The Japanese Classic Car Show(JCCS) was held on Sunday 9/12 in Long Beach, CA and it was incredible. This show started in ’06 at the Queen Mary, moved to a park venue in Irvine for a few years and returned to Long Beach where I hope it stays.

We left the Bay Area at 8am Saturday morning and spent the night aboard the Queen Mary(Hotel). This is an experience in itself and I highly recommend staying here not only for the convenience.

Sunday morning Rob and I gave the roadster a quick wipedown before driving a few hundred feet to the staging area of the show. The JCCS staff really have their act together and made parking a breeze. At first I thought it was impossible to fit all participants in as there were 200+! I parked with 18 other Datsun Roadsters under a tree lined area. We were right across from what turned out to be 61 Datsun 510s! Nissan/Datsun had a strong presence for sure.

Grabbed my goody bag from the registration booth and we started checking out all the J-tin in a semi-orderly fashion. No lawn chair lounging for us! We spoke with Ron Carter, Les Cannaday and John Morton near the MOTUL booth where the BRE 240z and BRE Roadster were being displayed. Morton treated show-goers with a long autograph session. It was great to see him in good spirits!

If there was any doubt about the growing popularity of Japanese vintage cars all you had to do was look at how many spectators lined up for the show, some waited more than 1hr! This is great for JCCS and all of us classic car owners. Having a good venue doesn’t hurt either 🙂

Make sure to check out all of the pictures below at the end. The bar is contantly being raised and the level of detaiI/restoration of the cars these days is tremendous! I can’t possibly discuss all of the awesome cars but here are a few that caught our attention:

Randy Yee’s 240z with an RB26 drivetrain. Super clean, track-day resto. Flat black wrinkle powdercoating.  Simple interior. And what made me go gaga was the BRE-style exhaust system…why don’t we see this more often? Maybe it’s too loud 🙂

Wheels, wheels and more wheels! A JDM-wheel fanatic would appreciate the variety on display. From Volk’s new TE37Vintage wheel, various WORK and SSR wheels, ultra-rare Sakuras(the pink ones), Compmotive, TRD, even CCW showed up on 510s! Lots of Rota RB-R too:

This Nissan Patrol pickup truck was imported from Saudi Arabia!

61 510s, and it seemed like over half had some kind of engine swap. In a sea of SR20s and KAs this Dime built by Mario of TSR really stood out. John Morton was enamored with the engine bay! Lots of attention to detail in this one. Check out the welding. I love 510s

The Nissan 200sx or Silvia (S12 chassis) is often overlooked stateside. These cars were modded out and looking great.Yes, One had an RB26!

The Honda N60 models are coming out of the woodwork. There were about 10, all with mild to wild mods! Lots of CVCCs too.

Toyota and Mazda had a strong showing. Several 1/2Jz-swapped cars, Rotary pickups.

From L to R: This 18RG-powered Toyota looked boosted with period parts. I always liked the lines and B-pillarless body of the Celicas(RA). Fender-flared, wide-tired and mean Starlets are always welcome

This Mazda RX-4 wagon had FD Rx-7 running gear, front suspension bits and a linked Ford rear end…wicked:

I always like to see and hear car stories from owners. Interesting stickers also catch my eye, here are some highlights 🙂

It was an awesome weekend. We traveled 860 miles to see the show, and we did it in a Datsun. The sheer number of spectators and participants at JCCS 2010 reminds us that Japanese Classic Cars are still gaining popularity and recognition. Here’s to JCCS 2011!
UPDATE: ZCarGarage built the 1st place-winning Datsun Roadster in the “Modified” category!

For more information on 2010 Winners from all categories check the JCCS website

Full photo album below so click and enjoy!