Author: banpei (Page 2 of 302)

This Toyota Carina AT171 is a fusion of cultures!

Japanese, French and German fusion: Toyota Carina II AT171 – Down on the Street

November 25, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Earlier this year I had a job that required me to commute by car every day. Even though it was normally only a 17-minute drive, it meant I was stuck in a traffic jam every day. One day I noticed an interesting car in my rearview mirror and I immediately took my phone out of my pocket. As it passed by in the other lane, I could enjoy this fusion 1992 Toyota Carina II AT171 very much!

What’s the (con)fusion?

If you’re wondering why I call it a fusion car, that’s simply because it is half-JDM inspired and half-German inspired. In my rearview mirror, I could see the headlights were replaced by yellow bulbs. The yellow headlamps are actually a French thing and I did a video about yellow headlights that a long time ago. Lately, the VW and BMW scenes adopted the yellow headlamps as well as a cool retro thing. So if this Carina has yellow headlamps, it’s definitely not JDM but French.

The tall boy dissected: Honda City – Picture of the Week

November 23, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

This week I already posted twice about the Honda City, so why not stick to it for the picture of the week post? Today we will look at a dissected Tall Boy: the Honda City! For those unaware: Honda nicknamed the Honda City the Tall Boy. They did so because of the relatively high profile of the car, giving it a lot of space.

The Honda designers created the tall CITY logo to support the tallness of the car. The Honda leadership liked it so much that they retained this. That’s also the reason why all sorts of tall and city puns, like the Manhattan HiFi, were created. It’s a shame no Motocompo can be found in this cutaway drawing.

Better than the motocompo: Honda City R Manhattan HiFi – WTF?!

November 22, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

If you thought the Honda Motocompo moped was the best accessory of the Honda City, you’re very wrong! The best accessory for the Honda City R is, by far, the Manhattan HiFi! If you’re wondering what the heck that is, it looks like this in the brochure:

Yesterday we featured a Family Album Treasure lightly touching upon the Honda City, but today we have a deep dive into the Honda City!

What is the Manhattan Hifi?

As the name implies, the Manhattan HiFi is a Honda City boombox! Literally! It wasn’t an accessory you could order, but rather more a whole car! Basically, you could order the Honda City R with this big boombox mounted to the ceiling in the rear making your Honda City a boombox!

Madness on the Honda City: Hondahondahondahonda!

Baggy Trousers with my Honda Civic – Family Album Treasures

November 21, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

The owner of this second-generation Honda Civic strikes such a strange pose that I immediately had to think of the wacky Madness Japanese TV ads for the Honda City! It’s like he’s doing that strange Madness-walking dance!

Honda Civic owner doing the Madness walking-dance

If you are unfamiliar with what that dance looks like, this is the album art of the Madness Honda City LP that was released in Japan:

Near original red 1984 Carina GT-TR TA63

Nearly original red 1984 Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63 – Carina Sightings

November 20, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

I have been seeing this nearly original Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63 for the past few years in videos. I think it is one of the most stunning Carina A60s I’ve seen! As there are many videos around, I’d thought I’d go over the car once using photos from one video, and then make an overview of all the other videos I found of the car.

Red 1984 Carina GT-TR TA63 from Hokkaido

This 1984 Carina GT-TR TA63 is from Hokkaido. It is covered by various people on YouTube, but I’ll feature videos by Yu Sasaki and Bankakuemiko.

At first glance, you would think it is nearly original. Almost as if it were new from the factory. It even still has the small black trim pieces on the wheel arches that were only present after the facelift in 1984. However, there are a few things that make it not original. From the outside, compare it to the red GT-TR in the 1984 Carina brochure:

Honda Life Step into my grave wagon – Japanese Rustoseums

November 19, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

The Honda Life Step is a van based on the Honda Life Kei car. The Honda Life was a successor to the popular Honda N360 and N600 (only abroad). Unfortunately, Honda stopped exporting their Kei offerings as soon as the Life replaced the N360/N600. This means we never got to enjoy these cars outside Japan. That makes me extra sad to find these magnificent Kei cars rusting away in their natural habitat.

This example seems to be parked in someone’s yard. Photos like these make me wonder where people then actually sit in their gardens. I mean, you can’t sit down next to a big pile of rust, right?