May 2, 2012 in carina sightings
Apparently this year I was the only one with a RWD Carina at the Japanese Autosport Festival, so time to take a small break with a regular!
Derek from mz12gt.com sent me this Carina TA63 sedan that is for sale at Toymods:
The wheels fitted are Western Hurricane and a lot of modifications have been made to the chassis as well.
This is a picture shortly after it had been painted: Read the rest of this entry →
April 17, 2012 in carina sightings
Roman’s coupe is seeing some action again! Last weekend he attended a trackday at the Taupo track in New Zealand:
He also shot a video while doing some laps on the track: Read the rest of this entry →
October 1, 2011 in carina sightings
My heart skipped a beat or two when I opened up Youtube today! A video of the infamous Carina Firevan!
AE86lan uploaded a video of the Firevan shot earlier today at Fuji International Speedway (FISCO) and you will get a very very good insight in how amazing the Firevan actually is and how much it has been changed in the past year!
Just look at how much the van was lowered: its diff and exhaust are almost scraping the road. Its 3SGE BEAMS blacktop with ITBs is still an amazing sight under that hood. Another change is that the driver seat has been moved backwards between the front and rear door, the steeringwheel was made longer and the pedalbox have been moved back as well, I only wonder how you can shift if the shifter is still at the normal spot… It appears as if the owner either wishes to attend drag races with the Carina van or could this be a new automotive trend?
June 9, 2011 in jaf2011
It has taken about a month for me to finally post up some of the celluloid photographs I took with my Zenit-E and a “new” Industar 61 lens at the Japans Autosport Festival 2011 at Zandvoort. As we Dutch say: “It takes a while but then you have something!” but that probably hits like a plier to a pig! 
First reason it took so long was that the pictures got lost between the processing company and the photostore. Second reason was that I was too lazy to scan them. Third reason was that I was too lazy to upload them. So here they finally are!
I’ll start with my Carina parked next to this Datsun 240Z:
Datsun S30 240Z @ JAF2011
I made the decision that the Carina would be a better off parked next to a classic 70s JDM sportscar than one of those “modern” cars in the background. 
When chatting with the owner of the Corolla AE86 with 3S-GE swap this yellow 240Z stopped by. The owner turned out to be an AE86 owner as well. What is the chance that I parked my Carina next to his 240Z? One out of 10000?
Next up is this first generation green Mazda 626 hardtop coupe:
Mazda 616 coupe @ JAF2011
When I was waiting for someone in my Carina near the exit the owner (plus three his friends cramped) into this coupe made a small detour to yell at me that I had a cool car. 
Gave them a big thumbs up and yelled back the same!
BTW: There are only 3 of these 626 coupes known to exist in the Netherlands. By chance I also met the owner of another one…
Then I spotted one of the most extraordinary AE86s in the Netherlands:
Corolla AE86 with BEAMS 3S-GE @ JAF2011
A Toyota Corolla AE86 with a 3S-GE BEAMS blacktop swap (SE86) with a W58 and a Carina SA60 bellhousing.
I met the owner a few times before (I bought the Celica Supra rims from him three years ago) and had a long chat about this swap. Amazing it actually fits!
Tight fitted BEAMS 3S-GE @ JAF2011
As you can see the BEAMS is a very tight fit. One of the support beams of the hood had to be cut out and a few things had to be moved in order to make it fit.
Corolla AE86 on Work Meisters @ JAF2011
The Work Meister rims were bought from The Doctor who previously had them under his JDM Toyota Chaser GX71. Some people like them and some people don’t. Personally I think they are an excellent fit!
Then I also spotted this bosozoku styled Suzuki Alto SS40:
Bosozoku style Suzuki Alto SS40 @ JAF2011
I did spot it at the Japan Classic Sunday 2010. Since then a few modifications have been done.
In case you are wondering: the writing on the hood says “STUK” which is Dutch for “broken”
Bosozoku style Suzuki Alto SS40 @ JAF2011
So apparently it broke down during the trip to Zandvoort and was towed to its place.
That’s it for the first part. More pictures will be posted in the next coverage!
May 10, 2011 in jaf2011
The first impressions on the Japans Autosport Festival were that there were waaaaaay too many Skylines in the Netherlands. I think I saw more than 100 R32/R33/R34s and most of them were riced out. On the other hand there were some really nice examples as well!
What was most interesting was this purple hachi I spotted three and a half years ago in someones garage without an engine in it.
Purple Corolla Levin AE86 with 3S-GE Beams blacktop
The owner sold me his 15 inch Celica-Supra rims and just casually told me he owned a couple of Celicas, a Starlet EP70 with a 3SGTE in it and an AE86 as well. So of course I got very interested to see the AE86 and the Starlet. The AE86 looked already as great as the photo above but only lacked its engine…
Shortyly before the JAF the project finally met its end and its 4AGE made way for a different engine. At first the owner planned a 1JZ-swap, but changed his plans and went for a 3SGE Beams blacktop mated to a W58 supra gearbox by a JDM 1S Carina bellhousing!
As you can see the 3SGE blacktop is a tight fit for the AE86:
Purple Corolla Levin AE86 with 3S-GE Beams blacktop
He told me he had to modify the bellhousing because the starter engine was on the wrong side, so he tool the bellhousing of the 4A and had the starter position welded on the other side. You can’t tell unless you look up close and look really well. Very nice to see such a project getting a good ending!
The funny thing was that I would have expected it to be a very loud engine but he used a bone stock muffler of a Hyundai Scoupe and it just sounded like a stock 4AGE! So literally you have a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing!
More pictures of the festival will follow when I’ve developed the films from my camera. 
