Japanese Classic Car Show overflows its new Long Beach location

Datsun 510 loaded and lowered pays its 15 bucks to park across the street from the show. 

Wide body, Lumpy cams.

Nissan Skyline GT

Fairladys

The 411 on the show.

50th Anniversary Nissan Z

Streetmachine

This Daihatsu HiJet was for sale via text auction in the parking lot across from the show.

Zs to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nissan Z

Japanese Classic Car Show 2019

Zs to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nissan Z

FD

Corolal wagon

The Toyota Levin was the performance model of the line

Toyota Celica GT

Mazda 767B

Barn find original Honda Gold Wing

Mazda RX3

Subaru 360

Suzuki Alto Works RSR

Autozam AZ-1

Nissan Figaro

Structural engineers for importavehicle.com

Honda/Acura was a sponsor of the event and brought this NSX

Steve’s POV Nissan GT-R debuted at SEMA

Daihatsu Mira walk-through van

Japanese Classic Car Show 2019

Johnny Humphrey’s replica GT-R is for sale on bringatrailer.com

GT-R engine

Bob Sharp Racing Camel GT 

Toyota Land Cruiser

Suzuki GT 750

With each year of the Japanese Classic Car Show –  and there have now been 15 of them straight – the notion of the Japanese car as a collector item grows more legit.

In fact, the whole scene keeps getting bigger and bigger. A couple years ago the show outgrew its original location in a little corner of grass in front of the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Then it moved across the bay to Marina Green Park, also in Long Beach. And now it seems to have outgrown that site and maybe they ought to start looking for another spot. In any case, the notion of the Japanese car as a collectible, as something with artistic and historical value instead of a mere transportation “appliance” as they were so easily dismissed for so long, is set.

“Without question, and the market will back me up on this, Japanese cars are really being embraced as true classic cars,” said the event’s emcee Patrick Strong, (who also owns www.modelcitizendiecast.com, your source for cool car models from both Japan and around the world). “They resonate with the generation of car enthusiasts who now have aged into the ability to have collector cars. When I was a pre-teen and teen, the real world dream cars that appealed to me, as opposed to the Countaches and Testarossas, were the MR2, the Starion, and the Eclipse Turbos. And now that I am a gentleman of a certain age, I and my cohorts here can start to accumulate these cars and care for them. Plus, you have the generation that went before who have been preserving their 510s and 240Zs and first-generation Celicas and now have a broader, receptive audience that can appreciate them.”

Indeed, those cars were exactly what was rolling onto the somewhat soggy grass of Marina Park as we spoke: Datsun 510s, 411s and a surprising number of original GT-Rs; Toyota Celicas, Truenos and Levins; Mazda RX3s in perfect shape; and acres and acres of 240Zs in honor of that car’s 50th anniversary. There were 502 cars in all, including a little less than 20 motorcycles, because Japan has made some really cool motorcycles over the years (perhaps you owned a few).

“I’m the third owner,” said Mark Wicker, standing in front of his barn find original 1978 GL 1000 Honda Gold Wing. “Some old cat in Hawaiian Gardens had it.”

Wicker put a fair amount of money into the bike to get it back up and running after so long in storage. Now, he says, he has had it up to 115 mph, just 15 shy of its original top speed of 130.

“It weighs 680 pounds but you can’t tell it. It feels like it’s about 200 pounds lighter.”

Suzuki GT750

Justin Schmidt spent 400 hours restoring his 1977 Suzuki GT750, the first liquid-cooled production motorcycle and the first to have twin disc brakes. It may have been 400 hours of work, but it was years finding all the parts.

“The gauges had to go to Barbados,” he said. “There’s one guy, one guy, who does the gauges and he’d retired and moved to Barbados. He had those gauges for eight months. I thought they were gone forever.”

But they came back, better than new. There was another part issue, three little plastic parts that disintegrated and for which he never thought he’d find replacements.

“Then my son found that the petcock on the Honda P50 (moped) was the same part number.”

He ordered three of them.

Stories like that were all over the field. There was a race car – a Mazda 767B in orange and green livery – parked front and center in front of the Mazda lounge, Mazda being one of the corporate sponsors. Nissan was also present, with rows and rows of 240Zs to celebrate that iconic sports car’s 50th anniversary.  Toyota, Mazda, Honda and Nissan were sponsors, along with a number of supplier companies. Each brought examples of their new and heritage cars.

Joji Luz’ 1972 Celica 1600 GT was parked next to the Whiteline suspension parts booth and was “loaded up” with the company’s parts.

“All our chassis bushings, subframe bushings and sway bars,” said general manager George Hsieh. “Our stuff is a little more compliant, and the thicker sway bar means better roll control and better grip.”

And who couldn’t use that?

New Zealander Johnny Humphrys was selling his replica right-hand-drive 1973 Nissan Skyline GT-R on bringatrailer.com, and it was parked next to the bringatrailer tent. Unless you knew what to look for, you might not be able to tell that it was a replica. Especially under the hood, where a beautiful constellation of triple Webers stood at attention right next to the straight six. Humphreys noted that a real GT-R could go for $200,000. He realizes this one will be less, but still good.

“They’re sooo analog,” he said of the car. “It’s a lot different than my sister’s Tesla.”

One guy looking at it was Craig Seidel, who plans to open a company called RentJDM in Las Vegas at the first of the year. The idea is to rent cars just like this. JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market. So you could drive a GT-R or something equally fun and foreign to American rental fleet tastes. Imagine next time you’re in town for SEMA or CES, showing up at your client’s dinner in a ’73 GT-R, 1993 Suzuki Cappuchino or 1990 Nissan Pulsar GTi-R. Check out rentjdm.com.

“Everything’s right hand-drive, everything’s manual,” Seidel said.

One of the nicest of the millions of Z cars present was a one-of-one 1972 Camel GT Coupe by Bob Sharp Racing. It has highlights done in the Camel GT colors and they look mighty tasteful.

“It’s the 50th anniversary of the Z, didja hear?” asked owner Vince Corry.

Everybody had heard, judging by the crowd size. There was no official estimate but over the course of the day I wouldn’t be surprised if there were five or ten thousand attendees. Problem was, each one had to be metal-wanded to check for inappropriate objects, and that took a long time. People waited a half hour in the semi-blazing-hot sun. There were long lines for the food trucks, which were charging a lot of money, and there was precious little shade on the grounds.

As cars were rolling in before the show opened, a smallish show staffer wandered around with a megaphone terrifying attendees.

“Get to your cars or the fire marshal will shut the show down!” she wailed.

Things were a little crazy this time. Maybe there’s a larger venue somewhere? Maybe they could hire more guys with more of those metal detector wands? More food trucks? Maybe it’s time for the Japanese Collector Car Show to take the next step up, whatever that is?

What am I, a show organizer? I don’t know nothin’ about entertainment management. One problem – which might not be a problem at all but a benefit — is that this show has included two other shows, the Neo Classics ‘80s and ‘90s show that used to be held at Toyota’s corporate headquarters when Toyota was in Torrance, and the Japanese Classic Motorcycle Show, billed as a “Show Within A Show.” Should they be separated out? Who knows?

I asked show co-founder Koji Yamaguchi if it seemed a little crazier this year. His English is much better than my Japanese.

“It’s crazy, but good crazy! Please enjoy!”

And ultimately, everybody did.

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