Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Month: May 2009 (Page 1 of 6)

Video: Toyota Starlet Grand Cup 1994

I love the sight of an old P6 Starlet: both the bugeye and the facelifted version. One of my previous neighbors (an old guy) owned a white five door KP61 which he bought originally in 1982. I asked him if I could buy it from him whenever he wanted to part from it. He told me he would never do such a thing! So, that was exit Starlet, welcome Carina. 😀

Anyway, I found this great video of the Starlet Grand Cup in Japan in 1994:

Here in Holland we also had a Starlet Cup in the 80s, but unfortunately that was the P7 Starlet Cup. I didn’t know they were still racing those 4K engined RWD Starlets in the 90s! Funny to see those Starlet with the N2 fenders and TRD decals driving like small go karts! Damn, now I want one too! 🙂

I got Wykop-ed!

I got Wykop-ed!!
I got Wykop-ed
I got Wykop-ed

Great that such big website is linking to me, but unfortunately my server thought otherwise! 🙁

I managed to lower the load on the server in several ways (disable lightbox, compress css, why is drupal myisam per default? etc.) and now it is running fine again! 😉

Hilarious: Kiss make up and the beginning of D1GP

I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this one on IZ Reloaded!

If only I was 7 years older in 1978 it would have been a fun thing to do with my dad!! 😀

Same thing as above: if I only would have been a few years older I actually could have enjoyed the early days of D1GP:

As you can see it was a bit primitive back in the early 90s but nevertheless it was very enjoyable back then! The cars may have been a bit primitive but applying the handbrake to help the car slide was a common thing then as well!
And you can see them all: Ken Nomura, Manabu Orido, Manabu Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya. All of them in early 90s outfits and without glasses! 😀

Rare Bosozoku cars: Mazda Savanna RX3

It is a bit weird: in contrary of the Mazda Cosmo AP RX5 the Mazda Savanna RX3 is a very rare Bosozoku styled car. We could only find two pictures of one single car!
Bosozoku style Mazda Savanna RX3
Bosozoku style Mazda Savanna RX3

Even though the Cosmo AP RX5 is a much bigger and meaner looking car, the Savanna RX3 is looking a lot meaner than its predecessor the Mazda Familia Rotary R100 and should really appeal all petrolheads.
Bosozoku style Mazda Savanna RX3
Bosozoku style Mazda Savanna RX3

The Mazda Savanna RX3 also had a big racing history: it debuted in 1971 at the Fuji 500 Tourist Trophy race and won instantly! It came just in time to prevent the Nissan Skyline GT-Rs from getting 50 consecutive wins for the Japanese Grand Prix!
Winning Mazda Savanna RX3 on Fuji Speedway Tourist Trophy
Winning Mazda Savanna RX3 on Fuji Speedway Tourist Trophy

If you are interested in this race, Japanese Nostalgic Car blog wrote an excellent article about this race!

The RX3 then continued to race for many years afterwards and even got over 100 victories at the end of 1976. It even is still being used for many different races nowadays: amoung them dragraces as well:
Mazda RX3 drag racer
Mazda RX3 drag racer

The RX3 is based upon the Mazda Familia 808 platform (in some countries called 818), but then powered by a rotary engine instead of the inline 4 of the 808/818. The outside of the car remained the same except for the twin round headlights at the front and the round taillights at the back of the car.
Factory stock Mazda Savanna RX3 4 door saloon
Factory stock Mazda Savanna RX3 4 door saloon

On the inside the interior was a bit more sportier than the standard Familia: the dash remained the same but it featured semi bucket seats.
Mazda Savanna RX3 interior
Mazda Savanna RX3 interior

What really helped was the weight of the car: the Familia only weights 865kg, so adding a powerfu
l rotary to such car makes it an instant winning combination! However the car still featured leaf springs and a live axle, so the handling of the car was not as good as the RX2 Capella. But what can you expect from a family car?
Factory stock Mazda Savanna RX3 4 door saloon
Factory stock Mazda Savanna RX3 4 door saloon

The Savanna was not only limited to the Coupe version of the Familia, but also delivered on the 4 door saloon and 5 door station van.

In Japan, Australia and Europe the Savanna was delivered with the 10A engine, while in the US only the 12A featured on the car. Starting from 1975 all it got an update and since then all Savanna RX3s got the 12A engine.
Mazda 10A Wankel engine
Mazda 10A Wankel engine

Of course the sporty image of the RX3 had to be mentioned over and over again. Take for example the poster for the RX3 SP:
Mazda RX3 SP: not a slowpoke
Mazda RX3 SP: not a slowpoke

All in all I don’t really understand why the Savanna RX3 is not a popular bosozoku style car: it looks bad, it had racing history (with wide fenders!), it features a rotary and best of all it was also available in 4 door saloons! A large package of elements which create a good foundation for a popular bosozoku car!

Stylish Mazda RX3
Stylish Mazda RX3

Maybe that is the whole point: it just reminded too much of the Familia family car. Or maybe it became an instant classic and the price remained too high during the 80s and 90s? Or maybe it was just the wrong car: the car that killed the 50th consecutive victory of the Skyline? Or maybe it was too small: the car is the size of a Nissan Sunny or Toyota Corolla. Who knows?

[I posted this article earlier this week on bosozokustyle.com.]

Culture shock: Smokey Nagata and his Nissan Skyline V35 GTR

Some people may know Kazuhiko “Smokey” Nagata from his wild stunt at the British M1 almost a decade ago. Well, his looks are still the same: he still looks like he just walked out of 1991. 😀

I found this video about him and his Top Secret GT-R R35 Skyline V35, I guess fall 2008, and the contrast between him (1991) and the GT-R (2008) Skyline V35 (2005) is enormous! Have a look at almost 15 years of culture shock:

I really think he does amazing things! It is a 720hp V8 powered GT-R. He tuned a VQ30DETT to 720hp, while during the Super GT series (JGTC) that engine only had an output of 480hp, so that’s an enormous increase in power!

According to Smokey Nagata the car itself does 330km/h, but when he takes it out on the German autobahn it even gets as fast as 343km/h! That’s insane! Ah well, he may look a bit dull but atleast his life isn’t. 😉

Edit: I found an English translation of the last part of the video:
Kazuhiko+%22SMOKY%22+Nagata+on+the+Autobahn

Vintage Skylines

Ekhatch posted these two beautiful vintage Skylines:
Two vintage Nissan Skyline KPGC10 racecars
Two vintage Nissan Skyline KPGC10 racecars

At first I thought they were driving side by side on Fuji Speedway banking however water drains at the top of a banking do not make sense. When I opened the larger image it became clear that they are standing in the paddock and the picture was taken from somewhere above the paddock. Fooled by the sloping and the thumbnail I guess. 😉

Anyway, it is one of the most beautiful pictures I seen for a while! 🙂

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