Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: nissan skyline (Page 1 of 27)

The SkyLevin: an AE86 with the face of a Skyline HCR32 – AE86 Wall of Shame

Just like last time Levin Delta Integrale, we have another face-swapped example: an AE86 with the face of a Skyline HCR32! Even though the tail lights seem to originate from a Trueno AE86, I’ll just call it the SkyLevin. It may look a bit weird as the R32 Skyline is almost a decade ahead in design, but does it look good? That’s up to you to decide!

Autoworks Nipponshi AWN 800: AE86 with Skyline HCR32 front end
Autoworks Nipponshi AWN 800: AE86 with Skyline HCR32 front end

Autoworks Nipponshi

Let’s start with the builder of this insane car: Autoworks Nipponshi. They called their work the AWN 800. I can understand the AWN abbreviation, but I have no idea what the 800 means. I wasn’t able to find out much about this garage. I’ve tried searching on both Romanized and Katakana, but nothing turned up except for this Motor Fan article. My guess is this was done by a small garage in the Nipponshi area without a website or any presence on the web. I’ve also tried to go through all the garages in the Nipponshi area but to no avail.

Rust AE86 + Skyline Frontcut = SkyLevin?

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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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Nissan Skyline GT-ES C210 Japan – Picture of the Week

After an extra long Christmas weekend, all we can do is just sit down and be a couch potato. So why not just stare at this beautiful cutaway drawing of a hardtop Nissan Skyline C210?

Nissan Skyline GT-ES C210 hardtop cutaway drawing
Nissan Skyline GT-ES C210 hardtop cutaway drawing

The fifth generation Skyline was also better known as the Skyline Japan. It received this nickname due to the Nissan TV ads emphasizing the Japanese origins of the Skyline by ending the ad with an American voice-over saying “Skyline…Japan”. A collection of ads can be found below:

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How the Skyline GT-R got the Godzilla name – Friday Video

Aiden Millward has done a ton of videos about racing and I love his storytime videos. It harks back to those good old days and Aiden can tell these stories with that little extra cherry on top. Most of his storytime videos are about Formula One or Le Mans 24 Hours as those are the most covered motorsport in this world. However, earlier this week, I was pleased to see him covering the story of Godzilla. The R32. How it earned its name. How it outclassed everything else.

Godzilla R32 at its finest hour at the 1992 Bathurst race
Godzilla R32 at its finest hour at the 1992 Bathurst race

Not to spoil too much of this story, but the Nissan Skyline R32 didn’t earn its nickname in Japan. It earned this name in the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATTC) over the period of 1989-1992 when it dominated the Supercars (group A) racing series.

You can find the video below:

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Rustheap junkyard – Japanese rustoseums

According to Daniel O’Grady from Wasabi Cars, rusty cars are slowly disappearing from the streets of Japan. This is mostly due to the increase in the price of steel and people actively knocking on people’s doors and offer to take them for free. Luckily I still have heaps of Japanese rustoseum photos in my drafts folder, so I have many more to post here on the blog before I run out of them!

This week we have a junkyard in the Kami district in the Miyagi prefecture. According to the blog poster, the owner doesn’t see it as a junkyard, but as a treasure trove!

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Manga Car Spotting – Subaru Rex Combi 4WD – Nissan Skyline GTS-R R31 – You’re Under Arrest part 6

Manga Cars

What do a Subaru Rex Combi 4WD, Nissan Skyline GTS-R R31 and a 1989 RUF CTR 3.4 have in common? They are all featured in today’s You’re Under Arrest manga! Yes it’s another Manga Car Spotting video and we will continue the You’re Under Arrest series with this sixth manga by Dark Horse. It will be a longer video today as we will have to cover 15 cars and two mystery cars.
Manga Car Spotting - You're Under Arrest manga 6 of 8

You’re Under Arrest by Kosuke Fujishima

The young petrolhead Kosuke Fujishima started out as an editor and assistant of, back then not so famous, Tatsuya Egawa mangaka. This inspired him to create his own manga and the first successful manga series drawn by him was You’re Under Arrest! (逮捕しちゃうぞ) which revolves around a Tokyo police station in the business district Sumida. The two protagonists are two female police offices called Natsumi Tsujimoto and Miyuki Kobayakawa and both of them are petrolheads. Natsuki is the more blunt one who catches thiefs, thugs and tramps singlehanded while Miyuki is the more intelligent one who loves tinkering with cars, engines and motorcylces.

In today’s manga we will spot more than 15 cars and various motorcycles. The Honda Today police special is the main car as the duo patrols the Sumida area in this car. The Honda Today is no longer bone stock and is specially tuned to keep up with the sports cars owned by the businessmen of Sumida. Some examples of these cars are the Nissan Skyline GTS-R R31, Mazda Savanna RX-7 FC3S and RUF CTR 3.4 than can be spotted in this manga. Also a bit more luxurious cars like a Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 can be spotted. Or even the high performance pocket rocket Subaru Rex Combi 4WD!

Initially created as a spin-off of You’re Under Arrest! manga, Ah! My Goddess surpassed it in fame. Belldandy turned up in one of the manga of You’re Under Arrest and this inspired it’s creator Kosuke Fujishima to create the Ah! My Goddess manga. In this a goddess, Belldandy, meets a lowly student Keiichi Morrisato and this series ran from 1988 till 2014. I have also created a Manga Car Spotting episode for this series some time ago. As Ah! My Goddess surpassed You’re Under Arrest! in popularity, the final manga of You’re Under Arrest was released in 1992.
Toyota Liteace XL-7 AWD

You can find the video and the high resolution scans of the panels containing manga cars below: Continue reading

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