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Meet the Kanjozoku, Osaka's infamous street racers

Street racing is obviously illegal and incredibly dangerous, but that has never stopped people from doing it. While we don't hear nearly as much about the scourge of Japanese tuner cars as when The Fast and the Furious first hit theaters over a decade ago, illegal street racing is still bubbling under the surface all over the island nation. An excellent new documentary short from Bowls Films takes a look at the Kanjozoku from Osaka, Japan; a group that claims to be partially responsible for the tuning style known as JDM.
The group gets their name from their preferred route known as the Kanjo. It's a 4.77-mile long loop of connected highways running right through the city of Osaka. You might expect a hardcore group of illegal Japanese racers to show up with highly tuned Nissan GT-R and Toyota Supra coupes, but the Kanjozoku evidently eschew all of the others in favor of one particular car that they love: the Honda Civic.
According to the video, that vehicle of choice came in part from the city's location. Osaka was relatively near the one-make Civic races held at Japan's legendary Suzuka racetrack. The hatchbacks thus became the default weapons for the Kanjozoku's street battles.

Junkyard Gem: 1981 Honda Accord LX Hatchback

The first-generation Honda Accord was the kind of sales success that vehicle manufacturers dream of but almost never attain: a car so far superior to its competition that buyers had to shell out big markups and sit on waiting lists if they wanted to take one home. Nothing could touch the value-per-dollar you got with one of these cars back then, and they soldiered on for decade after decade. Most of them are gone now, worn out and thrown away, without much of an enthusiast community to restore them (with notable exceptions, of course). Here's an Amal Blue '81 LX hatchback I spotted in a Denver-area self-service yard last week. This one is pretty well loaded, with air conditioning, automatic transmission, AM/FM mono radio, clock, the works. Under the hood is the 1.8-liter CVCC engine in "49-state" emission-control configuration (California had stricter emissions standards than the rest of the country during this era). The vacuum-hose diagram for this car is a bit complex, but nowhere near as bad as the terrifying nightmare that CVCC owners faced a few years later. 1981 was the last model year in which all Accords sold in the United States were shipped over from Japan. The Voluntary Export Restraint agreement of 1980 resulted in Honda building its Marysville, Ohio, assembly plant, and second-gen Accords were American-made. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Because life isn't always a simple Sunday drive. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. In Japan, the CVCC Accord got action-movie music in its ads. Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 1981 Honda Accord LX View 19 Photos Auto News Honda

Honda wins Commercial of the Decade, but not for the ad you think [w/VIDEO]

Honda's Commercial of the Decade: "Grrr" - Click above to watch video
The mad men at Adweek recently voted for the Commercial of the Decade (Super Bowl commercials not included) and Honda took top honors over memorable ads from the last ten years by companies like Nike, Budweiser and Sony. That's not a big surprise considering Honda often puts a huge amount of effort into its on-air spots. However, the Japanese automaker didn't win for the commercial you might have expected: "Cog." Though Honda's famous commercial that breaks down a European Accord Tourer into a Rube Goldberg-esque machine was also a finalist, it was beaten by another Honda commercial called "Grrr" that's narrated by Garrison Keillor of all people. You've probably never seen it, but you can after the jump.
Volkswagen also made the list of finalists, but the particular ad chosen out of all the comical VW ads we've seen was unexpected as well. Most surprising carmaker with a commercial in the finals: Saturn. Who knew...