
The little 1650 lbs race-prepared cars have had long history in the 1970's as the touring car to beat among Japanese cars in the international stage.
From Nurburgring to Spa, to LeMans, these Rotary Coupes were biting at the heels of then-successful Porsche 911, and besting the best from Alfa Romeo Giulia and BMW-Alpina 2002Tii.

The pair of 1970 Rotary Coupes present today were restored meticulously to the white/blue, white-red two tone liveries from the SPA Francorchamps 1969 24 Hour Grand Prix. The red #31A owned and driven by a famous car collector Dr.Kato of Japan, joined the principal team owner, a entrepreneur-car-expert Mr.Tamaru, who brought his own #32A blue car, with crew volunteered from the deepest legendary racing machine experts of Japan. Team members like the father of Prince Skyline, Mr.Higashikawa, Ai Koizumi and her crew, who usually procures top GT500, Super Taikyu, and AE86 N2 machines, and the notorious race-car magician that is Mr.Goto who works magic. US Side Operation of final building/ testing and documentations for Rolex event were performed by none other than Koji Haraguchi of Hiro's Auto in Costa Mesa, and former chief of RSR USA, Yataro "John" Masuda, along with assistance from talents like Takahisa "Flying Taka" Aono of AE86 fame.
Also important to mention that the #31A was kept in original state from 1969, while the #32A was retuned by famous RE Amemiya for a more reliable racing result.
This was purposefully done so that #31A was present for the historical accuracy of vintage example to show the fans up-close, and #32A was slightly honed with Amemiya hands and peripheral porting, and stronger coil-packs, and other hand-crafted ways to make it a bit more interesting in the event for exciting racing to the finish.
Driving the red #31A was Dr.Kato himself, and for the blue #32A, a retired professional driver from Mazda's own design team, Mr. Maeda was enlisted to give it a true spirited battle with the Alfa Giulia and Porsche 911S in the Historics.

Rather than boring you with any more words however, here are some pictures to depict that thrill that was there for 3 days with all the lucky Rotary Engine fans who witnessed the magic happen this August 2016.

-- Moto Miwa

IMG_7434

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Toyota Sports 800 Monterey Historic Motorsports Reunion

MotoP — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 09:06:01 +0000

Toyota Sports 800 Monterey Historic Motorsports Reunion

Dainichi Racing Team and Mr.Tamaru an avid owner of a precious Toyota Sports 800, decided on a bucket list item, to take his own car to Laguna Seca Monterey Historics Motorsports Reunion 2014 Race a couple years ago. His daily driven "Yotahachi" of 19 years ownership went through a 10 million JPY ($100,000) restoration and alteration project.
The Sports 800, with newly prepared chassis, and suspension, a complete ground up restoration by Racing Service Goto, RSR Japan, and blueprinted all-original engine build by Ken Matsuura of GT500 fame. All came together in a hurry, and arrived at Los Angeles to go through final preparation at RSR USA to attend the monumental race of a billion buck paddock at Laguna Seca, during the prestigious Monterey Historic Automobile Festivities week.

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