Remembering Japanese cars from the past
We all know Japanese love to use (foreign) actors in their commercials and Jan-Michael Vincent (Stringfellow Hawke in Airwolf) was no exception to that:
Maybe Toyota thought of the possibility to reuse this Chaser commercial in the US, but never actually did because the Cressida never got the 24 valve 1G-GTTE Twin Turbo engine!
If they would have aired this Commercial when I was a young lad I would most certainly have tried to convince my dad to buy that Airwolf car! ;)
Ever since I started doing the Down on the Street series I thought it was amazing how many Mazda MX5s (aka Miata in the US and Roadster in Japan) I saw on the streets. Since I thought it was quite odd I started taking (quick) pictures of every single one of them I encountered.
For instance I saw this one parked next to a private apartment/housing block. I could not go in there without lifting a chain at the entrance and trespassing the private parking lot, so I took the picture from the street.
Mazda MX5 parked next to an apartment block
It is also funny to see how many Miatas are imported from the US! I think about 50% of all cars I’ve seen so far were actually imported Mazda Miatas! This red Miata is no exception to that:
Red Mazda Miata
I actually pass this red Miata every day (going to work) and still I have only two pictures of it taken with the crappy camera. Shame on me!
This is another Miata I pass every day:
White Mazda Miata
But then on my way to the nursery of my son. This one has got a big dent in it and has been parked there for ages now without moving… Currently the dent is starting to rust and the car itself is starting to look brown due to the amount of leafs on the car… Feels a bit like a deja vu!
Next time more Miatas! ;)
Oops I did it again…
Datsun 240K GT GC110
Yes: I bought another car folder… And this time I found the Dutch Datsun 240K GT and could not resist myself from buying it…
Datsun 240K GT GC110
In contrast with the sober looks of the Dutch Nissan 2400GT this folder really goes wild with the styling! Beautiful 70s girls dressed up in fashionable 70s style. Somehow it really fits the GC110 well!
Datsun 240K GT GC110
While the Nissan 2400GT was marketed as a performance car the 240K GT was clearly marketed as a stylish sports car.
Datsun 240K GT GC110
Lucky enough this time Nissan allowed the export models of the Skyline to retain famous the round taillights!
Datsun 240K GT GC110
And the car still has the same 2.4 liter L24 engine.
Scans will follow soon! (I hope)
You all knew Ken Nomura was able to drift himself to a third place in the D1GP this year, but what you didn’t know was that he has a much wider range of driving skills!
So what else can he do then? Well, parallel drift parking (30 cm space at each side of the car), popping a balloon while driving reverse, sharpen a pencil while driving reverse and last but not least: light a match while driving reverse! :D :D
Too bad he only uses his ER32 for the parallel drift parking… I really would loved to see him do the pencil sharpening with his ER34! ;)
I came across this image somewhere on images.google.com and really liked it. Nothing special or fancy about the picture, but I really liked to see all generations (and SSS models) in one single picture:
All generations of the Nissan Bluebird
I have no idea why the seventh generation is actually on top… Maybe the personal preference of the person who created the picture?
Now, maybe I should try to create one with all zokusha Bluebirds? :P
Found here:
The Bluebird Hall of Fame
I finally found some video footage of the Carina AA63 I spotted each year at the MSC Inland Sea round!!
The car is not doing bad at all but he still lacks something. He misses the apex with a meter and doesn’t really keep his angle right, so it is just that his lines are a bit too wide I guess…
From its appearance it really looks like an 80s grachan zokusha! It has got an oil cooler sticking under its front bumper, it has the wild painted colors and a big banner on the front screen!
This is the car competing in round 12 in 2006:
Toyota Carina AA63 at MSC Inland Sea
Apparently the guy is local: I’ve never seen him competing outside the Inland Sea rounds. And the nice thing is he competes in that round every year!
This is the car competing in round 8 in 2007:
Toyota Carina AA63 at MSC Inland Sea
He always enters the Expert SD class but never manages to qualify for the best 12…
This is the car competing in round 4 in 2008:
Toyota Carina AA63 at MSC Inland Sea
Unfortunately there is still no complete photo page of round 11 of 2009, so we will have to wait for the 2009 photo a bit longer I guess…
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