Remembering Japanese cars from the past
My heart jumped last wednesday when Alexi Smith from Nori Yaro posted this white toyota Carina GT-R AA63 drifting on a wet Suzuka:
White Carina AA63 by Nori Yaro
Did he know wednesdays is always my Carina Sighting day? Did he do that on purpose? Can’t he post up a wallpaper version of that picture? :P
Anyway, head over to Nori Yaro for more pictures of this white beauty:
white Carina GT-R AA63 at Nori Yaro
In one of my rustoseum searches I came across a very sorry looking Carina TA67 van left behind in the middle of nowhere:
Toyota Carina TA67 rustoseum
All windows are gone, roof looks like it could serve as a pool and the inside looks like a farmer used it as a shed. :D
Toyota Carina TA67 rustoseum
You can see big dents on the side and the side mouldings are missing everywhere except on the rear door.
There are two things I would actually have wanted from this Carina: the round headlights (I can at least start a collection then!) and the wind deflectors.
While browsing some pictures of old JDM tin I found a topic on a Russian forum about old Japanese cars in Russia. One of its members owns this great white Carina GT-TR TA63 sedan:
White Russian Carina TA63 sedan
Somehow the wide Russian plate really makes it look more bad than the tinted windows! (???)
The Carina only travelled 162002 kilometers so far:
162002 km on the odometer
And according the owner the 3T-GTE engine is quite powerful. Of course, anything in such lightweight car feels powerful. ;)
Cruise computer, Aircon, autoreverse tapedeck, sunroof!
And the options just keep on going:
electric windows, electric mirrors, cruise computer, air conditioner, gidrach (?) power steering, electricity boards, sunroof, LSD, all disc brakes, the music on 5 speakers (4 + subwoofer), illumination of the driver’s seat and the ignition lock at night
If you are interested in the enormous amount of late 70s and early 80s JDM tin in Russia, see here:
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It is a bit weird to see the twin brother of my own Carina:
Blue Toyota Carina DX TA60 automatic
Yes, it looks exactly the same as mine, is an automatic, it is blue and it is located about 50 kilometers from my home! Maybe time to reunite them? :P
Blue Toyota Carina DX TA60 automatic
Not only is it blue on the outside, but it is also blue on the inside!
Trivia: the car is parked by someone not used to an automatic gearbox! The car is still in Drive! ;)
Blue Toyota Carina DX TA60 automatic
Even though it may appear as the twin brother of my Carina with the difference that it is blue (did I already mention that?) there are certainly a few other striking differences: no right side mirror (yes, not obliged in the Netherlands until 1992), no seatbelts on the back seats (clearly a Dutch model), less attrictive steel wheels (mine had gunmetal grey centercaps), front air dam and rear skirts have been painted dark, modern radio with cd player (mine still got the factory auto reverse one), no automatic antenna, 60k more kilometers (145k) and a lot of rust.
It reminds me of this blue Carina TA60 that was for sale in the Netherlands one and a half years ago: same color scheme, same options but then with a manual gearbox and 100k less kilometers.
Blue Toyota Carina DX TA60 automatic
Look at the bright side: if this car is worth 2900 euros, imagine what my less rusty Carina with more options is worth! :D
In case you are interested in the twin brother of my Carina, you can find it here:
Blue Carina DX TA60 automatic @ Autoscout24
I found this Toyota Carina AA63 sedan caught on celluloid doing an early morning touge practice on Minkara:
Carina AA63 morning practice at a touge
I love the smell of rubber in the morning!
Just a damn beautiful sight!
Here is another one from the same corner/angle:
Carina AA63 morning practice at a touge
Those SSR Longchamps look great on the Carina. Anyone got a set for sale? :P
This is how the Carina looks close by:
Carina AA63 morning practice at a touge
I’d swap it for mine anytime! ;)
You can find the Carina here: White Carina AA63 sedan @ Minkara
Last friday Michael from Retro Classics posted some pictures of the New Zealand Nationals 2010, including a Carina AA63 coupe going head to head with a Corolla AE70 hardtop:
Toyota Carina AA63 coupe and Corolla AE70 hardtop
The coupe features a set of SSR Longchamps at front and some less wide rims at the rear (probably the extra set of tires). It looks very good with the Longchamps, so a mental note to myself: buy a set whenever you can get them! ;)
Dunno what’s up with the hood, but it looks loose on the picture above and fastened on the picture below:
Toyota Carina AA63 coupe
Somehow the Carina single headlights look much better on a coupe than on a sedan!
You can find more pictures of the Carina, Corolla and many other great classics (like a 810910 Bluebird hardtop!) on Retro Classics blog or at their Flickr page.
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