I feel like I’m getting so old that eventually the Japanese Classic Car Show will just be a Japanese Car Show and I’ll be a fucking Classic. So essentially I’ll just eventually be old with the rest of these cars. That’s all. I’m not gonna type anymore.

Lol.

Kidding of course…kind of. You know how creepy dudes like to say that “I keep getting older but the girls just stay the same age”? Well, that’s fucking creepy, first of all, but I’m making reference to that because I feel like I keep getting older, and the car scene just stays the same age. Like I’m not trying to fuck cars or anything but I am getting super old. I feel completely okay with that when I go to other car shows but then I decide to go to JCCS in Long Beach and I’m starting to see cars that were fucking new when I was growing up and now they are considered classics. That’s insane. Since when was a 1995 Mazda RX-7 a classic car? It is even crazier to imagine that in just a few more years, an EM1 Civic SI could be considered a classic. We older car guys are just going to be attending JCCS to look at regular cars at some point. My only saving grace as far as making feeling still somewhat “of normal age” is seeing all my friends who are older than me, haha. Like I make it a point to remind them how fucking old they are and then they can tell me about how life is hard with a mortgage and a screaming wife. Sometimes they even bring their kids who are full fucking grown adults now. That’s car enthusiast life in 2017 for guys like me who grew up in the 1980s. We went from worrying about how long we can stay out when we went to Hot Import Nights to trying to figure out how to explain to our non-car friends that we’re still cruising around in lowered-cars in our mid-30s. I don’t know how you 40-somethings do it.

Anyways, that was a wild tangent but as you’ll notice by now, I definitely did go to the Japanese Classic Car Show this year. It’s a good time as always. I love attending this show because it starts early (9 am) and ends just early enough for 80% of the old car guys to get home in time for supper at 4:30 PM. These guys gotta go to bed by 7 PM so you gotta give them some time to digest their food, you know? Haha. Again, still kidding. I actually went to the show pretty early and took like a three hour nap after I got back because I don’t know how to function when I have to wake-up before 11 am every day. It’s a problem. The show was great though. I really wanted to go to see the guys from Wild Cards because this is one of those rare shows where they always try to make a strong showing with all their classic Toyota and Nissan/Datsun builds. These guys just build amazing cars and I make sure to find time out of my busy schedule to study their builds whenever they bring them out. I appreciate what they do with their cars because it honestly feels like they do what they do to their cars out of sheer love. It matters little to them what people think and their cars are very unique to their group. I’ve attached some photos of some of their cars below and I think you’ll have a good understanding of what I’m talking about when you see the little details in their builds and how they execute their modifications. Other than the Wild Cards, the JCCS Show always holds a collection of pretty nice classic builds. I like how they are introducing more cars into their list of “classics” now because it brings a bigger collection of cars to the show, and in turn, also draw a bigger fan base to the show. I can understand why this would alienate some enthusiasts, because they would argue that these newer cars aren’t classics yet, but these guys just need to understand that expansion is inevitable to keep the show alive. You can just keep hosting the same guys every year with the same builds that don’t change much. The show would get pretty dry otherwise and people will just get tired of seeing the same cars annually. I joke around a lot about it but from the business end of it, it just makes perfect sense. I myself am glad to see more variety at the JCCS show because it is one of the busier shows of the year and with this venue, it can be kind of a pain in the ass sometimes finding parking. They even have a full shuttle service taking people to the Queen Mary from the Long Beach Courthouse now, which has extra parking, because the last few years have been so messy. I remember one time it took me practically an entire hour to try to get to the show because of how busy it was and how far I had to park. By the time I got there the show was practically over. Things are much smoother now, with an expanded roster of available cars to see at JCCS, and it’s a nice chill event overall.

I appreciate it for what it is and what it brings to the community.

Check out some of the photos I collected below and come back for Part 2 if you enjoy some Japanese classics…

Wild Cards car club member Dennis Kiyan’s 1st generation RA Toyota Celica repainted a beautiful candy purple hue with bolt-on flares featuring a brand new set of Work Equip 40 wheels. He has a pretty cool engine swap planned for this, not sure if he got it all together yet to drop into the car, but I think it’s the perfect swap for this car…

The Equip 40 wheels with a matte gold face and anondized bronze step-lip finish…

The rear of Kiyan’s Celica featuring the JDM “GT 2000” rear garnish which denotes the 18RG engine that originally came on that specific trim level…

John Ross’ Datsun 510 Wagon, also from Wild Cards and on display at the Work Wheels booth running a set of their Equip 40 wheels…

In the engine bay of the 510 Wagon is a very well-executed Nissan SR20DET engine swap highlighted with custom intercooler piping, Precision turbocharger, and GReddy intake manifold…

There isn’t a whole lot of room in the small engine bay of the 510 chassis but the SR looks like it belongs in there…

It was nice to see Gil Susana’s 510 once again. I believe the car has been down for quite some time as he was redoing his engine bay as well as some other alterations to his Datsun. He too was hosted at the Work Wheels booth on their Equip 40s…

Here’s Susana’s shaved and smoothed-out engine bay hosting an SR20DET swap with Garrett turbo routed to custom turbo plumbing using Adel Wiggins clamps. Mounted on the firewall is a Nuke Performance fuel set-up.

Love the custom purple SR valve cover with the “Wild Cards” club name pinstriped onto it. The Tomei oil cap also matches the rest of the custom polished accessories on the engine. Great detail and execution…

This set of Work Equip 40s featuring a gold face with polished step-lip and black pierce bolts…

Roy de Guzman’s Hakosuka Skyline from Wild Cards always looking great….

Honestly, I feel super weird about seeing the FD3S RX-7 chassis at the JCCS show. I mean, it’s an older chassis, I get it but damn, it makes me feel super old to know that these once unobtainable cars to us when we were youths are now considered to be Japanese classics, haha…

In any case, this RX-7 is a good one. I’ve seen it a couple times before and I can appreciate the fact that the owner has not only kept the 13B in there, but also dressed it up to make it look good. You gotta appreciate the stock body too, being that the FD is probably one of the better looking OEM vehicles of all-time…

Our buddy Los loves the CR-X chassis and always has some of the cleanest examples of them. He not only brought his CR-X out to the JCCS event, but days later, competed at the Super Street FF Battle event…

I also feel like the S14 chassis is not quite a “Japanese classic” just yet, but whoever owns this one just sort of snuck into the event because he has a Rocket Bunny BOSS kit…

The owner probably just submitted a front end shot of the car like this and the people at JCCS were like “oh shit, it’s a Datsun, approve it”, lol…

Classy white DA Integra owned by Ho Dao running a carbon JDP front lip and custom Mugen MR5 wheels…

The MR5 wheels aren’t too crazy with the re-lip and sit on the Integra nicely…

Refinished and rebuilt Speed Star Racing Air Stage wheels tucked nicely under this Honda Civic hatchback…

2JZ-GTE powered Toyota Cressida wearing a custom retrofitted BN Sports aero kit…

Beautiful EF8 SiR-look CR-X from Revstar Garage on Mugen CF-48 wheels with aero disks…

Never was a huge fan of the fan-clutch face design of the CF-48, but I do love the nostalgic look of it with the disks in place. Sometimes I wonder if the “CF” in “CF-48” just means “Clutch Fan”, haha…

B-series set-up under the hood of the CR-X running some FEEL’S Honda Twin Cam accessories and a full-size radiator…

Love this silver S30Z with custom metal flares housing a set of deep-dish SSR Formula Mesh…

RIck’s KGC10 1971 Skyline GTX coupe looks amazing on the RS Watanabe wheels…

Under the hood is an L-series engine running Mikuni-Solex carbs that look like they’re practically brand new. Not pictured but Rick is also running a Fujitsubo header and exhaust set-up on his Skyline…

Nardi wood grain steering wheel and a pair of leather driving gloves positioned just right on the Skyline GTX…

Period-correct R30 Skyline RS-Turbo on gold RS Watanabe wheels…

The Motul USA display booth hosted this PMC-S themed Skyline which has been a regular at many events throughout 2017 down here in SoCal…

People who attend the Japanese Classic Car Show annually really take their display set-ups seriously, especially the owner of this Subaru 360, which looks like it just rolled-off the showroom floor…

One of my all-time favorite builds at JCCS is this beautiful Datsun 510 coupe. Some may argue that the Volk Racing RE30 wheels may be a bit big for the body but they are sized to accompany the massive big brakes…

Nestled inside the engine bay of the 510 is a 13B Rotary engine swap with both a radiator and thick intercooler core seated up front. Also make note of the remote reservoirs of the JRZ coilover suspension sitting in the bay…

Another clean RA Celica Liftback repainted in orange sitting on a set of Hayashi Racing wheels…

The only way to make a rare Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 more exciting is by putting a set of black RS Watanabe wheels on it. How fucking cool does this car look? What an underrated chassis. I’m glad someone is doing it right…

Not too far away from the Galant was this imported Japanese-market specific Mitsubishi Delica…

This race-prepped Mazda RX-3 was fucking bad ass, featuring a 20B Rotary swap and fully-gutted and caged interior…

Let’s wrap-up Part 1 for now with a shot of this Mazda RX-2 on BBS wheels from CYBER Racing.

Still got another 40 photos coming in Part 2, stay tuned!…