JCCS 2023: California’s Coolest Japanese Classics

There’s something very cool about automobile events that stay true to their roots.

The Japanese Classic Automobile Show (JCCS) got its start in 2005, and while the annual gathering in Southern California has grown immensely in size over time, its core community-driven philosophy has remained the identical.

An enormous a part of JCCS’s success is the people behind it. Founders Terry and Koji Yamaguchi only needed a small team to run the event in its early years, but today the pair have a small army of fellow kyusha enthusiasts helping plan and execute a day that draws lots of upon lots of of car applications and greater than 10,000 spectators through the gates.

It’s not surprising the event has grown into the beast it’s when you consider the changes that Japanese automobile culture has seen during the last twenty years.

For a start, the concept a Japanese automobile could achieve serious collector status was barely a thing in 2005, and models that command eye-watering asking prices today were accessible to many back then. Then there’s the proven fact that the fashionable cars the tuner generation grew up around within the mid-to-late Nineties and early ‘00s are actually becoming eligible for inclusion within the JCCS. And that tuner generation is now middle-aged, which implies many shall be trying to rekindle their love of Japanese performance cars, and maybe realize a protracted time dream of ownership if it wasn’t possible the primary time around. Others shall be wanting to wind back the clock and do all of it another time.

JCCS has all the time had a vehicle age minimum of around 25 years, meaning the newest cars that were eligible to enter in 2005 were those sold around 1980. So for probably the most part, JCCS was originally all about ‘70s-era Toyota Corollas and Celicas, Nissan Z-cars and early Mazda rotaries. It’s great to see these cars and others still on the core of JCCS today.

For 2023, the JCCS vehicle minimum age cut-off was set at 1995, although some later cars were eligible if their production had began on or before that manufacturing 12 months. R33 Skylines, S14 Silvias, FD3S RX-7s and EK Civics are a few models that fall in that category.

Also included – but just for display inside vendor and sponsor booths – were a couple of automobile outside of the eligibility criteria. But who could possibly complain about this pair?!

Because the years roll on, we’re sure to see JCCS eligibility divulge heart’s contents to more models as they too reach classic status, but I believe the nucleus of the event will all the time be cars from the three golden a long time of Japanese performance tuning – the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.

Long Beach, California is the spiritual home of JCCS, and while the event has moved locations prior to now, for the 18th annual gathering it was back to the grass and adjoining carpark at Marina Green Park, albeit with a really foggy start this 12 months.

Because it has been for the past 12 years, the Japanese Classic Motorcycle Show (JCMS) for bikes produced between 1950 and 1992 were also included within the festivities.

As America’s first and original Japanese automobile show, JCCS has change into as legendary because the culture and the cars it represents, which is something to be celebrated. And that it would, this time again next 12 months.