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WTF: Tomica Nissan Gazelle S12 Super Silhouette replica

August 16, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

After yesterdays TOMs Corolla Group 5 I was searching for Group 5 cars and found this Tomica Gazelle.
Wait a minute! Isn’t that supposed to read Tomica Skyline Super Silhouette replica?
No, it isn’t! This is all about the Tomica Nissan Gazelle S12 Super Silhouette replica:

Yes, someone made a replica of the Tomica Skyline Super Silhouette racer in the early 90s but used a Nissan Gazelle S12 body for that. He even included all correct livery… WTF?!

You can watch the video below: Continue reading

Carina Trivia: the Toyota Carina A60 transmission overview

August 14, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

Some time ago I bought a CD-ROM from Japan with the Japanese Toyota handbooks hoping it would contain the wiring diagrams of the Japanese Carina A60 or at least the body repair manual for this to help me out with the wiring of the JDM gauge cluster. Unfortunately I haven’t found any pin out for the gauge cluster, except the one used for the digital cluster. What I did found was an awful lot of trivia like the Toyota Carina A60 transmission overview. The ones listed here are taken from the updated handbook of May 1985 (so released during the facelift) and the two tables reveals quite some surprises. There is an additional one covering the transmissions for the vans, but that reveals hardly anything surprising.

First of all here is the transmission per capacity per body type listed:

I tried to copy the kanji and decypher the meaning of them, so don’t pin me down on any translations here:
○ means these were the choices/options
◎ means it was an extra option/special case (e.g. overdrive)
☓ means it was abolished (not available anymore)
Top section is the four door, middle section the three door coupe and the bottom section the five door wagon (Surf).

This table reveals to me:
1. The Toyota Carina GT (and GT-R) only came with a manual transmission (T50).
2. Only the Toyota Carina GT-T (and GT-TR) came with either the W55 manual or the A43D automatic transmission
3. The 1C diesel engine featured the W51 and A42D automatic

The other table contains the transmission per model code per body type:

Legend is basically almost the same as the table above.

This table reveals to me:
There was something like the SG-JUNE (misspelled Jeune?), SE-EXTRA, GT-R and GT-TR. All of them were options. I can’t tell what exactly in this list is the option over the existing transmission.

I did find additional information regarding the differences from the GT/GT-T and GT-R/GT-TR models and most of it is trim based. Will definitely post this in a later posting.

For completeness, here is the A67 wagon overview:

Nothing surprising here: T40, T50, A41 and W51 all present like in the previous overviews.

Some trivia regarding the bellhousings:
The 1C diesel engine has the same bellhousing as the Toyota S engine and a popular fit for the 3S-G(T)E with the W series transmission. Also the 1S engine features a bellhousing that fits the T50 transmission, so for cars with a T50 transmission this is a popular bellhousing to mount a 3S-G(T)E to the existing box.

I have created a template to put this overview in a nicely formatted html table here: Toyota Carina A60 transmissions and I will fill the blanks in the upcoming day(s).

Commercial Time: Nissan Skyline R30 Super Control

August 12, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

Now before you actually wonder what this Nissan Skyline R30 Super Control is all about: the commercial below explains everything about the Super Control:

The Super Control seems to mostly exist out of hundreds of buttons without a proper description or labeling: Continue reading

Reverse Fetish: LHD Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 in Japan

August 10, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, so naturally in the US and Europe we love the JDM cars and RHD is actually a novelty. It is no different in Japan: they love USDM and EUDM car: in the past I’ve posted a few other reverse-fetishes. In this case it is all about a left hand drive (LHD) Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 at the HaCHiRoCK Festa 2008:

Seen from the dash it is an USDM model (tachometer on the left, speedo in miles), the seat has the inflatable lumbar pump (as seen on the Celica XX) on the driver seat and the body style is a JDM Trueno or USDM GT-S. The source only has this particular photo so it is unclear whether an existing RHD has been converted to LHD or this car is actually a genuine USDM Toyota Corolla GT-S imported into Japan (most probably), so we’ll probably never know for sure…

Found at: Minakara

Picture of the week: Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo cutaway drawing

August 7, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

If I had to choose one single Mitsubishi from their entire lineup as my favorite I would definitely answer the Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo. Today I got reminded of this awesome car and thought it would be nice to share a cutaway drawing of it:

Cutaway drawing found at: Tech-Racingcars.eu

Carina Sightings: Murakami’s Toyota Carina 1800 GT Twin-Cam Turbo

August 6, 2014 / banpei / 1 Comment

I just got back from three weeks vacation where I packed a couple of unfinished books to read and never expected to find this level of awesomeness in a book! Basically while nearing the end of Haruki Murakami’s Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World I suddenly had a big surprise: he describes a Toyota Carina 1800 GT Twin-Cam Turbo!

The book is first published in 1985, but one of the dates mentioned is Sunday the 2nd of October. The only viable year that features this date is 1983, so the storyline must have taken place in 1983 (S57). The story is what they called cyberpunk back then and encloses a futuristic view on the new technology that gets available in the early 1980s.

Near the end of the book the main character in the story needs to rent a car, preferably an European:
I checked the yellow pages and jotted down the numbers of four car-rental dealerships in the Shinjuku area. None had any European cars. Sundays were high-demand days and they never had foreign cars to begin with. The last dealership had a Toyota Carina 1800 GT Twin-Cam Turbo and a Toyota Mark II. Both new, both with car stereos. I said I’d take the Carina. I didn’t have a crease of an idea what either car looked like.
He made an excellent choice and of course I do have a good idea what either car looks like. ;)

While the story continues and he picks up the car it turns out to be in the white shade. I’ve searched the Google images for a long time to find a suitable face-lifted white Carina TA63 from 1983 that looked (almost) bone stock. The only one I was able to find was this one that got sold by Flyrat a few years ago with ill matching wheels, but other than that in almost original condition: Continue reading

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