Month: January 2015 (Page 1 of 4)

Commercial Time: Space Age Nissan concept car

January 31, 2015 / banpei / 1 Comment

In 1983 the Nissan Motor Company celebrated its 50th anniversary and they showed in Japan a commercial that revealed a space age looking concept car that got updated to the 80s taste:

Sleek looking aerodynamic (not soap bar yet) delta wing idea that must have convinced people in the 80s that Nissan was seriously going to make flying or rocket cars in the (near) future. This Nissan concept car certainly does that!

If you squint your eyes you can make out the 1971 Nissan 216X concept car:

Interestingly enough there is also another concept car called the NX-21 that introduced the EXA concept:

Yes, this Nissan concept car is somewhere between the 216X and the EXA but nowhere near the one shown in the commercial. ;)

For completeness here is the 80s Nissan commercial:

Friday video: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 “Next One” campaign

January 30, 2015 / banpei / 5 Comments

Just hot from the press: Toyota released three mini movies (3 minutes each) called The World Is One in their Next One campaign featuring the Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 in three continents: Japan, Africa (South Africa) and Australia.

The movie really feels like following the Initial D vibe: two high school students, the nerdy one falls in love with a girl, works his ass of to get a license and a car and then buys a kouki ~~zenki~~ Toyota Corolla Levin AE86. They both go for a ride in the AE86: drifting/hooning off and then cruising along the shores. There the girl is found with another guy and see for yourselves the ending in all three parts. It is really well made!

Japan: Continue reading

Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63 Digital Dashboard

Brilliant: Toyota Carina GT-TR digital dashboard

January 25, 2015 / banpei / 1 Comment

As a follow up on yesterdays Mitsubishi Starion digital dashboard post I wanted to show the difference with the Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63 digital dashboard:

As I wrote yesterday: the Starion dashboard has a lot more gauges than the Toyota counterpart, but the Toyota digital dashboard is a lot brighter with many more LEDs. On the left you can see the failure indicators (including oil pressure, oil temperature and voltage) and the indicator if the turbo is boosting or not. On the right you can see the fuel gauge and water temperature gauge as LEDs. A lot brighter than the Starion indeed.

Now if you compare the digital dashboard with the analogue below you immediately can see the difference: the analogue has an extra oil pressure gauge and features all the failure indicators on the right.

Just like the Starion, you can see the Toyota Carina GT-TR digital dashboard in action below: Continue reading

Brilliant: Mitsubishi Starion digital dashboard

January 24, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

Back in the early 80s Japanese car manufacturers were convinced that the digital dashboard was the way to make a car to look computerized and modern. Digital readouts and meters were to be found in most of the top of the line models, like the Toyota Celica XX, Toyota Soarer, Nissan Leopard. Mitsubishi did the same: they added a digital dashboard to the Mitsubishi Starion GSR:

The design of the dashboard is really nice and all readouts are clear in one overview: fuel, water temperature, oil pressure, tachometer and spedometer. Even though not all of them are digital, they are all there.

Now a static image doesn’t sell that well so here is a nice video of the dashboard in action:

Friday Video: Nissan Skyline GT-R PGC10 history

January 23, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

There are many many many videos to be found on the Nissan Skyline GT-R PGC10 and I have seen most of them by now and most of them focus singularly on the racing history of the GT-R and/or coupe alone. That’s why I really like this particular video better than most of the others: it focuses on some of the developments done by Prince prior to the GT-R in the first part.

Mostly the development of the S20 engine contributed to the success of the Nissan Skyline GT-R PGC10 and its engine was a development effort of the Prince 380

And in the second part it also focuses on the other mechanical parts that made the Nissan Skyline GT-R an awesome car: Continue reading

WTF: Hugging a Toyota 3T-GTE engine

January 21, 2015 / banpei / 4 Comments

I scanned this picture of a girl hugging a Toyota 3T-GTE engine from a Toyota Corona TT142 brochure. The borchure was inside one of the Kaikki Karina magazines I bought recently:

I’m not entirely sure I should call it hugging… It is more a bit like she cherishes the engine, or feeling a great affection to it and she also caresses the intake with her left hand. Now I that engine must have

It is a bit less odd if you take into account that the Toyota Corona T140 series got promoted heavily by Roger Moore who was back in 1982 still the actor that played James Bond.

Looking at this photo 33 years later makes the girl look a bit silly, or even a bit sexist photo on how to sell your high performance engines. Then again: James Bond likes classy stuff and the 3T-GTE was certainly a classy engine in the early 80s!