Totally '80s weekend with Japanese classic cars

[DeaGLe^]

You could say the only thing missing was Crockett and Tubbs...but they were there, along with Magnum P.I., Pee-wee Herman and other icons of that seminal decade.

And there were the cars: hundreds of Japanese collector cars from the 1980s and a few from the ‘90s, all assembled for no reason more profound than the fact that people like them. And, maybe, because their time has finally come. JapaneseNostalgicCar.com put on its first Touge 80s on October 22, an offshoot of last year’s Touge California, which was a driving tour for classic Japanese cars 1980 or older.

“But there were so many owners of Japanese cars that were 1990 or older that we had to create another event,” said co-organizer Ben Hsu, explaining the (almost) all-80s theme.

The day after the rally another group, led by Koji and Terry Yamaguchi, the organizers of the Japanese Classic Car Show for 1980s and older Japanese cars, put on its second “Street Neo Classics 80s/90s Show.” Again, the idea was to give owners and enthusiasts with 1980s and ‘90s Japanese cars a place to gather and show off their rides. Both events were for Japanese cars that wouldn’t otherwise fit into an existing car show or rally format. Or at least they wouldn’t normally be invited. Have the 1980s finally become cool?

“I think so,” said Ben Hsu, rally co-organizer and editor/owner of japanesenostalgiccar.com. “We have a lot of people who are into the ‘80s just as a decade. There are definitely performance car icons from that decade like the AE86, the Supra, the FC RX-7s, the Z31 300ZX… these are all cars that have flip-up headlights, louvered rear windows… these are things that define that decade and that’s what people are nostalgic about.”

“I think that the appeal of the ‘80s in general was that, for better or worse, it was a time in our country of unrivaled optimism,” said rallymaster Patrick Strong, who also owns Model Citizen, makers of really, really cool 1:18 and 1:43 scale model cars. “I also think as far as an event like this is concerned, it’s reflected in the cars and in automotive technology. You want to slap some big old turbos on your econobox? Go for it. You wanna put 17 equalizer knobs on your car’s sound system? This is the right time for that. Carmakers finally started to get a handle on fuel injection and make that work viably. It was a time when we were shrugging off the oil shocks of the ‘70s and anything seemed possible with new technology.”

And now, as the cars of that period are starting to lose their econobox nomenclature, they might be creeping up on collectible status. Maybe not like Shelby Cobras, muscle cars and Duesenbergs, but heading up in value nonetheless.
“I am of the opinion that everything will skyrocket in value if it’s kept in good enough condition,” said Hsu. “When we first started JNC in 2006 - this is the 10-year anniversary - we still heard people saying, ‘Oh, Japanese cars as classics?’ That was laughed at. We’ve seen a lot of the ‘60s and ‘70s cars go up in value. ‘80s cars are still a little bit behind but in a few more years they will be quite valuable. We already see the 80s boxy Celica Supra, the aforementioned AE86, all are beginning to move up in value. That red one there (an AE86 Corolla) was sold on eBay in the five-digit range.”
Will they go up to the level of Shelby Cobras and Duesenbergs?
“With the specific examples you cited, no,” said Strong. “But I think that’s because of (total production) numbers, and also because nobody ever bought a naked Toyota AE86 chassis and took it to Figoni et Falaschi to have a custom body made for it. They all kind of came off the same assembly line. So the bespoke quality of them is not there.”
But they will appreciate.
“I think that’s what’s going to define a blue-chip collectible,” Strong continued. “Now having said that, we’re already starting to see it as cars that were once considered somewhat disposable are now coveted and incredibly hard to find in stock configuration.”

“Probably the prime example for this generation is the Toyota Corolla AE86. My partner Ben is convinced that there are fewer stock AE86 Corollas in the U.S. than there are Ferrari Enzos in the world. I don’t doubt him. To find one of these now, a car that stickered for $11,500 in 1985, you wanna get a great one now? Twenty grand. Or more.”
So yes, there are ‘80s Japanese cars that are now appreciating beyond their original MSRP, but does that signal a collectors’ market?
“The AE86 is just the tip of the iceberg,” Strong said. “I think that as part of the broader trend where everybody’s gotta have an analog car, the 911 guys, they’ve driven all those prices up. Will the RX-7 guys do that? Will the Supra guys do that? It’s a generational thing. We Gen-Xers are gonna drag prices up. Is it gonna happen next year? Is it gonna happen in two years? Probably not. Ask me again in ten years.”