Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Picture tag: Honda Civic

Irian Jaya: Bemo taxi busses


Just got back from a two week trip to Manokwari and Jayapura (Irian Jaya aka New Guinea) and I did find loads and loads of old J-tin! I spotted many old Coronas (T80 to T120s), Kijangs (especially the first three generations), Chasers and Mark IIs (X70/X80/X90) and loads of these tiny taxi busses called bemo for your everyday transportation. The drivers tend to outdo each other with modifications and I’ve sat in some very very bizarre creations already!
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura

A ride costs next to nothing (2000 rupiah), you can hop on whenever you see one and they take you along on the main routes. You can also hire one for a personal destination but you can expect to pay a lot more than the 2000 rupiah…

Also at the terminal you can find loads and loads of these busses waiting for a ride:
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura

Most of the busses for short distances are either the Suzuki Carry (or Suzuki Every) or the Mitsubishi Colt (Mitsubishi Minicab), but some other brands and models are also used for mid range transportation.

Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura

Some of them are really shabby and you really get the feeling they will fall apart while they master another hairpin of the many touges around Jayapura!

Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura

But most of the drivers are really creative and improve their rides every day…

Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura

Most of the time they start with a bunch of deep dished wheels at the rear that stick out of the bodywork with at least 3 inch. Later on they do the same up front, followed by big wings and spoilers. Steering wheel, audio, tsurikawas and dash bling are mostly done in the later phases followed by big foglights.

Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura
Bemo taxi minibus in Jayapura

I’ve given away a couple of the Bosozoku Style stickers (only whenever I really liked the car and driver) so in case you are visiting Jayapura anytime soon you can spot one on a bemo!

SF Bay area: went to a drift event (part 2)

I finally developed all films I took with my analogue SLR (Zenit-E with Weltblick 135mm at full lens opening) at the Infineon raceway drift exhibition. I never took photos of moving objects at night so most photos were taken with a very wild guess: the light meter on the camera did not show anything at all, the Sixtomat lightmeter I use as a backup was stretched to its 1600 iso maximum and then calculated back with 5 stops since my camera had a black and white 100 iso film in it. To my surprise a lot of them actually worked out fine for some of the pictures!

Take for instance this photo of a competing AE86:
Competing Corolla GT-S AE86
Competing Corolla GT-S AE86

I must say: not bad at all for a first time!

Also the Techno Toy Tuning 510 is still recognizable:
Techno Toy Tuning Datsun 510
Techno Toy Tuning Datsun 510

Could have been better if I would have had a flash with me, but nothing whatsoever in my camera bag… Next time I’ll definitely bring along a strong one!

Here is another Corolla GT-S AE86:
Corolla GT-S AE86 going sideways
Corolla GT-S AE86 going sideways

The picture is quite nice, but I’m not really getting the feeling it is going sideways. I should have either used a different angle or extended the timing a bit.

Perhaps a bit more like thiis Nissan 240SX S13 (with Silvia nosejob):
Nissan 240SX (Silvia S13 conversion) going sideways
Nissan 240SX (Silvia S13 conversion) going sideways

Now I really get the feeling this car is going sideways. With a freezing flash it would have been a perfect shot!

And last but not least, a long exposure shot:
Long exposure shot
Long exposure shot

Not the best angle for these kind of pictures, but nevertheless still content with the result.

Take note that these are scans of the negatives (with a proper negative scanner) so I’ll definitely develop these five as proper photos and see if I can stretch their quality a bit more! Also next time I’ll include the next roll of film which was a 400 iso color film.

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