Category: picture of the week (Page 2 of 5)

Picture of the Week: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 at Paris-Dakar 1984

Picture of the Week: Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 at Paris-Dakar in 1984

May 10, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

In 1982 and 1983 Masahiro Uchida and Masaru Kubota joined the Paris-Dakar rally in a Toyota Carina ST A60. The year after they chose a different beast: a Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 coupe. And they stuck to that formula the next two years as well.

I have no idea who is posing next to the AE86, but surely that is neither Masahiro Uchida nor Masaru Kubota.
This is a zenki Levin, so it is not the same as the kouki the team used in their famous 1986 video.

Now there are a couple of things odd in this photo: first of all the exhaust is modified in a way that became fashionable in the mid 90s on Opel Calibras and Volkswagen Golfs. Probably they tilted the exhaust tip upwards to prevent it hitting rocks and bumps.
Second of all the rear axle appears if it is IRS and leaning on the stack of tires. Could it be they converted the live axle to IRS to increase ride height? I watched the 1986 video two times in a row but could not see a similar modification on the kouki Levin AE86 they used in 1986…

Via: Forum-Auto

Picture of the Week: Nissan RB26DETT cutaway drawing

February 15, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

I could stare for hours to this Nissan RB26DETT cutaway drawing and still not see every detail in it!

The black valve cover on this Nissan RB26DETT uncovers this engine as a R32 or R33 type and as the cutaway drawings got out of fashion in the 90s the drawing is probably made around the launch of the BNR32 in 1989.

The Nissan RB26DETT is/was one of the most awesome engines that Nissan made. The engine is an cast iron block with aluminum head, has 24 valves with double overhead cam, a parallel twin-turbo setup and six individual throttle bodies. Even though the initial power was “only” 280ps (276hp) the engine is able to output more than 1 megawatt (1,340 hp) after heavy modifications. I would say it is a good successor of the Nissan S20

Drawing via Autospeed

Picture of the Week: Datsun 180B sedan cutaway drawing

January 10, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

The Datsun 180B (Nissan Bluebird 810) is one of my favorite Nissans of all times: it is right between Nissan’s coke-bottle styling and the more serious and cooperate squared off designs of the 70s. So not surprisingly I printer this cutaway drawing of the Datsun 180B and put it up on the wall:

I do fancy the design of the Datsun 180B two door coupe a bit more but I can’t complain, can’t I?

Found at: favcars

Picture of the Week: Dutch Datsun car dealer in 1977

December 20, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

I found this scanned newspaper photo of a showroom of the Dutch Datsun car dealer Rhenoy (in 1977) posted in japanseklassieker.nl Facebook group and immediately thought to share it here:

What I quickly spotted in this photo was (from top left clockwise):

Datsun 160B / 180B / 200B coupe (aka Nissan Bluebird 810)
Datsun 260Z (aka Nissan Fairlady Z S30)
Datsun 200L coupe (aka Nissan Laurel C130, aka pigsbutt Laurel, aka butaketsu)
Datsun 280C sedan (aka Nissan Gloria 330)
Datsun 160B / 180B / 200B sedan (aka Nissan Bluebird 810)
Datsun 100A (aka Nissan Cherry E10)
Datsun 160J coupe (aka Nissan Bluebird 710, or plain 710)
Datsun 100A F-II two door sedan (aka Nissan Cherry F-II F10)
Datsun 100A F-II coupe (aka Nissan Cherry F-II F10)

Now the big question is where is the Datsun 120Y (aka Nissan Sunny B210) in this photo? Or did I guess the first car wrongly here?

In my opinion the most interesting cars at this Datsun car dealer are the first four cars. Styling wise the late 70s was when Nissan shifted from coke-bottle styling to ruler styling and that’s quite visible in this showroom. The all new 160B/180B/200B (Bluebird 810) just arrived and also shows the arrival of the ruler styling with its sharp lines. There is just one tiny coke-bottle hip left over at the rear quarter of the car. Even sharper lines and more angular design would arrive with the all new 1977 Datsun 200L (aka Nissan Laurel C230), 1977 Datsun 160J (aka Nissan Violet A10) and the 1978 Datsun Cherry (aka Nissan Pulsar N10).

If I had to pick one car from this Datsun car dealer showroom back in 1977 I probably would have taken the four door Datsun 180B sedan. Simply because of it practicality and fuel economy for as far as you could call it economical at all. However if I had to pick one today I would choose either the Datsun 200L coupe (I just love the word butaketsu!) or the Datsun 200B coupe.

Picture of the Week: cutaway Lexus LS400

Picture of the Week: Lexus LS400 Cutaway

December 13, 2014 / banpei / 1 Comment

This time this cut up Lexus LS400 is not a cutaway drawing but the real deal:

It is a bit of a shame I could not find a real cutaway drawing of the Lexus LS400 as this would have made an excellent example on how accurate the drawing would be. Also nice to note that since September this year the Lexus LS400 is officially a classic car now as the early models reached the age of 25 years.

Found at: Lextreme

Honda-ra272 Cutaway Drawing Yoshihiro Inomoto painted

Picture of the week: Honda RA272 cutaway drawing

September 11, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

This Honda RA272 cutaway drawing by Yoshihiro Inomoto is even more beautiful than the Nissan R382 cutaway drawing by Makoto Ouchi:

Look at all the finer details he made, small case studies on the various parts, cockpit and complete car to get the end result just right. And this is just the original line drawing he made, not even the finished end product!

This is what it looks like after painting it: Continue reading