Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Category: Family Album Treasures (Page 1 of 16)

Driving like a pro in a Mugen CRX Pro – Family Album Treasures

I love the 1980s aesthetics of this photo: the proud owner of a Mugen CRX Pro wearing knock-off Converse Allstars and aviator model glasses. He would be totally fashionable today. But I digress…

1980s aesthetics with a Mugen CR-X Pro
1980s aesthetics with a Mugen CR-X Pro

If you look closely enough, you can see this Mugen CR-X Pro isn’t just aesthetics. A roll cage is barely visible through the rear quarter window. Also, a bucket seat is installed for the driver and the car has twin exhaust pipes. Finally, it sits on a set of Heroes Racing iSpeed wheels. These wheels are designed to pull air into the wheel to cool the brakes. This CRX seriously means business!

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Datsun 240K GT sedan C110 bridging the gap in Düsseldorf – Family Album Treasures

Today’s Family Album Treasure Datsun 240K GT C110 isn’t part of someone’s family album. That’s because it’s an official press photo by Nissan/Datsun Germany! And the amazement over this photo doesn’t stop there either as I have so many questions about it! Let’s start to unravel this mystery photo!

Datsun 240K GT HGLC110 - Nissan GMBH press photo
Datsun 240K GT HGLC110 – Nissan GMBH press photo

Datsun 240K GT HGLC110

Let’s begin with the Datsun 240K GT, this car is actually a left-hand-drive export model of the Nissan Skyline C110. The trim level is mostly similar to the Japanese GT, but thanks to not being obstructed by engine capacity taxation, it features the larger 2.4 litre L24 engine. HGLC110 is the official code for this particular C110. Another major difference is the location of the steering wheel and the driver seat. These are now on the left side of the car. This makes this car super rare as there were only a few thousand in left-hand-drive produced.

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Mary and her sisters in the Kenmeri Skyline C110 – Family Album Treasures

Mary and her sisters are sitting in the back of a Kenmeri Skyline. At least, that’s what I thought when I saw this photograph for the first time. But who are they? I saved it for later and fast forward a couple of years and decided to run the photo through Google Bard. That turned out to be a nice surprise!

The Candies (キャンディーズ) in the back of a Nissan Skyline C110 coupé
The Candies (キャンディーズ) in the back of a Nissan Skyline C110 coupé

Google Bard identified the three women as Ran, Sue and Miki from the Japanese idol group the Candies (キャンディーズ). Here’s a photo of them in reverse order:

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Double Dragon: two Toyota Celica XX brothers – Family Album Treasures

The Lee brothers in the Double Dragon game may have inspired these two to stand on top of their Toyota Celica XX-es in today’s Family Album Treasures. So why are they standing on top of their cars? And what is the Double Dragon game? And what has that got to do with the Celica XX?

Family Album Treasure: Double Dragon Celica XX GA61 and MA63
Family Album Treasure: Double Dragon Celica XX GA61 and MA63

Double Dragon

Let’s start with the Double Dragon game. If you are unfamiliar with this game, you really missed some vitally important gaming history. Double Dragon was the first game in the beat-’em-up genre. This genre is a side-scrolling game where “bad guys” have to be fought and reach a goal at the end. In this case, a young student, Marian, is being kidnapped by the Black Warriors. You have to fight your way to rescue her from this evil gang of thugs.

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