Today I own my TA60 Carina for exactly three years! I bought it on the seventh of the seventh of the seventh (07-07-2007), so in other words: lucky seven! This is what the car looked like when I bought it:

When I bought the Carina TA60
You can even see my old AE86 parked in front of it!

I bought the car after my girlfriend (in the meanwhile she became my wife) became pregnant of our son. When test fitting the child seats in the AE86 it was clear that the only way to fit the child seat was to put it in the front seat. Since everyone trying to sit in the back of the AE86 was complaining about every speedbump I took, cramps and more of that I realized it would be impossible to keep the AE86. So I tried to find a four door Cressida, Corona or Carina and found this Carina in a good deal. Basically the TA60 Carina can be considered a four door AE86 with a puny engine: it has (almost) the same axle, the same gearbox, the same steering rack, same front struts and the only difference is the absence of a 4AGE and a LSD!
Read on for the whole story and more pictures!

Some people may have read it on Twitter: I bought myself a box full of yellow foglights.

My Carina: Marchal yellow foglights
When driving there (and trying to find my way through Zoetermeer) I was navigating on the map. At a certain point I noticed a white Prius in my rear view mirror, when looking at the map and back to the rear view mirror it changed into a very well known front of a car: a R33 GTR! Damn, that was a shock! GTR passed me and gave the driver a thumbs up. ;)

If you look at the box it will contain four times a yellow Marchal foglight and two times a yellow Cibie foglight. Two of the Marchals are broken (lights/wiring/casing), but the other four are perfectly fine! :)

Well, this is the one I was actually after:

My Carina: Marchal yellow foglights
And they are surely worth the drive! :)

My Carina: Marchal yellow foglights
So, for the people with difficulty of remembering my Carina: this is what the Carina looked like.

And now it looks like this:

My Carina: Marchal yellow foglights
Better?

My Carina: Marchal yellow foglights
Without the black/white Marchal covers these foglights look a bit less sporty...

Two weeks ago a package arrived:

Package from Rinkya Japan!
It was sent through Rinkya (they get the stuff from Auctions Yahoo for you!) and took about 2 months by sea mail. It didn't matter it took that long since I was in no hurry, but I could have gotten it through airmail as well. :)

What was in it then?

Well packaged with foam and polystyrene
Well, a lot of foam and polystyrene! With car parts Rinkya is extra careful and packages it even better than you would do it yourself! Now that is professional! I can certainly learn from this with the AEU86 shop I guess...

But what's in there except for all that crap then?

A set of JDM Carina sidemarkers and citylights
Two JDM Carina sidemarkers and two citylights! I don't need the citylights but they were one single auction, so got them anyway...

Test fitting:

Test fit of the sidemarker
Looks like a perfect fit!

How the double headlights look now
Can't wait till I've repaired the brackets and fitted this set to the Carina! :)
(Only need to find the time to do so...)

Big thanks to Rinkya for arranging the auction just in time and shipping it so carefully!

Google Streetview has been updated in the Netherlands yesterday. Of course I checked some familiar spots first including my house.

For some reason the images of my house are mixed up with the images of a street right next to it. Fortunately enough there are images of my Carina on Streetview:

My Toyota Carina TA60 on Google Streetview

Unfortunately this is the only "good" picture I could capture since the other images were from the street next to mine...

I also found some of the Down on the Street entries as well, so I'll post them next Sunday.

Another thing received for the 2T-B upgrade:

Toyota T series repair manual

I was lucky enough the seller of this manual was not aware of how scarce the T series engine repair manual is! She was selling a lot of manuals for American cars, I placed a low bid and she probably thought she was doing a great deal! Lucky! ヽ(´▽`)/

Toyota T series repair manual

The manual describes how to rebuild the whole engine, including all types of T series carburettors!

Toyota T series repair manual

It also describes how everything should be set up...

Toyota T series repair manual

And the most important thing: how to synchronize and tune the double carburettors of the 2TB! (￣ー￣)