Month: November 2009 (Page 5 of 6)

DOTS: 1983 Honda Accord Mk 2

November 8, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

I saw this Accord mk2 parked behind a corner and immediately stopped and took a few snapshots:

Honda Accord Mk2

The Honda Accord Mk2 appeared to be in a very good state! I could not see any rust on it. Probably it was a sleeper or a car owned by an old couple like my Carina used to be. According to the car registration website it was only sold to the current owner one month ago.

Honda Accord Mk2

From the front this type of Accord looks a bit like the Nissan Gloria/Cedric 430. Of course that is no coincidence because both cars were produced around the same time: the 430 was produced till 1983 and the Accord started production in 1982.

Honda Accord Mk2

Personally I don’t like many Honda’s, but seeing this car actually made me wanting to own one… Of course, if I can find one. ;)

Laps around the amazing Nissan Grandrive proving grounds

November 7, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

Last week I wrote about the Nissan brochure from 1965. I mentioned the Nissan Grandrive proving ground at the Oppama plant (????) in Yokosuka. I was a bit curious about it and tried to find pictures and videos of the track.

I did find two videos on Youtube. The first one is a video by Nissan to promote the Grandrive track. Continue reading

Hilarious: Bollywood meets Japan in the 60s!

November 6, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

In 1966 Bollywood shot a movie called Love in Tokyo. The movie was shot partly on site in Tokyo, so be prepared to see a totally different Tokyo than you are used to:

Pole dancing in the sixties?!

In this video you can already see parts of the, back then, newly built Shuto Expressway.

Cars I spotted so far: Prince Skyline S50 taxi, some Nissan Cedrics next to the traffic lights, a Toyota Corona T40 with the old lady and now and then a Prince Gloria S40.

In this part the male character drives, what looks like, a Nissan Fairlady 1500 SP310:

Enough of the cars! This one is really hilarious:

And another one to say goodbye:

If you want to know more about this movie, you can find all the information you need here:
Love in Tokyo

Japanese BBS wheels

November 5, 2009 / banpei / 1 Comment

This video kind of surprised me:

This video from 1993 clearly shows (some) BBS wheels are produced in Japan. A bit weird for someone living next to Germany expecting a German wheel manufacturer to actually produce them in Germany!

A little research learned that the Japanese company Washibeam produces the BBS F1 Magnesium wheel and all one piece Aluminum racing wheels. They sell those wheels back to BBS Kraftfahrzeugtechnik AG and vice versa for the other wheels. In this way the production of the wheels can continue even if either BBS or Washibeam go bankrupt.

Carina Sightings: Slammed Carina AA63 sedan

November 4, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

Okay, it may not be as ground scraping as the Carina firevan, but it surely is lowered a lot compared to normal Carinas (like the one right next to it):

Slammed Carina AA63 sedan

In some way it made me think of the sedan version of the Carina firevan: both slammed, deep dish rims and of course its red color… On the other hand this one is a bit over the top: a set of fender flares and a big beacon light on the roof.

It looks like the car had a clear headlight conversion as well, so at night it will probably look real mean! If I would live in a RHD country I would definitely gotten such a set for mine!

Unfortunately I don’t have anymore pictures nor info on this Carina than this. The picture was taken by one of my favorite Japanese blogs ( zenswd ) on a meeting but he didn’t give much more info than this.

New motorFIX AE70 wagon video

November 3, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

A new video by motorFIX:

It contains both their rusty AE70 wagon and an the immaculate KE70 sedan owned by one of their customers. Both cars were drifting on the YZ Circuit and they are FAST! Both cars are clearly faster than the other AE86s on the track!

The Corolla KE70 sedan should actually be called a Corolla SE70 sedan: it had a 3SGE swap from a Toyota Altezza by the motorFIX garage including its six speed gearbox. It almost got some scratches when it spun and barely missed the tirestacks. Would have been a terrible shame if that would have happened!