Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Month: February 2009 (Page 2 of 4)

Ideal family car: Toyota Comfort GT-Z?

Some days ago I mentioned that I would not buy a Carina after this one. What would be my successor for the Carina then? Well, I don’t know that either but time will tell, maybe an Lexus IS300 (Altezza) or perhaps another car. At least I’m always looking around for fun cars and I found another one: the Toyota Comfort! 🙂
Toyota Comfort standard trim
Toyota Comfort in standard trim

The Toyota Comfort was designed in 1988 with only purpose to serve as a taxi. More or less something like the Austin FX4 you saw around the UK up till five years ago. The current model is based upon the Crown S130 platform, but with a shortened floorpan to make it more agile. The Comfort features a 3Y-PE engine on LPG or a 3C diesel.

TRD Comfort GT-Z in black
Very good looking supercharged TRD Comfort GT-Z in black

But the more fun is the limited (59 vehicles) TRD Comfort GT-Z. This car features a supercharged 3S-FE and has, of course, a TRD suspension which is much stiffer than the standard Comfort. The supercharged 3S-FE outputs 160HP which should move this car happily around every corner. 😉

Enginebay of the supercharged TRD Comfort GTZ
Enginebay of the supercharged TRD Comfort GTZ

And if that is not enough: there is also a TRD Comfort GTZ which runs on the track. It’s got the supercharger replaced for a turbo. I suspect it is mainly being used for drifting seeing the D1 sticker.

TRD Comfort GTZ racecar with Turbo-ed 3S-FE
TRD Comfort GTZ racecar with Turbo-ed 3S-FE

Just imagine what the movie trilogy Taxi would have looked like if it had featured this car instead of the 406. 😉

TRD Comfort GTZ racecar with Turbo-ed 3S-FE
TRD Comfort GTZ racecar with Turbo-ed 3S-FE

Sounds like an ideal family car if I would live in a RHD country. Nobody expects something as boring a taxi to be used as a normal car and actually be a wolf in sheepsclothing. And what I would do is probably take out the 3S-FE and replace it with a Beams 3S-GE. That would make much more sense than supercharging or turbo-ing the 3S-FE. 😉

Carina Sightings: Carina LA60 Coupe 2L diesel

Remember the video of the diesel powered Carina A6 coupe I posted several months ago?

It just got posted again 16 hours ago on Youtube:

Apparently now it has been posted by the user called toyotawiki who is reposting a lot of old videos with spam in the description (pointing to some wiki page on toyota-wiki.com). He even reposts videos from Riceboy.tv! Oh well, I expected this kind of behavior to happen on Youtube sooner or later anyway…

Popular Bosozoku cars: Nissan Gloria / Cedric C330

This week I wanted to highlight the Nissan Gloria / Cedric C330. 🙂

Nissan Gloria C330 Bosozoku style
Nissan Gloria C330 Bosozoku style

The mid 70s cokebottle styled Gloria and Cedric and pilarless doors are excellent bodyshapes for a bosozoku styled car! It looks really wild in its shape, it’s got the big bad attitude of the early VIP cars and with the big flared fenders it looks even more wicked!

Nissan Gloria C330 Yanky style
Nissan Gloria C330 Yanky style

These yanky styled Gloria C330s really looks a bit more like an American hotrod than a Bosozoku styled car. Only the exhaust gives away these cars. 😉

Bosozoku styled Nissan Gloria C330
Bosozoku styled Nissan Gloria C330

The differences between the Gloria and Cedric are so minor that with a Bosozoku style makeover you can’t even tell if it is a Gloria or Cedric anymore! But this should be a Gloria

Both Cedric and Gloria were rivals of the Toyota Crown. Apart from the outragous President both vehicles were the flagships of the company.

The Gloria joined the Nissan lineup after Price merged with Nissan. From what I understood the Gloria was the upmarket car and the Cedric more or less the downsized car. In the previous generation of both vehicles this was even more clear: the Cedric featured less chrome and an hood ornament!

Just like its predecessor, the C230, the C330 features pilarless rear door, so there is no B post between the front and rear door. This to mimic late 60s and early 70s American cars even more.

Most cars feature the L26 engine but the L20 engine was also available but mainly used in the taxi variant of this car.

Factory stock Nissan Cedric C330 and Nissan Gloria C330
Almost factory stock Nissan Gloria C330

On this picture with almost factory stock Glorias you can clearly see how beautifully styled these C330s actually were! If I were to find one of these beauties in the Netherlands (they were sold here!) I doubt whether I would keep them stock or slam them to the ground Shakotan style!

[I posted this article earlier today on Bosozokustyle.com]

Keiichi Tsuchiya learns cops how to drift

Just found this video on Crunchyroll about Keiichi Tsuchiya who instructs a couple of cops how to drift:
Keiichi Tsuchiya instructs cops how to drift
Keiichi Tsuchiya learns cops how to drift

Also Ken Nomura (Nomuken) features in this video and gives his best shot at a Toyota Crown policecar. He fails (possibly on purpose) and Keiichi takes over the attempt with a 4 door R34 Skyline and he succeeds in drifting it.

The video itself is quite funny to watch, but most probably all setup beforehand since it is a Hot Version video after all. Unfortunately Crunchyroll does not support embedding of videos, so you will have to visit Crunchyroll itself to view the video:
[Keiichi Tsuchiya instructs cops how to drift]

The end of the road for this Toyota Chaser MX41

I thought this was a bit of a sad video:

This okay looking Toyota Chaser hardtop MX41 could have saved, but apparently nobody was interested enough to save it…

First they remove all reusable parts, like the RS Wantanabes, exhaust, engine and drivetrain, and within 50 minutes the car is ready for the crusher. Bye-bye Chaser… :'(

Hilarious: 1984 Toyota Corolla advertisement – go one better!

First watch this advertisement and then read my comments. 😉

At first I saw the 1975 Toyota Corolla KE30 (great in 75!) and then the 1981 Toyota Corolla KE70 (tops in 81!) I thought I struck gold and found a US advertisement for the Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86! But no: it is a South African advertisement for the new Toyota Corolla EE80! (go one better!)

Lovely 80s setting with dancers in tracksuits! Back in 1984 the moonwalk was the hottest thing so it is amazing to see that EE80 moonwalking with the dancers! 😀

Apparently the idea back then was that the FWD EE80 was much better than the RWD KE70 (It’s a whole new number!) which may be true for the masses but not for us! (Sorry Siert!) It’s got more space than the KE70 but it lacks the potential of the KE70. Ah well, back in those days people were not thinking about engine and transmission swaps in throwaway cars like the Corolla… Times really have changed!

Still, these cars are fine cars for the less enthusiastic people and I even have a member on AEU86 who swapped in a 4AGE in a Sprinter liftback! But that is of course an exception. 😉

Everything keeps going right! Toyota!
Ahum… Well, the rest is history I guess. 😉

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Banpei.net

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑