Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Month: January 2010 (Page 1 of 6)

DOTS: Eternal rivals: Nissan GTR and Porsche 911 Turbo

Hilversum isn’t particularly the most exciting town to spot Japanese cars in: if you count all the performance/luxury cars in one day you will soon enough find out that most cars are either BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar and Ferrari (big Ferrari dealership here!). So normally when I drive through town it is more or less like this: Porsche, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Jag, etc.

You can imagine the thrill I got when I spotted some big dark Godzilla like car parked in the center of town: a black GTR! But wait, what’s that car in front of it?
Nissan GTR R35 versus Porsche 911 Turbo
Nissan GTR R35 versus Porsche 911 Turbo

Yes: a red 911 Turbo! The eternal rivals! Even facing each other! Head to head! Mano a mano! Were they here to fight out their rivalry?

My heart immediately raised u to 140 beats per minute and I grabbed my crap-cam I always carry around, shot a few shots and then … it died! 🙁
I ran into the nearest store (the one right behind the GTR and 911), bought a set of batteries (actually two sets since the second set was free) and ran outside. Just in time to see the GTR leave before I was able to fill the crap-cam with the fresh batteries. ?(?`???)?

Nissan GTR R35 versus Porsche 911 Turbo
Nissan GTR R35 versus Porsche 911 Turbo

So, all I got was two semi okay shots which I had to Photoshop to make them look alright and a big pile of batteries… The one in a lifetime chance: I blew it!

Well at least I will have more than enough batteries for the next occasion then! 😉

Commerical time: Honda Quint

I was re-reading some of the old magazines and in a volume of Practical Classics from a few years ago they were featuring the Honda Quintet, aka the Honda Quint in Japan. So of course I started looking for old commercials of the Quint and Quintet:

Wow! What a cheesy 80s synthesizer tune! And look at those special effects!

The Honda Quint was literally filling the gap between the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord: the car is a lengthened Civic with a mix of Civic and Accord bodypanels, and most importantly: the Accord 1.6 cvcc engine!

It is also funny to see where the Honda Integra started from: the 1985 Integra was initally lauched as the Honda Quint Integra in Japan!

Hilarious: do a dry run in your AE86

We all did it once: doing a dry drift run. I did it as well: try out that heel-to-toe technique when standing still. Do a clutch kick without the risk of damaging your clutch. Do a quick up- and downshift without the chance hearing of grinding teeth from your gearbox. A very effective and safe way of learning to know your car.

But what if you are actually on a circuit and have blown your engine to bits and still want to enjoy your car? Well, you make videos like this:

I must say this guy is quite good in mimicking the 16v 4AGE and the T50 gearshifts! It kind of reminded me of this guy imitating an “import car” with his mouth. Maybe he watched Initial D a bit too much? 😛

Carina sightings: Carina AA63 versus Evo II

I did post some videos of kinloud before, but I just stumbled upon a video of his Carina in 2006:

It looks like the same AA63 he is currently driving but this one has got a 3SGE under its bonnet. As expected you can see his Carina can’t keep up with the Evo when accelerating but it surely doesn’t loose sight of the Evo. Also later on you can see the Carina stay behind on the straight parts of the track. However in cornering it is clear that the Carina has the better setup and I must say his own driving skills don’t lack much either! 🙂

Car chases: Abunai Deka episode 51

I love the good old Friday video action on JNC blog, especially because most videos are the old cop series with big car chases. One of them is Abunai Deka which is about the most exaggerated show you can think of: both cops drive in a Nissan Leopard F31 (earlier episodes it were several Skyline R31s) and they love to put it sideways! For instance: they are still going easy on how they stop this poor Mark II GX61:

And what about stopping a boat? Just keep on shooting!

Even if the boat is out of range: keep on firing your gun… You never know: maybe you eventually hit the crook!

(Notice all the old J-tin in the background! At 2:06 a white Carina AA60!)

Now how about this big finale? An Isuzu 117 coupe versus a brand new Suzuki motorcycle! I know: it is against all odds! 😉
Notice more old J-tin here: Carina A40, Corolla KE70 and Crown MS110 wagon at 1:46. And at the end the Isuzu 117 coupe is left behind. Now that’s even better than catching a ghost, isn’t it?

Keep tuned for more car chases! 🙂

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