Author: banpei (Page 15 of 318)

Double Dragon: two Toyota Celica XX brothers – Family Album Treasures

December 12, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

The Lee brothers in the Double Dragon game may have inspired these two to stand on top of their Toyota Celica XX-es in today’s Family Album Treasures. So why are they standing on top of their cars? And what is the Double Dragon game? And what has that got to do with the Celica XX?

Double Dragon

Let’s start with the Double Dragon game. If you are unfamiliar with this game, you really missed some vitally important gaming history. Double Dragon was the first game in the beat-’em-up genre. This genre is a side-scrolling game where “bad guys” have to be fought and reach a goal at the end. In this case, a young student, Marian, is being kidnapped by the Black Warriors. You have to fight your way to rescue her from this evil gang of thugs.

Hybrid 2T/3T-G powered Carina TA63 – Carina Sightings

December 11, 2023 / banpei / 1 Comment

Here in Europe, there were three choices of engines for the third-generation Toyota Carina: 1.6 litre 2T, 1.8 litre 3T and 1.8 litre 1C. The 1C offered a mere 62 hp and 111 N⋅m. The 2T offered 75 hp and 120 N⋅m. The 3T adds about eleven extra horses over the 2T, which makes the grand total about 86 hp. So where does this oddball Carina with a 1.8 litre 3T-G come from then?

Zsolt's Toyota Carina with a 2T/3T-G hybrid engine — Zsolt’s Toyota Carina with a 2T/3T-G hybrid engine

Unfortunately, we never got the double overhead cam 2T-G on our third-generation Carina. The 2T-G double overhead cam head adds about 40 hp to the baseline 2T. In theory, slapping that very same head on a 3T would then give about 125hp and loads of torque. That’s exactly what Zsolt (zsolesz_molesz) did to his 3T-powered Carina TA62 and he called it a 2T/3T-G hybrid and renumbered it to TA63!

Can you think of a longer car name than Toyota Estima L Aeras G Edition?

Not so boring Toyota Estima L Aeras G Edition ACR30 – Down on the Street

December 9, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

I have a nose for out-of-the-ordinary cars and today’s Toyota Estima L Aeras G Edition ACR30 is a prime example of that! While driving through the parking garage I noticed this minivan making an attempt to park in a very tight spot. Even though it has the same shame, it didn’t match the ordinary Toyota Previa that we’re used to over here. When I drove passed it, I noticed the different tail lights and front. That’s when I knew I had to take a small detour one level down after I managed to parked my car one deck above.

Is that Toyota minivan interesting at all?

Following the nose

My suspicions confirmed, it was indeed a second generation Estima and not a Previa. Not that it differs on the outside that much from the Previa, but the Estima was a JDM only model. Walking more up close I noticed the badges stating it is an Estima L and the Aeras version. But what does that mean? I’ll run you through all this Japanese goodness that we didn’t get!

Star Road's Fairlady Z with a 3200cc L-series engine

Legendary voice: Star Road tuning garage- Friday Video

December 8, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Video Option has a regular recurring series called Legendary Voice. This series will make a portrait of a legend from the automotive scene. Their latest video is zooming in on the man behind the Star Road tuning garage: Masatsugu Inoue.

Masatsugu Inoue, the man behind Star Road

Star Road is a tuning house that originated in the 1980s. He was determined to do whatever he liked until the age of 25 and then settle on a job. But by the time he turned 25, he never settled on a job. Being a street racer himself, he knew all too well what people wanted and then started building his own aero parts and tuning cars. His speciality is with the Nissan Fairlady S20 platform.

You can watch the entire documentary below:

Was the Galant GTO still on leafsprings?

Cutaway Mitsubishi Galant GTO MR – Picture of the Week

December 7, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Even though I have a soft spot for Mitsubishi, I post far too little content involving that brand. So to make up for that, here is a cutaway drawing of one of my all time favorite Mitsubishi cars: the Galant GTO MR.

Mitsubishi Galant GTO MR cutaway drawing

The drawing is attributed to Takashi Jufuku and this is definitely one of his earlier works. I would personally say this was drawn when the Galant GTO was still new.

What I love about this cutaway drawing, is that you can actually see how the Galant GTO is built. One of the things I wasn’t aware of is that, despite being the high end performance model, it was still on leaf springs! Another detail that brings up more questions is what is that center pod on the roof supposed to be? Pilot lights?

And finally, the exhaust third muffler is mounted vertically. A single exhaust pipe enters this muffler, but two pipes exit, make a twist and then are sticking out of the back horizontally again. What a waste of resources to make this car look more sporty with two exhaust pipes. At least they were “functional” and not some cosmetically added pipes.

Mark II my words – AE86 Wall of Shame

December 6, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

It has been a while since I posted an AE86 in the AE86 Wall of Shame. It’s not that I have a shortage of content, in the contrary: I have lots of AE86 photos that may raise your eyebrows. However, I have rather more other interesting things to blog and share. Luckily, earlier this week, a friend of mine sent me this AE86 with a Mark II JZX110 front crafted on it:

I hope they swapped over the 1JZ engine as well!

You may think that doesn’t look too bad, but wait until you see the rear end: