The Mazda RX-3 – An Introduction The Mazda RX-3 “Savanna” was a paradox of a car. Fledgling Japanese car maker Mazda built a pretty typical for the period small passenger car and dropped a twin rotor Wankel engine into it. This had the effect of making the little RX-3 an exotic road rocket despite its…
This is the real-life Mach 5 from the 2008 Wachowski film Speed Racer, based on the manga and anime series that was created by Tatsuo Yoshida back in the mid-1960s. The Mach 5 needs no introduction to anyone who grew up in the ’60s, ’70s, or ’80s. Speed Racer was dubbed into English and countless…
This pristine 1981 Toyota HiLux SR5 Pickup Truck is undoubtably the best HiLux for sale in America right now. That may sound like a lofty claim to make, but this comprehensively restored truck looks like it just rolled off the factory floor in Japan, with Kool & The Gang’s just released single “Celebration” playing on…
The Mazda RX-7 is an immensely popular Japanese sports car that’s entirely unique among its contemporaries due to one key fact – it was only ever offered with a rotary engine. Rotaries have fallen out of favor in more recent years due to tightening emissions regulations, the Wankel rotary needs a small amount of oil…
This is a complete collection of Honda SL Motosport models from 1971, all of the bikes have been restored except for the rare, low-milage SL175 which was in such fantastic condition it only needed a re-paint in the correct Candy Sapphire Blue. The collection is made up of a Honda SL70, a Honda SL90, a…
The story of the Datsun 240Z begins on the race track, and it dates back to 1964 when the Prince Motoring Club was established by Dr. Sakuri of Prince Motors in the wake of defeat by a privately entered Porsche in the Japanese Grand Prix of that year.
The Honda CR750 is an exceptionally rare motorcycle, the factory-built examples like the one shown here are even rarer still. The original idea to build a full race version of the Honda CB750 didn’t start in Japan, it was the idea of the American importers who well understood the importance of the old phrase “Win…
The Datsun 240Z, otherwise known as the Nissan S30 or the Nissan Fairlady Z, was developed by the Japanese to compete directly with the sports cars coming out of Europe. America was by far the world’s largest consumer of European sports cars and many British and Italian automakers depended on American sales to keep their…
The day I went in to buy my new Datsun 1600 I was in all probability the most unhappy new car buyer on the face of the earth. That was not to do with the Datsun 1600 being in some way a misery causing car. The reason for the truckload of unhappiness was that I’d been negotiating to buy an Austin-Healey 3000 in a private sale, and the seller had bailed out of the sale at the last minute.
The Toyota FJ25 Land Cruiser was part of the 20 series Land Cruisers that first appeared in 1955 as the second generation of the Japanese company’s Jeep-inspired 4×4. The BJ and FJ Land Cruisers would quickly win favour around the world competing with both Jeep and Land Rover, the first automobile that many remote tribes…
The Bimota SB2 was a significant evolutionary step forward for motorcycles when it was released in 1977. Massimo Tamburini had designed not just a superbike, but the future of superbikes. His new creation featured an ultra-lightweight chromium molybdenum trellis perimeter frame, a bulletproof Suzuki GS750 DOHC engine that doubled as a stressed member, and handling…
The Yamaha XJR1300 is probably the motorcycle Godzilla would ride, if he had longer arms and a slightly better center of gravity. The first thing that strikes you when you see an XJR1300 in the flesh is the physical size and implied menace of it – particularly the hefty dimensions of that mighty inline-4. The…
