Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Month: August 2009 (Page 1 of 3)

DOTS: Honda Civic, Prelude and Hyundai Scoupe

On the first day of my vacation I woke up in the apartment of my parents in law, walked outside on the balcony and had this view:
DOTS: Honda Civic and Prelude view
DOTS: Honda Civic and Prelude view

Normally I would not have bothered with those two cars: they are too new, not my style and certainly not anything near I post on my blog normally. But when I looked better I also spotted this car parked near the other two:
DOTS: Hyundai Scoupe
DOTS: Hyundai Scoupe

So I grabbed my camera and took some pictures before they were gone. (???)

The Civic had received a big kiss from another car in its passenger door, but the picture I took from it doesn’t look great, so I discarded that one.

DOTS: Honda Civic and Prelude
DOTS: Honda Civic and Prelude

And I also made this shot of all three together:
DOTS: Hyundai Scoupe with Honda Civic and Prelude in the background
DOTS: Hyundai Scoupe with Honda Civic and Prelude in the background

Hilarious: Autobacs ads

Last week we already featured a tokusatsu video of Robot Keiji K and this week we have another tokusatsu video:

It is a wacky Autobacs tokusatsu ad called GO! GO! Autobacs! (???)

If you thought that was wacky, what about this Autobacs ad?

Or this one?

Lucky enough not all Autobacs ads are as wacky as these! Some are even dead serious, horribly boring and targeted at mid-level salarymen!

But I also found some horrible 80s Autobacs ads. Can’t wait to post those! (???)

p.s. Happy birthday Olivér!

Carina sightings: ninja Carina Coupe TA40

After the TA45 Coupe two weeks ago I’d thought it would be nice to post another Carina (TA40 Coupe My Road) from the second generation:

I’m not sure how that Carina My Road can be compared with that bunch of ninjas? Is it supposed to be as fast and agile as we think of ninjas or should it also include their other trades like espionage, sabotage, illusion and assassination? Personally I would rather not drive a car which is both an illusion and will stab me in the back at the same time…

Or else you can see it in this (even more unlikely) perspective: it is supposed to be a follow up on this video with Sonny Chiba driving a Carina TA17 hardtop coupe escaping from a motorcycle gang:

So is the other Carina Coupe TA40 supposed to escape from a bunch of ninjas then?

Useless Japanese car innovations: quick hand warmer

It took some time, but I finally found another useless Japanese car innovation: the quick hand warmer! The Doctor sent me this nice useless innovation. It is a picture from a Japanese X70 brochure he owns.
Useless Japanese car innovation: the quick hand warmer
Useless Japanese car innovation: the quick hand warmer

This quick hand warmer (QHW for short) was an option on the whole Toyota X70 (GX71 and MX70) range and served its purpose to warm the hands of the mid-level salarymen who bought this special option. Probably mostly used when they went golfing with their boss in Autumn…

Basically it is a minified hair dryer stuffed inside the steering column and operated by a switch right behind the air duct:
The quick hand warmer assembly from the EPC
The quick hand warmer assembly from the EPC

You need a lot of amps going through the wires to bring a 12 volts unit quickly up to temperature, so Toyota installed an amplifier (87760) under the bonnet connected with a big lead to the unit in the steering column. I don’t want to know what will happen when this goes wrong with a short circuit or something!

DOTS: Subaru Justy J12 4WD SLII

Another DOTS from my vacation in Hungary: I drove through a small town with a junkyard and spotted a tuned Corolla with big foglights up front. I wanted to take some pictures of the Corolla but it was an EE80 model, too far away and half hidden behind other vehicles. Then I spotted this faded Subaru Justy (aka Subaru Rex in Japan) next to the fence:
Subaru Justy J12 4WD SLII
Subaru Justy J12 4WD SLII

I already saw that the Justy was an 4WD model. The 4WD is very rare in Holland: there is absolutely no use for 4WD unless you are a farmer. But then again: which farmer wants to drive around in a Justy??

Subaru Justy J12 4WD SLII
Subaru Justy J12 4WD SLII

Back home I found out it is the Justy J12 4WD SLII version. Basically it means it is powered by the superior 1.2 liter 3-cylinder engine. In 1988 the 4WD Justy on the Mk1 was introduced in Europe and the Justy got facelifted to a rounder model in 1989. This means this car can only be an 1988 or early 1989 model then.

3 door Subaru Justy J12 4WD SLII
3 door Subaru Justy J12 4WD SLII

The 4WD models were only in 2 door trim (not very logical IMO) and this one is no exception. ;)

I could not take more pictures than this: there was a big trench next to the fence, so either the view would be blocked by the car next to it, or I would be standing inside the trench.

I also failed shooting the first picture of the car: I had been playing with the whitebalance of the camera the day before and forgot to switch back to normal mode. Back home I saw how that turned out:
Subaru Justy on drugs!
Subaru Justy on drugs!

Now the paint even looks more faded! :)

Maybe someone can turn this car into a small drifter? The car is a full time 4WD with a LSD on the rear axle, so only cutting the front axles would transform this Kei-car into a Kei drift car! Or maybe someone wants to turn this beautiful rare Japanese car into a rat look? The paint has already faded and it already has a rack on its roof! ;)

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