Remembering Japanese cars from the past
Suppose you are an American, work for the airforce and (of course) move to a base in Japan somewhere in 1979, what car would you drive then?
A Nissan Skyline C110 of course!
Long haired Nissan Skyline KGC110
This long blonde haired American owned a 1974 Nissan Skyline 2000 GTX complete with a set of periodically correct Hart Racing rims back in 1982.
Found here: Pasttimes in Okinawa
Ever since I started doing the Miata Hunting I always wondered why the Miata is so ubiquitous while I couldn’t find a single Honda S2000… For some reason I just didn’t spot them, up till three weeks ago when I spotted three S2000s within one week!
I must confess I already spotted this S2000, but since it was parked in a terrible spot (where you can hardly stop and shoot a picture) it took a while before I had the opportunity to make this shot:
DOTS: 2005 light blue Honda S2000
Unfortunately the owner parked the car the wrong way around… :(
On my way back from where I shot the Suzuki Cervo SC100 I spotted this dark blue Honda S2000:
DOTS: 2006 dark blue Honda S2000
Since the owner was already sitting in the driver seat I reckoned he would be taking off soon. I grabbed my camera which still had a manual focus 135mm lens on it and tried to get the focus right as quickly as possible. The driver took off the minute I started to set the focus and I tried to get a lucky shot. I guess I spent all my luck on the SC100 that day: I managed to get three shots and the above is the best shot of those three…
The saturday after I got lucky again: while doing groceries I spotted this red S2000 AP1 in the same carpark as where I spotted a red Miata before:
DOTS: 2002 red Honda S2000
It is an early model from 2002 and I used the door of the Carina as a tripod (actually the Carina would qualify as a quadpod! :P) to get a couple of nice shots. I liked this shot the best: as a nice touch it shows the front fender of the Carina in the foreground.
I don’t think the S2000 hunting will ever get a part two: in my experience the S2000 is about twelve times rarer than the Miata. With that in mind it would take me another 36 Miatas before I can post about the S2000 again. ;)
I came across this GT-R faced Suzuki Mighty Boy during one of my image googling sessions…
WTF: Suzuki Mighty Boy GT-R
The Suzuki Mighty Boy SS40T is a UTE version of the Suzuki Cervo SS40 (a Coupe version of the Fronte) and apparently this GT-R conversion was done with some fake parts… Identity crisis anyone?
Found on [TMR Tuned]
This Kamen Rider parody called Kamen Norida is so hilarious: he rides a 50cc moped, he dresses up like a monkey, saves plants and trees from dehydration and he fights giant birds, like this Giant duck, by dancing silly and doing flying kicks:
Yes, the duck appears to be joining some nazi lookalike and he, apparently, is very evil! As you all know from other tokusatsu: all eye-patched people are evil. ;)
But of course Norida will kick (actually swing) the Duck’s butt. And of course the duck will play nasty tricks like turning Noridas friends into ducklings! WTF!? :D
Of course justice will prevail and the giant Duck will be roast. That’s how about every episode goes…
I really tried to find out what a Norida is, but I failed on finding the meaning of the word… I did find a very humorous passage on the Japanese Kamen Norida wikipedia entry describing it:
People modify the “Norida” also will be remodeled, Hayato character stone (which is converted into a man’s answering machine after) is rescued by escape before remodeling the brain of justice “mask Norida “as determined to fight for world peace
So Norida it actually means the feeling of justice?
No it does not: I did find out on a Brazilian forum that it actually is a wordplay on the name of the actor (Noritake Kinashi).
Update: I also found a Youtube video describing a bit more about this series. Apparently the group called Tunnels consists out of Takaaki Ishibashi (石橋 貴明 ) and Noritake Kinashi (木梨 憲武 ) and were both from Tokyo. They did the parody on Kamen Rider without the permission of Toei. It doesn’t state if Toei actually tried to stop them or not.
If you wish to watch more, you can find almost every episode here!
When I posted part 9 (with the Celica XX, MR2 and Silvia S13) on Facebook I replied to Matti Alasaari that there were even sadder pictures than that. As promised they are going to be posted here: three Nissan Skyline GC10s!
First of all this sad KGC10 coupe is rusting away:
Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-X KGC10
This KGC10 is the coupe version of the Skyline 2000 GT-X, but it does have the tail lights of the KPGC10 GT-R. You can distinguish it from the KPGC10 by looking at the rear arches: they haven’t been cut nor flared. Of course it is a famous upgrade to flare the rear arches and sell it to some foreigner as a GT-R, so there is still potential in this car! ;)
Now it is unclear what trim this GC10 used to be:
http://www.banpei.net/blog/japanese-rustoseums-part-eleven
Nissan Skyline GC10
Way beyond sanity and it will never be restored I guess…
This one is a bit easier:
Nissan Skyline GC10
It has no flared arches, got a zenki grille and headlight surrounding, so unmistakeably this is a Skyline 1500 GC10. :)
Now even putting the lowest grade (1500) of these Skylines on a junkyard is already a shame!
Last week I spotted an Abunai Deka episode featuring not only one Toyota Carina van, but actually three of those Carina vans! Enjoy the vans:
As you can see detective Takayama chases a silver Carina van, overtakes a white Carina van at 1:19 and finally stops the wrong silver Carina van in the end. Well, the leaf sprung Carina van was no match for the Suzuki motorcycle anyway… As far as I could tell at least two of the three vans were DX models, so either a TA67, KA67 or CA67.
Back in 1986 when the Abunai Deka series were shot (broadcasting was from 5th of October 1986 till 27th of September 1987) the Carina van was still sold, only to be discontinued in April 1988.
I was doubting if I should post this video in the Car Chase regular or the Carina Sightings. It (obviously) became the latter…
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