Author: banpei (Page 9 of 318)

Baby-blue Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 kaido racer – Carina Sightings

February 7, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I love to browse stuff for sale on Yahoo Auctions on a weekly basis and every now and then I find interesting stuff, like for instance the TRD Sports Accessories brochure. This week I encountered this baby-blue Toyota Carina GT-R kaido racer that is for sale for a mere 1.6M yen! (10K euros, 11K dollars)

Baby blue Toyota Carina GT-R kaido racer

Weak spot for Kaido Racers

I have a weak spot for kaido racers (also known as zokusha), especially if they are done well. This one is done very well, looking at the amount of work that went into this. First of all, you will notice the Levin AE86 front bumper has been widened and made its way to the front of this Carina. It’s not clear why they didn’t use an AE92 bumper as that would fit without any issues. Then the lip underneath the bumper makes it look more like a zokusha.

Are Honda City Turbos overpriced and overrated?

These Honda City Turbo prices are madness! – Classic valuations

February 6, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

Only a few days ago I posted the incredibly scary crash video of a Honda City. Lately, I haven’t been paying attention to the classic valuations of anything other than an AE86 or Carina A60. Understand my huge surprise when someone (Emin) sent a Honda City Turbo II for sale in Düsseldorf. The asking price? A mere 69,000 euros! (Or 74,000 dollars)

Honda City Turbo II for sale in Düsseldorf for 69K euros

Okay, it’s one of the best City Turbo IIs on the market and has only driven 9000 kilometres. It’s completely bone stock and even features the original disk wheels.

Could you survive this crash at only 35mph? (56 km/h)

Shocking 1985 Honda City crash test – WTF?!

February 4, 2024 / banpei / 1 Comment

The crash video of the 1985 Honda City below is only 3 seconds long and it must be one of the shortest videos you can find on Youtube! Regardless of this, the three seconds (and video description) contain a lot of information. So let’s dissect that information!

First of all, the title is “1985 Honda Jazz (City) crash test” and that gives us the information that either the car is a 1985-model, or the crash test was performed in 1985. I think the former may be true as there is a timestamp in the video that reads 21-12-1999, which indicates the test might have been performed on the 21st of December 1999.

Better than JDM: German AE86 vanity license plates – Brilliant

February 3, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

For readers from the US, this is probably difficult to understand, but not every country has vanity plates. And even if they are allowed, most of the time they aren’t completely free form. A good example is the British plates where you often need to decypher what the buyer intended. German plates do allow a bit of freedom, but most of the format is set in stone.

VW Polo with German license plate BRB-AE-86

Maybe these two are both supposed to be glass houses?

Why is this Toyota Carina in front of a big mirror-glass cube? – Carina Sightings

January 30, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I bought my first Japanese Toyota Carina brochure somewhere in 2007, just after I purchased my own Carina TA60. Many brochures followed over the years and I think I have almost all of the third generation complete. Here and there I also picked up some Japanese second-generation Carina brochures. Over 10 years ago I purchased this second-generation Carina brochure:

Second-generation 1977 Toyota Carina brochure

Ever since I bought that brochure, it has intrigued me why this Carina was parked in front of a gigantic mirror-glass cube-shaped building. What is the purpose of that? Am I missing some cultural reference here?

Are you a demanding person? Then the Isuzu Bellett 1500 is the car for you!

Isuzu Bellett and Florian passenger cars – How many are left?

January 28, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

At a time, Isuzu imported Bellett and Florian passenger cars into the Netherlands. This started back in 1963 when the Dutch company Seinen in the Hague started importing the Isuzu Bellel and Bellett. In fact, Isuzu was the first Japanese car company to set foot on Dutch soil. The Bellel (with diesel engine) was mainly sold to taxi operators because what better way to prove reliability than running it as a taxi. Naturally, this also backfired when they proved to be far less reliable than their European counterparts. Toyota repeated the same strategy with the Crown and was successful as the Crown proved to be a reliable car. You could argue Isuzu was a pioneer and Toyota followed and succeeded.

Isuzu Bellel used as a taxi in Amsterdam or The Hague — Isuzu Bellel used as a taxi in various Dutch cities like Amsterdam or The Hague

Near the end of the decade, the Bellel was replaced by the Florian. By 1972, the Bellett was replaced in Japan by the Isuzu Gemini. The Gemini is an Opel Kadett C built in license through General Motors. Opel has a very strong foothold in the Netherlands and therefore the Gemini couldn’t be sold in the Netherlands.