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For over 20 years the Japanese Classic Car Show has been the premier event for vehicles hailing from the land of the rising sun. With a few hundred cars hitting the show field in Long Beach, California, it's impossible to say what's going to be on display, but you can bet that it will be impressive. At this year's show you could have seen everything from a perfect time capsule mid-1990s Nissan Altima with 40,000 miles on the odometer to a real deal Honda-powered Aston Martin F1 car, and practically everything in between.
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Having owned a handful of vintage and interesting Japanese cars in my day, I was intrigued to see what everyone brought out. I'm down to just one at the moment (but I still have two Japan-built motorcycles) and I'm feeling a little uninspired with my projects, so I thought it would be a good idea to go check out what everyone else is doing with theirs. At least they are driving and enjoying these cars and bikes, while I'm just here to poke and prod at theirs (metaphorically, don't touch the cars without permission).
Within minutes of entering the show I was chatting casually with showgoers about their cars. I spoke with one gentleman who drives a vintage Suzuki Jimny both in the city and off-road. I chatted about a gorgeous Dodger-blue Datsun 240Z that a nice man had owned since the 1970s, including a few stints as a track car and an autocrosser before retiring to a life of car shows. One mechanic said he'd bought his show car for his wife to drive fifty years prior and she decided she hated it, so he just rolled it into the garage with 45 miles on the odometer and it's been there ever since. He claimed the most he'd ever driven the car was from his garage to the show and presumably back home. I hope he will continue driving it henceforth.
While everyone comes for the cars, it's truly an event about the people. You want to spend time with these folks to get a real feel for the cross section of humanity that is obsessive about Japanese cars. It's a truly great way to spend the day.
The heat is on!
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Having started and operated a few large-scale (occasionally international) car shows in my day, I'm always curious to see how other shows operate. I've been curious about JCCS for years, but always seemed to be doing something else that weekend, so this year i blocked it out on my calendar several weeks in advance and made the drive down to Southern California to check it out for myself. Located in Long Beach, right near the water down by the Queen Mary, it's a glorious backdrop for an early-fall car show. While the weather is typically temperate and the sea breeze keeps showgoers feeling fine, this year the show fell smack in the middle of a SoCal heat wave that knocked me flat out.
With temps in the triple digits and air as stagnant and calm as ever it could be, we were trapped in a sweltering soup of positively satanic heat. 100-degree heat in the desert I can stomach, and salty oceanside humidity isn't an issue, but combine the two and you're in for a world of hurt. Forget the people, it felt downright inhumane to even leave these cars out in this heat for so long. When I returned to my own car several hours later to drive away from the show, I was forced to put a t-shirt on the steering wheel to prevent my mitts from getting charred.
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I'm so incredibly thankful to everyone who brought out a car for people to see, because they were truly risking cracked dashes and third-degree thigh burns from molten vinyl seats. Getting your car out and sharing it with the community is what car culture is all about, even if we're all suffering under the oppression of an El Niño summer.
Weather aside, I was quite impressed by the level of cars found on the show field at JCCS. With the benefit of years under their belt and an incredible number of relationships built, I'm sure, this is a show that can practically call up anybody and get them to bring their exciting and interesting car out for the show. All of the major Japanese automakers had a presence at this show, likewise many of the aftermarket parts suppliers. Even the Petersen Museum had a booth at JCCS. The heavy hitters were out in force.
The best part
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My two personal favorites were found in highly modified examples of relatively staid Japanese fare. The first thing to really catch my eye was this little two-wheeled creature with a whole lot of verve, dubbed the Bhumemoto Grimoire. A fast and functional custom version of Honda's 1965 Sport 65 motorcycle, the Grimoire made its public debut at JCCS in the Yoshimura booth, and I couldn't stop myself from poring over the details. It looks like a lot of fun to ride. The second was this incredible Datsun 510 with a totally wild engine swap, a VG30DETT twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 pulled from a 1990s Nissan 300ZX. If there's one thing a tiny car from the late 1960s needs, it's three times its original factory horsepower. The VG30DETT makes 300 horsepower in factory configuration, but I'd guess there are a few things done to this one for even more. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
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Southern California is really the hub for all things car culture. This is where car culture happens, and this is where car culture has always happened. Entering the show I had to cross over the streets that are closed down for the Long Beach Grand Prix. I've been to drift events and Formula E races on these streets. There are countless design houses, workshops, event spaces, aftermarket parts suppliers, and OEM North American Headquarters within just a few miles of where I'm standing. And that's to say nothing of the abundant sunshine and amazing driving roads. I love my visits here, especially when such a rad car show is happening.
If you have an opportunity to go to this show in 2027, you absolutely should. Even after 21 years of JCCS, there's always going to be something new and exciting to see. If you've never been, you'll probably be blown away by the sheer quantity and quality of the cars on the grass. If you have something rare or interesting that hails from Japan, maybe consider signing up next year and making the show even better.
Arigato gozaimashita, JCCS. See you at the next one. Hopefully with better weather.