Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: granchan

Family Album Treasures: Meri sauvignon Skyline 2000GT

Now this is a blaze from the past! The origin of the kaido racers had its roots in copying the style used in the 70s and 80s Grand Championships on Fuji Speedway and its styling was called Grachan. Headlight covers, widened fenders, hood air ducts and pink/gold number on the door.
Jokers Yonmeri Skyline C110
Jokers Yonmeri Skyline C110

I love this little piece of comment in the original blog:
When people could not stand Yonmeri.
I would be proud of having made such an early adopter of the Grachan styling, so definitely something to keep in the family album!

Found at [Joker’s official blog]

Video: 1984 Fuji International Speedway 250km

I found this very good amateur video of the 1984 Fuji Gran Championship at Fuji International Speedway where a bunch of Sunny B110s, Sunny B310s, Starlet KP61s and first generations Honda Civics battled the TSA class 250km race. The competition is fierce and you can enjoy an 8 minutes spectacle of bumps, spins and drifts:

BTW: at 3:37 an unidentified car is going through the corner on 3 wheels. Anyone got an idea what car it is?

Direct link to video: ’84富士GC第2戦 マイナーツーリングレース Bコーナーでのアクシデント

Carina Sightings: Bosozoku Style Carina coupe

I already posted this Carina on Bosozokustyle.com last monday, but I really have to share it here! The Carina is a bit hard to detect under all that extra bodywork, but if you look close enough you will surely recognize it as a Carina coupe! To be more exact: it is the white car @0:10, 0:15, 0:24, 3:06, 3:12, so more than enough opportunities to see it! 😉

Initially I thought there was a Toyota Celica A60 underneath all those spoilers and wings. With the front and rear section gone it was a bit hard to see: the mid section of the A60 is shared between the Ceclia and Carina coupe and they are almost identical to eachother. The headlights kind of revealed it to me: the parkinglights in the middle were gone. Then I looked at the doorhandles, sure enough they are older type sticking out of the bodywork and not sunken into the door. And last I saw the vertical stripes on the B pilar which was only on the Carina and not on the Celica.

I have been searching several sites for more videos/pictures of this car, but so far none of my searches have proved to be fruitful. When I do find more on this car I’ll certainly post more about it! 🙂

Video: 1984 Suzuka 1000km


Rocketpencil posted some new racing videos on Youtube including this 1984 Suzuka 1000km endurance race! These endurance races were always the main event for the so called Granchan races (Grand Championship) where a lot of mixed groups were racing at the same event. The Super Silhouette (Group 5) races were mostly a (short) prequel to the main event.

In this video you can see some of the Super Silhouette cars at 0:46, the Nissan Silvia Turbo and a Mazda RX7.

During the main event you can also see a few cars from a different group riding along: some Nissan Sunny B210s, Toyota Corolla Levin AE86s, Honda Civics, Mazda RX7s, a Toyota Starlet KP61, a Honda Ballade CRX and a Honda Prelude SN!

Repost: 30 years of Tamiya R/C cars

Now this is probably the coolest Tamiya poster I’ve ever seen:
30 years of Tamiya R/C cars
30 years of Tamiya R/C cars

This poster from 2006 covers the most important models by Tamiya in their 30 years of radio controlled cars. It starts with the Porsche 934 Turbo RSR Now on the top left and you can see many nice JDM models in there: next to the 934 a Group 5 Celica Celica liftback A28, in the mid left a Group 5 Nissan Fairlady S30 240Z, a Honda City Turbo, some Skyline R32s in the mid right and a Supra JZA80 at the right bottom. Can you spot some more great models I missed?

Found at Jalopnik via Burst sausages via Save the Enzos via ac75d’s photostream @ Flickr (can it even get reposted more than this? 😮 )

Kei Bosozoku cars: Mitsubishi Minica

We posted this sixth generation Mitsubishi Minica kei car some time ago in the exhaust of the week:
Bosozoku styled kei car: Mitsubishi Minica
Bosozoku styled kei car: Mitsubishi Minica

It remains one of my favorite bosozoku styled kei cars! It is everything its bigger brothers have: multiple wild long exhaust pipes, granchan invluences, deep dish wheels, huge wings, sharknose and of course an oil cooler to complete it!
Bosozoku styled Mitsubishi Minica with five fingers exhaust
Bosozoku styled Mitsubishi Minica with five fingers exhaust

If you look at the interior you can spot a tsurikawa, mini steering wheel and long gearshifter like any bosozoku styled car should have!
Bosozoku styled Mitsubishi Minica with five fingers exhaust
Bosozoku styled Mitsubishi Minica with five fingers exhaust

It took me a while to identify this car: as you can see it doesn’t resemble much of its origin anymore:
Factory stock Mitsubishi Minica SR-Z
Factory stock Mitsubishi Minica SR-Z

The Mitsubishi Minica is a long living platform: Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries started production of the first Minica in 1962 as a 2 door sedan, while the Minicab was its counterpart as a kei truck. Both were based upon the 360 launched in 1961.
First Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries Minica
First Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries Minica

The sixth generation was launched in September 1993 to succeed the successful fifth generation. In styling it was a big step forward: it followed the early 90s round and bulgy styling like we are used to from the Mazda Revue/121 and the Mazda Xedos 6. Just like its predecessor it also had the Minica Toppo as a mini MPV variant. In 1997 the restyled Town Bee was introduced alongside the normal Minica. The Town Bee was a retro styled car, a bit like the Nissan Figaro and the Daihatsu Mira Gino.
Tuned Mitsubishi Minica Dangan 4
Tuned Mitsubishi Minica Dangan 4

The fifth generation already introduced the world’s first mass produced 5 valve engine with the 3G83 and 3G83T Turbo. This engine was not transferred to the sixth generation but improved into the 4 cylinder 4A30. This meant a big improvement in torque for the NA variants: it increased with almost 10% at 700rpm lower than the 3G83! The turbo version remained the same in specifications, however that variant was actually a leashed engine and could easily be unleashed with some minor upgrades. In stock form it already produces almost 100bhp per litre! Imagine the potential of that engine!
Tuned Mitsubishi Minica Dangan 4
Tuned Mitsubishi Minica Dangan 4

Just like the fifth generation the sixth generation also offered 4WD. The 4WD models were indicated with a 4WD suffix. Apart from the 4WD versions the most desirable versions were the SR-Z and the Dangan 4. Both featured the 4A30T turbo engine and the Dangan featured 4 wheel drive. The Dangan was named after its Dangan ZZ-4 predecessor of the fifth generation and even more impressive: it now features a 4 cylinder engine and improved 4WD.
Tuned Mitsubishi Minica Dangan 4
Tuned Mitsubishi Minica Dangan 4

I can imagine why you would convert your kei car into a bosozoku styled car: it is fun, it is cheap and even welding that tiny sharknose is done in only a matter of minutes! I really think the Minica is a great platform to build an bosozoku styled car upon: its 4 cylinder 20 valve engine should give a very nice raspy sound when revving it into its 9000rpm redline!

[ I posted this article earlier this week on Bosozokustyle.com ]

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