Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Month: May 2015 (Page 1 of 2)

WTF: Easy url on Skyline DR30 FJ20ET

How easy is it to remember a URL that contains DR30 and FJ20ET? The Nissan Skyline DR30 below features a FJ20ET so naturally for any JDM car nut it is easy to remember:
WTF FJ20ET Friends meeting at Tsururingu
It was not really visible when I first spotted this photo of the first FJ20ET Friends meeting at Tsururingu, but there was a whole “short” and “easy” url on the spoiler of the DR30.

It is a pity that WordPress does allow me to do quotes around the easy part as the first part of the url is, at least for a non Japanese person, difficult to remember. See for yourself: Continue reading

Kickstarter: JDM coloring book

As some of you already know a few years ago I created a coloring book. My son complained to me coloring regular coloring books (with flowers, kittens, turtles, etc) was boring for him. So I created a special coloring book for his third birthday: a Bosozoku Style coloring book!
Bosozoku Style Coloring book
The result was amazing: he started to like coloring again!

I liked the concept so much I actually sent a few copies to people around the world and one of them, Mike Garret, shared the story and thanks to that I was bombarded with orders for the coloring book. I decided to reprint them with a colored cover and that version sold almost 100 copies. Imagine that: over 100 people liked it so much they actually bought a coloring book!

Bosozoku Style coloring book

I spoke to a friend a few weeks ago and he asked my why I never created a follow up. I couldn’t tell him exactly why, except for a few ridiculous reasons that made no sense at all. One of them being that, like last time, I have to invest a lot of money up front. He told me to actually try to do a Kickstarter project and I agreed that it would make sense. So I decided to give it a go!

What is the plan?

Basically my plan is to create JDM coloring book featuring all sorts of Japanese cars to make it more mainstream than last time. JDM is a broad term, so it could literally mean anything from nostalgic cars to fully tuned F&F Supras. Having a broader audience also means more coloring books will have to be ordered up front than last time.

Rewards are simple:

Pre-order your coloring book and you will receive a signed copy and have the ability to vote for which cars/styles will actually make it to the coloring book.
I also wanted to allow people to fund the project a bit more by featuring their own mad JDM ride in the coloring book which in my opinion is the most awesome reward possible. ;)

What does it look like?

Last time I traced a couple of bosozoku styled cars and edited that in my favorite line-art program. I plan to do the same again so I can best describe it with some example content from the bosozoku style coloring book:
Example content for the JDM coloring book
Now squint your eyes and think of your favorite Japanese car! Yes, exactly: like that!

Well, there you have it. The plan is simple, the rewards less simple and reaching the goal to get the project funded is going to be the most difficult part. So if you like the project, please do share it any way possible:
JDM Coloring book project page at Kickstarter

Family Album Treasures: 30 years of Nissan Skyline DR30

Owning a Nissan Skyline DR30 once means you will remember the car forever, or like Minkara user Winter Strawberry driving them with his family for over 30 years!
Family Album Treasures: Nissan Skyline DR30 running in the family
It all started with buying a brand new red tekkamen Nissan Skyline RS two door hardtop coupe in 1983.

Which was a few years later (around 1988) followed up with a two door white Nissan Skyline RS Turbo C hardtop coule to also haul his kids: Continue reading

Video of the week: Nissan Skyline GT-R KPGC10 cutaway model

The video displaying this Nissan Skyline GT-R KPGC10 cutaway model was made by Daniel O’Grady from Wasabi Cars and I must say it looks awesome!
Nissan Skyline GT-R KPGC10 cutaway model
Its builder, Mr Junji Sawada, created something way cooler than an ordinary cutaway drawing: a cutaway scale model in 1/24 size and it is based upon a standard Tamiya model. You can see through most of the parts and if you look through the trunklid (or bootlid) you can see the special GT-R fueltank and spare wheel. The last two parts have been handcrafted as they were not part of the original.

Look for more details in the video below:

Continue reading

Down on the Street: the affordable Toyota Starlet EP71

Lately the Toyota Starlet EP71 is making its comeback to the streets fast! Gone are all the wellfare moms who drove the Starlet P7 for years without maintenance. Gone are all the grandpas and grandmas who drove the Starlet P7 and wrote down every liter of fuel consumed in a small booklet. Gone are all the 18 year old new driver girls who drove the Starlet P7 because it was the only affordable car.
Down on the Street: Toyota Starlet
Welcome to all enthusiasts that want to buy a (almost) classic car with go-kart experience on a shoestring budget! And I see more and more of them lately.

Yes, if you would like to buy an affordable classic this is definitely the car to buy. You can mod it without major cost involved as shock and spring upgrades, tires, aftermarket exhaust and engine upgrades are cheap for this car: Continue reading

Dare to stand out: buy a Mitsuoka!

What JNC is so ugly that it is cute? That was basically JNC’s last weeks question of the week. I’d say anything that leaves the Mitsuoka factory. I’m reposting my comment because I think it is an answer that I have that deserves a bit more length than I gave it in the comment. Also don’t take this posting too seriously: I’m ranting more than reasoning down below. ;)
Mitsuoka BUBU Shuttle-50
Mitsuoka started their car company by producing the Shuttle 50, passed on its technology to the BUBU 50 and by then things still were fine. It started to go downhill once Mitsuoka built a Mercedes-Benz SSK and Porsche 356 lookalike cars using the underpinnings of existing cars.

Both cars were received quite well and to illustrate how well they did their job, can you see the difference between a Porsche 356 and the Bubu 356 below?
Mitsuoka Bubu 356
I have to look at least thrice to notice tiny little differences… So there is nothing wrong (yet) with these almost perfect replicas. However these two cars initiated the shift in focus towards retro styled cars.

From then onwards Mitsuoka became a carrozzeria that built retro-lookalike cars based upon an existing chassis (mostly Nissan and Honda). This would not have been bad at all if they did things like Nissan did with the Pikes cars (Be/Figaro/Pao/S-Cargo). Mitsuoka chose instead for the baroque way and created hideous cars in the 90s like the Le-Seyde (S13 meets Cruella de Vil), Ryoga (Primera P11 meets Jaguar XK120) and best (or worst) of all the Viewt (March K11 meets Jaguar Mark 2).
Continue reading

« Older posts

© 2024 Banpei.net

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑