As part of Nissan month, we wanted to take a look back at the lineage of some of the popular models that Nissan has produced over the years. With the recent unveiling of the 370Z, I'd say the Fairlady and Z models are a perfect place to start. While many will trace the roots of the Z back to the S30 in the early '70s, you can't really talk about the Z without going back to the original Fairlady Roadsters like the 1968 SRL311 Fairlady 2000 pictured above. The Mazda MX5 gets a lot of credit for being the Japanese version of the classic European roadster, but Nissan was doing it almost 30 years before Mazda introduced the MX5!...

I was originally planning on running this story last month, but since old school Nissans play a pretty big role here, I figured I would save it until Nissan month. Earlier this fall, I took a trip down to Toride City here in Ibaraki Prefecture where I had made arrangements to visit a classic car dealer and restoration shop called East Car. Although I have seen plenty of cool vintage Nissans at events here in Japan, I was pretty excited to check out the facilities at East Car and get a deeper look at the world of Japanese classic cars. We were greeted by the manager Akihiko-san who kindly took some time from his day to show us around and talk a little bit about the shop and what they do....

For the past half year or so, when it comes to Nissan's performance cars all the talk has been about the R35 GT-R. About a year ago, however, Nismo introduced a car that I still feel has not got the attention it deserves. The car is the Nismo Fairlady Z 380RS and it is quite simply one of the most impressive Z's ever built. While other markets also got a version of the Nismo Z, the Japan market 380RS offers a tuned VQ-based 3.8L engine that makes a very potent 350ps naturally aspirated. It also happens to to be what is in my opinion one of the best looking factory Z's ever. I'm usually not a fan of the "black on black" look, but I think the 380RS in the photo I shot above looks fantastic......

Now that we have had a look at the Tokyo Nostalgic Car Show itself, let's take a look at some of the cars that could be found in the halls of the Tokyo Big Sight. After all, cars ARE the reason people go to car shows right? When it comes to the classic car scene in Japan, Nissan is king. Sure there are plenty of restored and modified cars from Toyota, Mazda, and others, but the their following is small compared with that of Nissan. Among the Nissan guys, the most popular models are the "Hakosuka"...