Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: Skyline BNR32 (Page 1 of 3)

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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Friday Video: breathtaking stunts of Shuto Kosoku Trial 5: Final Battle

The Shuto Kosoku Trials (also known as Megalopolis Expressway Trials) is one of the best Japanese car related movie series from the late 1980s until the late 1990s. Unsurprisingly they closely collaborated together with Keiichi Tsuchiya to make the racing action more realistic. This video that I found is a VHS tape transfer of the making of the stunts used in Shuto Kosuku Trial 5: the Final Battle. This movie was shot in 1992 and you see this reflected in the use of a brand new red Mazda RX-7 FD! It’s also amazing to see how much care is taken into making these stunts!

Shuto Kosoku using old school film cameras

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Manga Car Spotting: Subaru R-2 SS – Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32 – You’re Under Arrest part 1 to 4

Manga Cars

What do a Subaru R-2 SS, a Toyota Sports 800, a Honda Motocompo and a Honda Today have in common? They are all driven by the police in You’re Under Arrest! And what do they use them for? Naturally to chase down fast cars like Toyota Supra A70s and Nissan Skyline GT-Rs in the early 90s! In this video I’ll spot all the cars and some motorcycles in the first four parts of this Dark Horse publication.

Manga Car Spotting - You're Under Arrest - Subaru R-2 SS

You’re Under Arrest by Kosuke Fujishima

You’re Under Arrest was one of the original series the young Kosuke Fujishima started to draw. As he was obsesses with cars and motorcycles this naturally became part of the manga series. The series revolve around the fictional Bokuto Police Station in Sumida, Tokyo. The two protagonists are the female police officers Natsumi Tsujimoto and Miyuki Kobayakawa who share a healthy petrolhead mentality. Natsumi prefers motorbikes over cars and is the more physical of the duo. Miyuki on the other hand loves cars and loves to wrench on them whenever she can. She is also the brains of the duo.

In this manga various (in)famous cars and motorbikes can be spotted. The duo drives around in a Honda Today police special, which has been blessed by Miyuki’s wrenching skills and can easily keep up with Toyota Supras and Lancia Delta Integrales. Another frequent visitor is the foldable Honda Motocompo that resides in the trunk of the Honda Today for, whatever reason possible, Natsuki to chase some bad guys downtown Tokyo. Also the Subaru R-2 SS mentioned in the introduction plays a big role on one of the story: the owner of the Subaru R-2 SS gets this car nicked and Natsuki ends up buying it. That just screams for a motorcycle engine swap!
Subaru R-2 SS police special

The Ah! My Goddess manga may have made Kosuke Fujishima (world) famous, but it’s origins lie within the You’re Under Arrest manga. In one episode Natsuki and Miyuki encounter a goddess and this story inspired Kosuke Fujishima to create the Ah! My Goddess manga where the goddess Belldandy meets the student Keiichi Morrisato. I have also created a Manga Car Spotting episode for this series some time ago.
Toyota Liteace XL-7 AWD

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

The cars of Initial D – Manga Car Spotting – part 1

Manga Cars

Ever wondered which cars are featured in Initial D? And perhaps also wondered which model, make and type these manga cars are? In this third episode of Manga car spotting, I’ll be spotting cars in the first book of Initial D! This first book is the US version of the Manga by Tokyopop and covers chapters 1 to 10 of the Japanese Manga.
The cars of Initial D - Manga Car Spotting - part 1

Initial D by Shuichi Shigeno

I don’t think Initial D needs an introduction: it’s the classic racing manga / racing anime series that gained huge popularity during the mid 1990s in Japan and mid 2000s outside Japan. The manga itself contains many layers of depth and isn’t just about cars, but also about (family) relationships and harsh training by commitment and determination. These first 10 chapters are mostly the introductory of the characters and the setting, so not a lot of action will happen. Still it was fun to do!

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

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Picture of the Week: Nissan RB26DETT cutaway drawing

I could stare for hours to this Nissan RB26DETT cutaway drawing and still not see every detail in it!
Picture of the Week: Nissan RB26DETT cutaway drawing
The black valve cover on this Nissan RB26DETT uncovers this engine as a R32 or R33 type and as the cutaway drawings got out of fashion in the 90s the drawing is probably made around the launch of the BNR32 in 1989.

The Nissan RB26DETT is/was one of the most awesome engines that Nissan made. The engine is an cast iron block with aluminum head, has 24 valves with double overhead cam, a parallel twin-turbo setup and six individual throttle bodies. Even though the initial power was “only” 280ps (276hp) the engine is able to output more than 1 megawatt (1,340 hp) after heavy modifications. I would say it is a good successor of the Nissan S20

Drawing via Autospeed

Games: Over Drivin’ Nissan Skyline Memorial

Back in the 80s I played was a game called Test Drive that allowed you to drive a Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborghini Countach, Lotus Esprit, Porsche 911 and the Chevrolet Corvette C4 (the order is my pick order from 1987). Shortly afterwards it was was succeeded by Test Drive 2 which only had the Ferrari F40, Lamborghini Diablo and the Porsche 959 and Test Drive 3 followed quickly. Then it became silent for a while as the company who created Test Drive created a fantastic game called Stunts. The only game to be considered a successor in the years after was The Need For Speed by Electronic Arts. It basically had the same feeling as Test Drive 1 including the police persuits and Test Drive 2 and featured again a set of “affordable cars” including the Toyota Supra JZA80, the Acura/Honda NSX and the Mazda RX-7 FD.
Over Drivin' Nissan Skyline Memorial
This game got really high scores from the magazines and became an instant bestseller and successors were made in big quantities. The NFS series also sold in Japan as the Over Drivin’ series. Of course the game quickly adapted to the Japanese taste and in 1996 the Over Drivin’ Nissan GT-R was released which included Nissan-only cars (more on this one in a later post). This series also included a special edition called Over Drivin’ Skyline Memorial which basically is the same as the original The Need For Speed game but this time it contained the full Nissan Skyline range up till 1997:

  • Nissan Skyline GT S50-B
  • Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R PGC10
  • Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R KPGC110
  • Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-EX KHGC211
  • Nissan Skyline RS Turbo C KDR30
  • Nissan Skyline GTS-X HR31
  • Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32
  • Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32
  • Nissan R390

I remember playing this game a lot around 2001 or 2002 on my emulator (I did not own a NTSC capable Playstation) and had great fun with it!

The nice thing is that earlier this week IKnowSkyline posted all the video footage of all Skylines in the game in one single video:

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