Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Month: November 2010 (Page 5 of 5)

Hilarious: Yanni Civic

Maybe you already saw this seventh generation Honda Civic on Jalopnik yesterday, nevertheless I really need to repost it:
Hilarious: Yanni Civic
Hilarious: Yanni Civic

Yes, not only is it the ultimate posermobile, it also got a name now: Yanni!

Why? Because it has got a Yanni record behind the rear window:

And it is not only a Yanni record that makes this Civic great, the options list is longer than the hit list of Yanni:
– Chrome Honda logo on rear window
– Yellow brake calipers
– Hood scoop
– Fake hood vents
– Fake hood vents on the rear fender
– Fake chrome locking mechanism
– Chrome Honda logo on the bumper
Do I need to go on? :P

Alternative Automotive Site of the Year Award

It is the end of the year and I see lots of sites being nominated for a Website of the year award. Personally I don’t really care about these kind of things since most sites that are nominated are too far off my own personal taste. Take for instance the Dutch nominees for “Automotive website of the year”:
Oldtimer Nederland – Basically a static page where you can find parts and repairmen, but anything Asian or Japanese is not included
Onderdelen zoeker – Find second hand automotive parts. Anything older than 20 years can not be found
Autoscout 24 – Find and buy second hand cars
Autotrack – Find and buy second hand cars (didn’t we cover that already?)
Autotrader – Find and buy second hand cars (another one?)
Marktplaats Auto – Find and buy second hand cars (yet another one?)
Gebruikte Auto – Find and buy second hand cars (come on guys!)
Autoweek – Website of the largest Dutch automotive magazine
etc. etc.

As you can see, not really my cup of tea between those nominees and, as I see it, not really exciting sites and definitely most of them are old fashioned sites that are not following trends. The same goes for the nominees in the UK (with the exception of Pistonheads being nominated) and in several other countries. Don’t these guys have any clue what is going on in the world??

So I thought: why not nominate a bunch of automotive sites by the community and have an alternative automotive site of the year award (ASS-YA in short :P ) handed out to any site that has been nominated and voted as best.

Nomination is quite simple and consists of three basic rules:
1. The site/blog/community needs to be automotive related
2. You can’t nominate your own site/blog/community
3. When you nominate a site/blog/community you have to state the reason why you think it should be nominated.

You can send in a nomination by sending me a short email complying to the rules above before the 15th of November. You can send it to: banpei [at] banpei.net with the subject nominee Alternative Awards and I’ll take care of it. ;)

And because a blog post is nothing without pictures or video, here is a completely unrelated video:

Onboard video of a 4A-GZE powered hachi! :9

If you got distracted by this video: don’t forget to send in your nomination!!!

Carina Sightings: Ukrainian Carina GT


Two weeks ago Andrew sent me a picture of his Carina GT and asked me if I was interested in more pictures and info regarding it. Of course I am! ;)
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60

His Carina GT is a 3A-U powered GT model and was delivered originally to Krivoy Rog city in the Ukraine in 1982! I didn’t even know it was possible to buy anything else than Russian cars like the VAZ range. The 3A-U powered GT model is a bit puzzling, however the car has a GT cluster (with an oil pressure meter in the middle) and it was an export model so the designations could be different from the JDM badges.

When the first owner passed away the car remained in storage and was not abused untill his children were old enough to make some small damage at the front of the car:
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60

The car was sold and eventually Andrew bought it in 2007.

The car is in immaculate condition and almost looks as if it was new:
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60

However there is one modification made by Andrew: he moved the fender mirrors to the doors to improve visibility. I can imagine that: the fender mirrors are not well known for the area they cover to the rear. On the other hand: they are rare fender mirrors!

Here is another detail of when the car was imported:
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60
Ukrainian Carina GT AA60

Apparently the Hyogo Toyota dealer made a deal with the USSR to import a batch of Toyotas. Nice to see this car survived that long! :)

Ultimate yakuza boss car: Koenig Specials SL500

And now for something completely different: the ultimate Yakuza boss car in the early 90s!

I can still remember gluing together my Koenig Specials Ferrari Testarossa. Given that the Testarossa was already an amazing car, the Koenig Specials version was even wider, had a bigger air intake on the side and who cares about popup lights if they create drag?
I think the same applies to this SL500: compared to this Koenig Specials the AMG version of the SL500 is meant as a grocery shopping car for elderly women! :D :D

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