80s & 90s JDM Cars

A Shrine

I've been obsessed with mechanical things ever since I was 8. Dismantling things and reassembling them.

It's only natural that I'd gravitate toward cars. Specifically from the most well engineered time and place.

The 80s was the absolute peak of Japans economy and the shining moment for their tech.

• Four-Wheel Steering (4WS): Honda 1989
• Touch Screen Dash (it was CRT): Toyota 1987.
• Heads Up Display: Nissan 1988.
• The Incredible 2JZ-GTE engine: Toyota & Yamaha 1991

Japan was cooking, just because they could. It pushed the car industry without fears of corporate overreach and profit margins the way it does (with all cars) today.


This is Daikoku Parking area around the 90s. A section of industrial area out of the city that the police left them to enjoy. Car enthusiasts met here with their new cars and new modifications and shared their passions. Driving away at the end of the night to their homes up north in Tokyo.


This is the back of my bald head in 2025 at the same place. Like a kid in a candy store, I paid half a 50,000 Yen to get locals to drive my friends and I here (now unavailable to Gaijin) to wander around obsessing over the world that car enthusiasts refuse to let go of.

Not many cars here from outside the 80s and 90s... I wonder why?

My first Interesting car was a $900 Toyota Celica. ST204. And it was basically a glorified Camry on sports suspension and grippy wheels. But fiddling with this car and selling it for $3500 made me realise that this was a hobby I could not only afford, but make enough money to justify doing with my low financial status.

Enter Cressida
I came across an ad on marketplace. 20 minutes after it was posted.
"1989 Toyota cressida"... It had 150,000 Kilometers. I begged the seller to let me send him a deposit. He declined but held the car for my arrival.