Coverage: Japanese Classic Car Show 2007

In 2005, a group of Southern California car enthusiasts put together the first ever Japanese Classic Car Show. It was one of the first events of it's kind in the United States, gathering vintage Japanese car owners and fans from all over the area. After hearing about the past shows, I knew I had to make in the trip down to Long Beach this year. For 2007 the show was bigger and better than ever. Die hard old school Japanese car nuts came from all over the western US and even from Japan to take part. There were over 300 cars packed into the Queen Mary's event park.

This year's show marked two milestones for the Japanese Auto Industry with Mazda celebrating the 40th anniversary of the rotary engine, and Toyota celebrating 50 years in the US. Mazda brought out a number of fully restored machines including the ultra-rare first generation Cosmo, and several race cars.

The early Cosmo is a beautiful car and when looking at one you can see the influence of the early Ford Thunderbird.  I was amazed at the turn out of vintage Mazda enthusiasts, as they are usually behind Nissan and Toyota in popularity. One of my personal favorites was an RX4 wagon modified an FC3S Turbo II engine, FD RX7 wheels, and factory RX8 seats.

There was also what appeared to be the largest gathering of vintage Skyline models in the United States.

There were stock and modified examples of both the C10 and C110 models, with the most extreme being a stock-appearing C110 with an RB26 under the hood.

This silver hakosuka looked amazing.

This Ken and Mary racer was a real attention-getter.

As expected, there were massive numbers of Nissans in attendance, including dozens of 510's/Bluebirds and early Z's.

This was one of several 510 Bluebird coupes at the show.

The Shinzo Auto Service G-Nose S30Z has perfect stance, the color looks great as well.

Here's one that's not too common, a shakotan Nissan Laurel SGX Hardtop.

I was surprised to see several well-done examples of B110 Datsun 1200's/Nissan Sunny's. This one is powered by a CA18DET.

The Toyota guys had a strong showing as usual, with numbers of Corollas, Celicas, Starlets, Crowns, and many others.

Early model Celica with handsome, unobtrusive bumpers.

While they may be "late models" as far as the JCCS goes, AE86's are now nearly 25 years old.

Toyota brought out this 2000GT as part of its 50th birthday display.

While not as big as the Nissan, Toyota, and Mazda showings. The other Japanese automakers were represented as well.

Look at the front camber on this Starion race car.

This carbon-bodied Honda Z600 is powered by a Hayabusa engine..

I can't imagine what it's like to drive this thing.

Yokomo had a radio control car race track set up, and there were a few different RC cars drifting with highly detailed early Skyline and Z bodies.  They even had scale Watanabe wheels. Pretty cool.

This just barely scratches the surface of what the 2007 JCCS was like.It's amazing to see how much the show has grown in a short time, while walking around I saw the crew of Speed Channel's Car Crazy TV Show, and Inada Daijiro of Option magazine/D1. You can take a look at the nearly 200 photos I took here . That's about all I can say right now, I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking. If you haven't yet experienced the JCCS, I suggest you make plans to be in Long Beach next fall, you won't regret it.

Comments

[Jack M]

beautiful cars, great pictures. Oh and id love to get my helmet painted by that guy.

[Zack]

As always, great shots! I didn't know you were going.

[NQZTOR]

Nice coverage ... here are more pics ..

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/NQZTOR/Event%20pics/2007JCCS%20LongBeach/?start=0

[Mike]

Great pics and review! Keep up the good work.

Mike @ NST
www.NonStopTuning.com