Year: 2012 (Page 1 of 36)

AE86 Trivia: AE86 and AE85 Gauge clusters

December 29, 2012 / banpei

Earlier I featured the AE86 GT-Apex Digi Dash and obviously it raises many AE86 enthusiasts hearts. This time I’d like to feature the normal AE86 cluster versus the AE85 cluster.

If you ever owned an AE86 (or watched too much Initial D) this cluster should be quite familar:

It is the standard JDM kouki AE86 cluster for RHD cars. Difference between the kouki and zenki cluster are the the white vertical lines and white needles that replaced the old orange needles.
Difference between JDM and UKDM gauge cluster is the speedo that reaches 150mph (240km/h). Unfortunately I haven’t found a picture of that cluster yet…

Difference between JDM and continental EUDM gauge cluster is the mirrored layout and speedo that reaches 240 km/h. Continue reading

Count the Toyota 2000GTs in this picture!

December 28, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Sorry for the small scale, but this picture was taken from Minkara and is too amazing not to post:

In case you really want to count them: you can include the Toyota 2000GT SEV in the foreground. ;)

Just imagine the amount of money this lineup is worth: the 2000GT averages somewhere around the $400,000 dollars (the Carroll Shelby is an outlier) and I counted at least 12 of them and the line just continues. 12 times $400,000 is just short of $5,000,000 dollar!

To put this a bit into perspective, have a look at this amazing Toyota Corona T140 lineup: Continue reading

Commercial time: this Prince can walk on water!

December 27, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Everybody knows it is impossible to walk on water unless it is frozen, but someone forgot to tell that to this Prince Skyline S50 owner:

In this commercial for the second generation Prince Skyline they show it has this very advanced feature: Continue reading

Merry Christmas and a rustfree New Year!

December 23, 2012 / banpei / 10 Comments

Yes, that is no typo:

Merry Christmas and a rustfree New Year!

My automotive year ended quite badly. What turned out to be a very tiny hole in the rear inner fender on both sides proved to be a true nightmare: the tinworm struck again, ate its way through and instead of a white Christmas I’m actually seeing quite reddish now…
Lucky enough this is the only rust on the whole floorpan of the Carina as it has been creeping from inside out and not the other way around. So to prevent my Carina from becoming a rustoseum I’m having this fixed shortly after New Year and let’s hope it is a rustfree year for everyone! :)

Picture of the week: Cutaway Toyota Levin TE51

December 21, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Near the end of November I got terribly busy preparing to do a talk at the Percona Live London Conference where I was invited as a speaker. So naturally I had to drop some of my other duties… After I returned from London I got the flu and had to stay in bed for almost a week and naturally my wife and son also got the flu and I had to take care of them in the meantime.

So to make it up to you, something I found on the interwebs after reading on Jalopnik about a great reddit cutaway thread:

A very nicely cutaway Toyota Levin TE51!
Note that the 2T-G engine is the electronically fuel injected model. I never knew the TE51 already featured EFI, so you learn something new every day. ;)

Found at Stepho

Video: Initial D Fifth Stage episode 2

November 22, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Last weekend Episode 2 of Initial D Fifth Stage has been broadcasted in Japan. Obviously it was fansubbed just within a couple of days!

This episode focusses on the battle between Keisuke in his RX7 and Kobayakawa in his LanEvo VII.

A bit different this time is that I actually managed to embed the video: Continue reading