Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: hoshino impul

The impulsive Impul March K11 and Impul March Classic – March-athon

Today I’ll feature the Impul March and Impul March Classic variants of the Nissan March K11. As I mentioned in the previous post about the March-athon, I would step away from the factory variants like the Tango, Rumba, Bolero and Polka and move on to another variant. As the title suggests, we’re moving towards a company called Impul.

Introducing the Impul March and Impul March Classic Neo-Retro Sport
Introducing the Impul March and Impul March Classic Neo-Retro Sport

But before we dive into Impul and the March, I’ve asked ChatGPT if it could make a joke about the Impul March as well:
Why did the Impul March challenge the Nissan March White Limited to a race?
Because it wanted to see if its “impulsive” modifications could outpace the pure, pristine white beauty – but it quickly realized that even with all its upgrades, it couldn’t “march” past that classic elegance!

It’s scary it remembers that I asked it to make a joke about the Nissan March White Limited well over a month ago. At the same time it’s amazing how capable ChatGPT is in understanding what a Impul March is and how to incorporate this into a joke.

Hoshino Impul Co. Ltd.

For those less familiar with the Impul brand. Hoshino Impul Co. Ltd. was founded by racing driver Kazuyoshi Hoshino in 1980 and is often shortened to Impul. Hoshino was a famous Nissan works driver and he decided to hop on the aftermarket parts bandwagon.

Continue reading

The other Nissan Silvia Super Silhouette racer

There is so much footage of the Hoshino Impul Nissan Silvia KS110 Super Silhouette race car that we tend to forget there was actually another car on the gird that resembled it: the Nissan Gazelle KS110 driven by Haruhito Yanagida!
Nissan Silvia KS110 Super Silhouette
In the season 1981 Yanagida’s car resembled Hoshino’s car with its bodyshape, but Yanagida’s car wasn’t a Silvia: it was a Gazelle. So you see the difference? 😉
I guess most of the audience also had difficulties and therefore Yanagida changed the bodyshape to the Nissan Bluebird 910 from the 1982 season onwards.

Photo found at: Minkara

Family Album Treasures: Hoshino’s Gazelle

Back in the early 80s when the Japanese Super Silhouette series were at its alltime high in popularity Kazuyoshi Hoshino drove his iconic Nissan Silvia S110 silhouette racer to many victories.
Nissan Gazelle S110 with Hoshino Impul rims
Kazuyoshi Hoshino was a smart man: apart from founding the Hoshino Racing he also founded the Hoshino Impul company which produced the Impul D-01 wheels as their first product. By mounting these wheels on his silhouette racer he had the best advertising possible and many of these wheels were sold to his (young) followers.

Also this guy fell for them and mounted them on his Nissan Gazelle S110, just like his hero Hoshino. Definitely a keepsake for the family album!

Found at: Minkara

Commercial time: the Hoshino twins drive Silvias!

Back in 1982 Kazuyoshi Hoshino was the star of the Grand Championships around Japan: he both competed within the long distance Group C races and also in the more popular Group 5 (aka Super Silhouette) races where he drove his Hoshino Impul Silvia:
Hoshino Impul Silvia advertisement
Two races on the same day: isn’t that a bit too much for a man?

Now this advertisement from 1982 shows you how he pulled off that trick: Continue reading

© 2024 Banpei.net

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑