Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: family album treasures (Page 1 of 16)

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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This RHD Levin AE86 suits me well in LHD! – Family Album Treasures

There are so many questions I have about this Levin AE86:

This Levin AE86 suits me fine!
This Levin AE86 suits me fine!
  • It has a GT-S door sticker. Where did it come from?
  • It has correction stickers for the headlights going from LHD to RHD while the dashboard is on the RHD side. If it were a RHD car I would expect it to be the other way around!
  • There seem to be traditional Chinese writings on the wall of this garage / gas station
  • It has a kouki grill and zenki bumper and the car appears to be a kouki model.

So what’s going on here? The traditional Chinese writing on the wall would place this car either in Taiwan, Macau or Hong Kong. Cars drive on the right side (so LHD) in China and Taiwan and on the left side (RHD) in Hong Kong and Macau. I could explain the LHD headlights if this person lived in mainland China or Taiwan. So my best guess would be that this Levin used to be owned by someone living in China mainland or Taiwan and he was visiting Hong Kong or Macau.

That still doesn’t explain the GT-S door sticker and the zenki bumper though.

This Levin AE86 got one up to 87 in 88! – Family Album Treasures

What is the most comfortable place of your Levin AE86? What’s the best intake on your Levin AE86? Flat out in your engine bay of course!

Sorry for these bad puns, but I just had to make them!

Kouki AE86 is one up 87 in 1988!
Kouki AE86 is one up 87 in 1988!

License plate

This nearly brand new kouki (facelift) AE86 from Osaka is one up with its 87 license plate in February 1988! Now the big mystery is whether it’s a 1987 car or that the 87 license plate is a coincidence. Next to the license plate, it has got a double set of fog lights: über rare OEM GT Apex fog lights in the grill and two Cibié 35 / Airport.

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