Remembering Japanese cars from the past
Apart from automotive blogs I regularly read some great photoblogs like Art pants (Will Roege and Lindbergh) and Encounters as well. Also Beeoneoneoh is a great cross-over between the two.
Being greatly inspired by the latter this week and already having plans to put my artsy-fartsy pictures somewhere for months I enroled on Flickr.
Pictures like these will turn up there:
Not particularly pictures I’d normally post here. ;)
Already beginning of the month again? Then it is time to perform another Miata hunt! This time the bit more beautiful Mazdas!
How about a nice grey NC?
Grey Mazda MX5 NC
Okay, I cheated a bit here… This Miata was parked in front of the Mazda (and Hyundai) dealer. Nevertheless it was blocking the sidewalk and thus right down on the street! ;)
This very nicely done NB with aftermarket rims passed me somewhere in (slow) traffic and I quickly took a picture:
Mazda MX5 NB
Never saw the NB again but surely would like to take some more pictures of it.
And last one, a dark green NA with 90s aftermarket six spoke rims:
Dark green Mazda MX5 NA
Parked in an industrustrial zone only 300 meters from where I live, but separated by railroad tracks.
BTW: sorry for the poor quality. I took all these pictures with my (new) phonecam but only realized afterwards how worthless it actually is!
Honestly I do love Top Gear, but I simply can’t find the time to actually follow it… Most of the time I just wait for the reviews and see if I really need to see an episode…
People already speculate that this actually might be the last series of the new Top Gear, which I can understand since all three of them are already presenting the new format for 8 years now (I know, May only 7…) and it slowly starts to become difficult to make the series even better than last season. ;)
Back to the old series: I found this clip from the old series (1991) where Jeremy Clarkson test drives a couple of the finest Japanse kei cars:
I was really puzzled on how much he actually liked them! Was he more forgiving in his early years or did he become soft for the little ones??
What would you prefer more: a tekamen Skyline DR30 or a girl sandwich? Why not do both?
Skyline DR30 girl sandwich
And of course a nice zenki Levin in the background. ;)
I’m not a fan of the rims on this Carina, but as you can see it is an original Carina Surf:
Original Carina Surf
The Carina Surf was part of the original Carina lineup and seperate from the Van line-up. It did feature the live axle we know of the other vans (and non-IRS Carinas) but there was a major difference: it had coil springs instead of the leaf springs used on the van!
BTW: The two extra stripes are not original…
I liked this short drift video in Tochigi a lot:
Not only do we see a 6 to 7 cars drifting snakelike all the way up a mountain in Tochigi, we also see Nomuken sitting shotgun in a Toyota Aristo (aka Lexus GS300) with automatic gearbox! The driver does manages to drift most corners and keep up with the S15 up front and the S14 behind him!
These first generation GS300s are already up for grabs for under 3000 euros, so that is very tempting! Only thing that is holding me back is the road tax: about 1000 euros per year! Compare that to the zero euros I pay for the Carina! :O
BTW: The plings indicate the huge dents in the guardrails!
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