Back in December 1987 the very first issue of Best Motoring video became available. The video was a monthly magazine containing not only car news and reviews but also extensive how-to’s on subjects of mastering cornering or drifting. KaKo posted this video in four separate parts:
The first video covers the Nissan MID-4 II, Toyota FXV-â…¡ and Mitsubishi HSR concept cars. Followed by a short video (in sepia) about the Tokyo Motor Show from the 50s till 80s including the 27th motorshow that just happened days before the release of the video. And last part of the first video covers an extensive test between various cars including the new (second generation) CR-X Si and the Nissan Skyline GTS-X R31.
Tag: Motoharu Kurosawa (Page 1 of 2)
Long before Keiichi Tsuchiya earned his stripes in racing Motoharu Kurosawa dominated the Japanese GP in his hakosuka Skyline GT-R. The same happened with reviewing cars for Video Option magazine: long before we became familiar with Keiichi pushing any Japanese sports/racing/tuned car to the limit on a touge run Motoharu Kurosawa was doing the same:
Looking at this September 1988 review of the Nissan Leopard F31 it becomes clear a lot has changed in the past 24 years, for instance the tests that mattered: Continue reading
This chicken race video is very funny to watch:
Apparently Gan-san’s reaction gets worse during the years: he doesn’t even manage to brake in time and stay within the marked area!
And you can even fit two people in it:
And if you thought those Midgets are for losers, how about this tuned Midget II sitting on a set of SSR Mk 1s?
I’d swap my Carina for that Midget II without hesitation! :D :D
Personally I’m not really a Honda man, but I do like beautiful things like the NSX! :)
Hiroun156 uploaded this beautiful Honda NSX promotional video from the early 90s (probably 1990) with the NSX driving through European landscapes:
Note that both NSXes used in this video are RHD, so a (temporary) Japanese car import was required to shoot these videos.
And the hand of the driver at the Nürburgring, could that have been Motoharu Kurosawa?
On the other hand, Gan-san did not wear an helmet when he drove that NSX to a 8:16 recordtime in 1990:
Half a year ago I posted links to two videos which showed the first Japanese Grand Prix in 1963. The same person posted part 2 today of this series: the Japanese Grand Prix of 1969! :)
Unfortunately the videos can’t be embedded, so my story and pictures will have to compensate that. At the bottom of this article I placed the links to the videos!
Japanese Grand Prix of 1969 held on the 10th of October 1969
This time it only consists of the GP race itself, so no 1969 saloons and no early C10s racing in these videos…
The new and improved Toyota 7 on the 1969 Japanese Grand Prix
This was one of the most notable races in the history of the Japanese Grand Prix. In 1968 Toyota had tried to race with the brand new Toyota 7 in the Group 7 race and they failed: they ended up behind Nissan’s R381 and the Porsche 907 due to technical problems. In 1969 they were back with the improved Toyota 7: new aerodynamics and a new intake and exhaust system!
Start of the 1969 Japanese Grand Prix
But Nissan and Porsche did also improve their cars: Nissan had the Prince GRX3 V12 powered R382 ready for the Japanese Grand Prix. This marked the final between the Prince and Nissan merger. Also Porsche attended with the new 917 featuring a 4.5 liter 12 cylinder boxer. The Toyota 7s had a very good start and passed the Nissans at the start, but so did the Porsche 917!
The Porsche proved not to be any competition at all: they were very powerful but lacked stability in tight corners and reliability. Also one by one the Toyota 7s were losing ground to the mighty Nissan R382 and incidents like this one did not help either:
Toyota 7 in trouble after evading a 917
And finally the Nissan R382 number 20 driven by Motoharu Kurosawa was able to pass the leading Toyota 7:
Toyota 7 getting passed by the number 20 R382 driven by Motoharu Kurosawa
In the end the Toyota 7 finished 3rd after Motoharu Kurosawa’s winning R382 and the second R382 driven by Yoshikazu Sunaku.
Motoharu Kurosawa winning the 1969 Japanese Grand Prix
Motoharu Kurosawa winning the Japanese Grand Prix of 1969 marked Kurosawa’s final breakthrough and Kurosawa became one of Nissan’s primary drivers.
The videos feature Jazz as background music. It really feels late 60s with those jazzy tunes in the background and somehow it really fits it well! Perhaps Jazz was the Eurobeat of the 60s?
You can find both videos of the Japanese Grand Prix 1969 here:
[ The Japanese Grand Prix 1969 part 1 ]
[ The Japanese Grand Prix 1969 part 2 ]
Yesterdays posting about Motoharu Kurosawa made me wonder what videos I could find about Motoharu Kurosawa. I did find a lot of videos from which I like this video the most:
It is Gan-san doing an almost flat out round on the Nurburgring Nordschleife with a Honda S2000 prototype! Imagine that the whole S2000 wasn’t available back then and it must have attracted a lot of attention back then. If you look careful enough on the last seconds of the video a large part of the car was wrapped in covers so the press wouldn’t see its final shape!
As you can see the car is very fast! It passes a lot of motorcycles with great ease and he drives several times at the limit, sometime losing control just a tad bit. But during most of the run he remains seated very calm.
The run isn’t timed, but it is somewhere around the 8:45. If you look at the laptimes you will see that it around the same laptime as Horst von Saurma did with a S2000. But it is nowhere near Gan-san’s own record of 7:56 with the NSX-r.