About me

About me?

Well, that can be a long story if I want to… But I’ll try to keep it short. 😉

I live in the Netherland which is some very small country somewhere in the north-west of Europe.

Work
After finishing my bachelor in IT, I startd working as a programmer in 2000. I quickly evolved from junior programmer to IT Architect, before switching to databases somewhere around 2008. Since then I’ve worked mainly with Open Source databases and am a renown expert on this field.

Cars
I’ve been a Japan fan for almost my entire life I think. It all happened in kindergarten when a friend of mine, who is half Japanese, had me over to play with his (Japanese) toys. I loaned a lot of books about Japan in the local library and in my late teens I got into Anime and Manga because of this and started collecting everything I could.

At the late 90s I really got into Japanese games, so of course I started playing a lot of Japanese race games. Most of those featured mostly Japanese cars and that’s how I got hooked on Japanese cars! I loved the outrageous cars like the Skylines and the GT3000, but also the smaller lancers, mx5s and Corollas.

In 2000 I got the first fansubbed Initial D episodes and since then I was quite determined to own a hachi-roku (Toyota Corolla AE86) myself! I instantly replayed most Japanese racegames and tried to allocate all AE86s in there. Most of them actually had them! I also registered some domain names (trueno.org hachi-roku.org) and got one of my best friends to buy an AE86. Together we founded AEU86.org, a European community for AE86 owners.

Anyway, I bought my 1985 USDM AE86 in 2005 and owned it up till 2007. It was a converted SR5 (to GT-S spec) and I rebadged it as Trueno with the stickers we were already started selling replicas through the shop.

I sold the AE86 in favor of a mint Toyota Carina TA60 automatic because my girlfriend Emoke was expecting our son Olivér and she couldn’t get into the AE86 too well and a child seat wasn’t fitting in the AE86. So I swapped the 2 door AE86 in favor of a 4 door Carina.

My father did also own a Toyota Carina TA60 van in the 80s (I think it was 1985-1989) so it was quite natural for me to start looking for a 4 door Carina. The Carina TA60 itself is quite identical to the AE86: it even got the same rear axle!

Anyway, plans are to convert the Carina to manual shifter in the future and then swap the 2T engine for a (more economical) 4AGE or a (more easy swap) 2T-G.

I currently write a lot on my blog and mainly about cars and Japanese subculture. I surely would love to visit Japan once, but with the current life it will not be anytime soon. Besides that: I really need to visit Indonesia before that to see where my roots are!

Anyway, I could write about my personal life, my wife and two kids but I chose not to. Why? Well, because my personal life is something I’d like to keep for myself and my hobby (blogging) is something I do for fun. So you don’t have to expect any food postings and run in the park pictures either. Isn’t that a relief? 😉



21 Responses to About me

  1. Victor Neyra says:
    May 14, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    Mr
    I´m from Peru,I´m looking for a manual for toyota Corona,engine 3T,model TT-141L year 1983,please help me to find it.
    Best regards
    Victor N.

    Reply
  2. Edison (Bafo) says:
    June 7, 2012 at 4:59 am

    Hi there

    As I posted on Carina Sightings (Bafo´s Lowered….), I need a place to buy bodyparts for my 1984 Carina DX.

    Please help …

    Reply
  3. QJin says:
    June 8, 2012 at 5:45 pm

    Am looking for vintage skylines out of Europe. Can you help? You have my email at the registration.
    I can help you or your friends get anything car related from Japan (new & used)

    Reply
  4. alec says:
    December 17, 2012 at 9:52 am

    hi, not sure if this is correct way to contact u. the owner of the ta63 with 1u going in it is a member of our car club “yukai sendo motorsport”. please search for us on face book and you will find our club page. we have further updates of the ta63, aswell as tt141 corona, te71 sprinter truneo etc. say hi.

    Reply
  5. U.E.G.Dayaratne says:
    May 28, 2014 at 3:41 am

    I need place to buy body parts for my car Toyota Crina KA67 , front and rear buffer and front light shell, new or used one olso ok . looking foreverable reply from you. Thank you .

    Reply
    • banpei says:
      May 28, 2014 at 8:20 am

      Hi Dayaratne,

      I personally don’t have many spare parts for sale and I might not live in your neighborhood either. Where are you from and perhaps we can find someone who can.

      Regards,
      Art

      Reply
  6. FRpilot says:
    July 16, 2014 at 1:09 pm

    Hi, this is an incredible blog you have.

    Keep it up!

    Do you have a contact email at all?

    Cheers

    Reply
  7. François Lallement says:
    November 24, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    Do you know my car? It’s a 1973’s Nissan Skyline 2000GT-X:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXQGoqLaPT8&index=1&list=UUAfSBiRXrl69TpDMcopdIjw

    I live in France and I restored this car this year.

    Reply
  8. Ishkhan Gasparyan says:
    January 10, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    hi
    I have a 1987 Nissan Datsun 280c 1981.
    Please let me know if you can help me buy front bumper complete,
    corner lamps / R, L /, and the door mirrors.
    If this is not possible then please let you sell your existing
    blog Nissan Datsun 280C and at what price.
    Best regards
    Ishkhan Gasparyan.

    Reply
  9. Dale says:
    December 1, 2015 at 10:20 am

    Hi,
    First I would Just like to say what a great website, like you I have a huge passion for old Japanese cars.I was looking though your rustoseum blog pics
    and was wondering if you knew the location of the site? Or as much information as possible. Also would it be possible for you to contact me via my E-mail address provided. Thanks and I will look forward to hearing from you.
    Regards
    Dale.

    Reply
  10. Guenter says:
    November 14, 2016 at 9:28 am

    Hi,
    is the picture of the shiluette a fake or is it real?
    Do you know if the car´s still available?
    Best regards, Guenter

    Reply
    • banpei says:
      December 9, 2016 at 9:23 pm

      Hi, which silhouette picture are you referring to? Your comment is on the about-me page, so I can’t tell. 😉

      Reply
  11. Kalong says:
    April 25, 2017 at 6:30 am

    Hi banpei. Did you sell Carina TA60 quadlight?

    Reply

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