Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Month: June 2008 (Page 1 of 2)

Music: The Young Republic

They have been around for a while and I did hear one of their singles. Currently their album 12 Tales From Winter City is on the listeningpost of 3 voor 12 and I got reminded of them.

The Young Republic

Their sound is very identical to Belle and Sebastian (especially “Girl From The Nortern States”) and you can really hear their echoes in some of the songs. The Young Republic denies that they actually were influenced by Belle and Sebastian and their website does not contain any references to Belle and Sebastian so I can’t conclude any other way than there either must be some sort of big coincidence here or they deliberately removed all references.

Ordered Falken tires for the Celica Supra rims

I ordered the tires through Delticom (autobandenmarkt.nl) for the Celica Supra rims yesterday. Falken ZIEX ZE-912 became my choice since I had some good experience with the Falken ZIEX ZE-512 under my Trueno.

This is how they look:
Falken ZIEX ZE-912
The ZE-912 are asymmetric tires which should be a slight improvement above the ZE-512.

Please note that these tires are bought for grip since my Carina is not really a powerhouse, so what use would it be to buy something else than grip tires? ;)

Nissan Silvia BS110 240RS Restoration

Just found this page:
http://www.240rs.jp/

It’s the restoration of the Nissan Silvia BS110 240RS I posted earlier about. All BS110 240RS rallycars originally were made by Blydenstein in the UK, so the car is not a factory produced rallycar, but they were produced on behalf of Nissan: that’s why they were badged Nissan and not Datsun.

This car competed in the Hong Kong-Beijing rally in 1985, won the National Rally Championship 1988 in the UK and used in various other rallies. The car was imported into Japan from New Zealand: one of the few Japanese cars to actually be imported back to Japan! The car was restored in original state in 2005 by Green Bell Motor Co. Ltd. (Kanazawa) in Hakusan, Japan.

Start of the restoration:
Start of Nissan Silvia BS110 240RS restoration

And the end result:
End result of Nissan Silvia BS110 240RS restoration

And afterwards in action:
Nissan Silvia BS110 240RS in action

Action shot can also be seen in this image:
Nissan Silvia BS110 240RS Droste effect
It’s just like a tin can of Droste :D :D

Nissan Silvia BS110 240RS Rally

Yesterday Auto Otaku posted an article about the Tokyo Nostalgic Car Show 2008. IMO it’s majority was a Nissan fest showing mostly a lot of modified 70s Skylines.

I found this car among the pictures:
Nissan Silvia BS110 Rally

At first I couldn’t really identify it and thought of a modified Celica TA63 or TA64. However the front is entirely different and the sidelights looked genuine. Then it popped in my mind that there could have been a Nissan Silvia counterpart of the TA64. Then I looked at the rear sidewindows and spotted them to be from a Silvia S11! :)

Indeed such a car did exist:
Nissan BS110 RS240 in action
It’s the FJ24 BS110 Nissan 240RS Group B World Rally Car!
The car features a FJ20ET with increased displacement up to 2340cc and it made 280HP!

Not bad for a car which was the counterpart of the Celica TA64. Also the Nissan FJ20ET Plasma engine is the counterpart of the Toyota Lasre 3T-GTE, imagine what monster the TA64 would have been if the 4T-GTE would have featured the same head as the 3T-GTE!!

More info upon the FJ20 and the BS110 RS240:
http://www.tati-motorsport.nl/public_html/?q=nl/NissanFJ20Engine

Reading: finished After Dark and started The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Finished After Dark by Haruki Murakami two weeks ago, shortly after I moved to my new house. It was a bit more readable book by Murakami than Kafka on the Shore or The Elephant Vanishes. There is a clear storyline with only a few mysterious or unclear passages, so it’s nothing like Norwegian Wood. I would recommend it to new Murakami readers because it is a bit in between.

After finishing After Dark I was doubting what to read after it. Because most of the books were still packaged in boxes I only had a limited choice and chose a book which is actually my girlfriends. However she didn’t had the time to read it yet.

The book I chose is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

I must say I really appreciate this book: it is a very good book written about the start of the comic industry in New York. Two Jewish boys start their own comic called The Escapist. That’s about how far I came so far (one third of the book) so I don’t know yet what will happen.

Escapist comic by Dark Horse
The book was written in 2000 and in 2004 Dark Horse comics created an issue of The Escapist together with Chabon. I think I’ll try to find this issue in the near future. ;)

In the end I don’t really think it is a book for my GF. She really did like the The Yiddish Policemen’s Union but that’s a completely different subject that this book.

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