Post to Come: Bedford Vans, Classic JDM Book Update, and Maggie Cheung!

So a month goes by, and I don't post anything. Then last week happens and I write 7 new post. I'm trying to keep the pace up, so here's a list of what to expect. 

Not a lot is commonly known about Bedford Vans in the US, even among enthusiast.

Will take a close look at these British GM people movers in a detailed Profile. 

My post about Classic JDM Books has had a lot of hits but since posting it I have

found many more resources including the English language "BIBLE"  on the subject.

Look for a picture heavy post coming soon.

So Japanese women get a lot of love on this site, but I don't discrihate I love all

Asian women! To prove just that point, we will have a nice profile and selected

Filmography on Hong Kong beauty Maggie Cheung! 

If you notice I didn't put any dates on when these will go up, I'm going to try in fit them all in this week, but there's my other two blogs I have to  post on as well so just check back and see.

Night Drive in Tokyo

Found this bit of awesomeness through a friend, can't imagine driving there is looks like controlled chaos 

Review: Champ Road

Champ Road is a irregularly published magazine on Bosozoku culture. In Japan the term Bosozoku use to be used exclusively with outlaw Biker Gangs. Years ago a Japanese law was passed forbidding more than two motorcycles riding in any group or formation with in a close proximity. Believe it or not that put in end to Biker Gangs in Japan, they couldn't even ride down the street without being stopped by law enforcement and arrested.

Now the term Bosozoku refers to just about any kind of social misfit inclined to breaking the law. Bikers, Yankee's, and street thugs are all included.

The first half of this magazine is devoted to Bikers, since the restrictive law went into place most Bikers ride tandem with a friend or girl friend riding on the back of the bike. As you might of expected Harley Davidson's aren't high on the list of Japanese bikers.

What are is classic Japanese speed bikes tricked out with crazy fiberglass whale tails and lights. This would all make for funny joke fodder for American Bikers but in Japan if you see one of these bikes headed your way it's best to move on.

The second half of the magazine is devoted to Yankee's. Not westerners as you might think, but a Japanese guy/girl that's a little on the anti-social side. Yankee's identify themselves by not only the way they act but how they dress, and the cars they drive.

Yankee's bring a whole new meaning to custom van's look here to see what I mean. They do similar setups on their cars, take a look at some of the pictures found in this magazine.

Altogether an interesting magazine to flip through, a bit on the pricey side but it's a thick magazine. Get it here.

Dream Machine #001: Daihatsu Hijet

I first became aware of the Daihatsu Hijet Van while watching some forgettable Hong Kong action flick. A group of bank robbers all piled into a black one to not only pull the heist, but to out run the police.

I know now that quite a bit of artistic liberty was taken as to the performance of the van. Although it is quite an under-performer it still has a cult following and is an awesome van to own.

As obvious by the pictures you can see this van is small. It's not a mini van, it's a  micro van. The specs read like that of a high powered golf cart, a 1.0 three cylinder or the upgraded 1.3 four cylinder. It's a mid engine vehicle with the motor sitting under the front drivers seat. With the 1.3 motor the top speed is around 45 miles an hour. It is possible to put on larger tires and reach speeds up to 60 mph, though some question the safety of such an upgrade.

The Hijet ruffly translates to Midget in English, and although the similarly styled JDM Toyota Hiace sounds the same in name, Daihatsu was first to manufacture their van. As stated above the Hijet comes in different flavors, besides the 3 or 4 cylinder option all wheel drive is a choice as well.

Why this vehicle has a cult following has more to do with performance than it being cute. Although it seems criminally under-powered it is a mid engine vehicle with rear wheel drive. Couple with the fact that it weighs so little makes this thing a drift monster. Don't believe me, look it up on youtube and watch the little guys tear up the street (and their tires.)

So, why do I want one? Well I can't say I would drift in it, but when I open a shop it would be cool to have one as a parts runner. Believe it or not the Hijet can handle quite a load, you wont get there fast, but you will get there. Besides that it looks so JDM I would love to drive one around town just for the double takes.

Although you don't see them on the road that often, they do occasionally pop up for sale online. Usually broken in some way. As you might have thought parts are a bitch to find stateside. It helps if you have a direct line to someone in Japan that can ship parts. Something to look out for is that the truck version of this vehicle is also called the Hijet, so when you see one for sale online it might be the truck version.

As an interesting foot note a Hijet was featured on MTV's Pimp My Ride. West Coast Customs did their usual tacky paint job, but the interior was cherry. Watch it here.

For more information on owning or buying a Hijet check out Micro Van Owners Club.

Old School Auto Ads

Flipping through an issue of Car Craft Magazine (May, 1975) I stumbled upon a couple of great ads. I thought I would share them here. As always, click the picture for a larger image.

Car Craft May 1975 Cover

SuperMuff!

Great Dodge Ad

T-Shirt Iron On Decals

Close-Ups Of Some of the Decals

Classic JDM: Update

Since my last post on Classic JDM Cars I have received in the mail a couple of more Classic Japanese Car items. The first is issue 1-3 of Japanese Nostalgic Car available here. This really is a great read, tons of photo's and interesting pieces. Well worth the cheap price.

Next up is the professionally produced DVD of 2007 JCCS event coverage. Tons of beautifully restored and modified classic JDM cars on U.S. soil! Awesome DVD, get it here. 

SCORE: Hot Wheels

Over the last couple of months I have been picking up Hot Wheels occasionally at Walmart. Although the majority of my collection is in Ft.Worth I'm starting to get a nice bunch here. My latest finds are below. As always click the picture for a larger image.

1970's Pacer

 

A-Team Van

Mid 70's SUV With Lifted

Suspension and Portholes

 Crazy Custom Van Named Spoiler Sport

Bad Ass Dodge Van Evidently Based On A Real Van

Found this in a 70's children's picture

book about Custom Vans

Classic JDM

I love classic Japanese cars. To a lot of people "Classic" and "Japanese Cars" don't go together. The truth of the matter is the Japanese have a long and interesting legacy of car manufacturing. It's true, the Japanese did event the compact economy box, and a lot of 60's Japanese cars fit this profile. Although they didn't really have any large, heavy, V8 muscle cars they had fast little coupes with a lot of personality.

I get excited when I see a mid 80's Supra or 70's Celica on the road. Like all my hobbies (read obsessions) I feel the need to read up on the subject. I started on amazon.com, I have bought tons of books on American and European cars on Amazon so I thought I would find a lot to read on Japanese cars. I was wrong.

First off there are not whole lot of books on the subject, and hardly a one on classic Japanese cars. I found a nice selection of books on Datsun Z's, but that's to be expected. Most Datsun owners don't even think of their cars as Japanese. Some going as far as cramming SBC engines into their little sports cars.

I did some digging and found a title named The Complete Book Of Japanese Import Cars, Peterson Publishing 1977. I bought a used ex-library copy off amazon for $25. It's a thin hard bound book with a color cover and black and white interior pages. Toyota, Datsun, Mazda, Honda, and Subaru are all covered in it's pages. It has a short description and specs on the cars it features and photo guide instructions on doing simple repairs.

The photos of the cars are all in black and white and there are not a lot of them, what is there is cool enough though. I came to find out latter this is somewhat of a rare book and usually sells for upwards of $50.

Typical photos found in the Peterson Book

Next I ordered a copy of Celica & Supra:The Book of Toyota's Sports Coupes, by Brian Long 2007. This book is published by Veloce, the same people who brought us the equally entertaining Datsun Z book. This book is full of color images of every  Celica and Supra  released up to 2007. Also included are ad mats from Japan and the U.S. featuring these two great Toyota's. Spec sheets, facts, and opinionated articles are all present making this a solid book.

My only complaint is the price of the book. It's a British book so a high price is to be expected but it retails for $39.95 U.S. Given the fact that it's a thick book and the pages are all glossy one could say it's worth it. I guess it all depends on how big of a Toyota fan you are.

An example of  just one of the beautiful Celica's featured 

Up to this point these were the only books on classic JDM cars I could find. I was left to scouring ebay for back issues of Motor Trend and Car & Driver from the 70's that had write ups on Japanese imports. Months later I received some back issues of the Japanese Kogal magazine Egg. I bought them from a book dealer in Japan that specialized in Back issues of Japanese magazines. He had stuck a flyer in the middle of one of the magazines. I had seen it before, it said something along the lines of "I can send any Japanese magazine available to the U.S." The thought hit me like a ton of bricks, if anyone would have books or magazines on Classic JDM cars it would be Japan!

I know this might sound stupid given the fact that I order stuff from Japan all the time, but I just hadn't made the connection until then. I emailed the guy and he wrote back telling me there were plenty of books and monthly magazines on the subject. The books start out at about $75 and climb up to $250, magazines can be had for $25 to $40.

Typical Japanese magazines are a lot thicker than American magazines. They're of course in Japanese but are very image heavy with the added bonus of funny Engrish throughout. There are numerous titles available but the best seems to be "Nostalgic Hero" and it's off shoots.

Every month Nostalgic Hero features a number of great restored classic Japanese cars, many never available in the U.S. Back issues are plentiful on ebay, but expect to pay a lot when it comes to shipping.

Coming full circle I was in Books-a-Million last week looking in the automotive magazine section and came upon a new title, Super Street Retro. It's pretty unbelievable but it's a Super Street magazine that doesn't feature one Honda! Weird I know. What is does feature is classic Japanese cars from the 60's through the 80's. Informative articles on build-ups, and Garage profiles. I snatched a copy but don't have it in front of me, so I can't tell if it's a monthly, bi-monthly, or yearly. I don't recall any subscription cards in it though.

And that's my quest for classic JDM car books, believe it or not there are not a whole lot of web sites devoted to the subject either, what I have found is listed below. If you're just looking for eye candy cardomain.com is a good place to go. Just plug in the car of your choice and choose display results year oldest to newest.

..::Linkage::..
http://www.jdmclassics.com/
http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/
http://www.jassics.com/

Deal of the Week

I have a ritual I preform every Sunday after church. I look around on Craigslist for cars. Since moving to Mississippi I have have felt a bit of an underwhelming feeling every time I look at the Jackson listing. I keep forgetting  how big the DFW metroplex is compared to where I am now.

Anyone familiar with the DFW metroplex knows it's a lot more than just Dallas and Fort Worth. It also refers to the smaller urban areas in between the two city's and the larger towns surrounding the entire area. It's huge and the DFW Craigslist listing covers it all. So, I have gone back to searching the DFW listing. If I ever find something good I can always make the trip back down.

It doesn't happen often but every once in a while I come across something that is to good to be true, today is one of those days. One of my weekly searches is for vans. To grab a wider result I simplify my search terms like "dodge van", as opposed to "1976 Dodge B100". Querying that term (Dodge Van) I came up with an awesome result.

The listing said "Dodge Van For Sale - $900 (Dallas)". I always jump on these listings because the year is not listed because they are often older vans and they think it will scare away people from clicking. A lot of people don't know what they have when it comes to an older van.

This is obviously the case with this guy. The Dodge van for sale for $900 is a certifiable Mid 70's Good Times van. I called the guy and asked some questions. The paint is as old as the van and was purchased at a custom van dealer in '76. The body has very little rust and the only real problem seems to be the brakes.

If it weren't for the lack of storage space at my place I would buy this rig in a heartbeat

For those interested the sale can be found here.