Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: carina surf

Carina Trivia: Carina A60 weight distribution

A few weeks ago someone requested some specific data of the Toyota Carina GT RA63 and of course I did manage to find the data. One of the interesting things I found was that I was able to find the total weight, front weight and rear weights of all Carina A60 models in my data and hence could calculate the weight distribution. So after digging, copy/pasting I made a big overview of all the JDM body types, grades and model codes with their respective weight distribution.
Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 Coupe - Carina A60

Of course it is not that interesting to dig through each and everyone of them, but there are some nice giveaways. The most interesting is the averages I calculated: Continue reading

The Carina A6 in the Toyota Family Tree

A couple of days ago Japanese Nostalgic Car posted (yes I do read their blog occasionally) that because of their 75th anniversary Toyota created a big family tree of all models they created. Of course I immediately looked up the third generation Carina in it:
Carina A60 in the Toyota family tree
The nice thing is that they have a fairly good description on the timelines and model and it even includes what plat produced the car. The whole Carina lineup was produced in the Tsutsumi plant. They do mention the addition of the 1C diesel, 4T-GTE and 4A-GE engines but they forgot to add them to the specification sheet.

Another fun fact is that they set the release date to a specific date and in the case of the third generation Carina it was 7th of September 1981: coincidentally my dads birthday. 😉

Direct links to the model pages:
Carina A60 sedan (RA63/TA61/TA63/SA60/AA60)
Carina A60 coupe (RA63/TA61/TA63/SA60/AA60)
Carina A60 Surf (SA60)
Carina A60 van (TA67)

You can also view the original/initial catalogs, but later ones are not included. Links to the catalogs:
Carina A60 sedan and coupe (September 1981)
Carina A60 Surf (February 1982)
Carina A67 van (September 1981)

If you really want to reverse engineer you can actually access the scanned pages of the catalogs directly. These are the first page and last page of the first catalog. 😉

BTW: I just realized the old site got broken after the server upgrade a few months ago and the old content has disappeared. I’ll see if I can fix that. 🙂

Carina Sightings: Carina Surf

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
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…

Carina sightings: tuned Carina Surf (van) with 20v 4AGE blacktop part 2

More than a year ago I posted some pics of a very nicely tuned white Carina Surf van. I got reminded of it last week and browsed through the owners pictures taken during the passed year. So, here are some highlights:
How the white Carina Surf van (AA63) looks now
How the white Carina Surf van (AA63) looks now

How the white Carina Surf van (AA63) looks now
How the white Carina Surf van (AA63) looks now

And what I really liked was his attempt to find the ideal tire/rim combination on the Carina:
Pre stretch the tires first
Pre stretch the tires first

Stretch the tire 175/60/16 to the max on a 8.5J rim!
Stretch the tire 175/60/16 to the max on a 8.5J rim!

Compare the lot: 195/50 on 8.5J vs 175/55 on 8.5J vs 175/55 on 8J
Compare the lot: 195/50 on 8.5J vs 175/55 on 8.5J vs 175/55 on 8J

And then fit them to the Carina:
Fitment of a 195/50/16 8.5J on the Carina Surf
Fitment of a 195/50/16 8.5J on the Carina Surf

Fitment of a 175/55/16 8.5J on the Carina Surf
Fitment of a 175/55/16 8.5J on the Carina Surf

Personally I would choose the 195/60/16 combination. But that is, of course, my personal taste. 😉

In the end he chooses the 175/60/16 8.5J combination. It is a tiny bit too wide and hits the fender regularly and damages it a bit:
175/60/16 8.5J hits the fender
175/60/16 8.5J hits the fender

However I don’t think the owner will car about it that much: he will probably keep it this way because of the looks and fix it up whenever needed. 😉

Picrtures can be found here:
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Carina sightings: the famous Carina firevan

I still haven’t found the owner of the famous Carina firevan, however I thought I finally should add this great car to the sightings after I found these pictures on TurboDude’s gallery at Photobucket:
SA60 Carina Wagon
ITBs on Carina Wagon by Auto-otaku.com

As you can see these two pictures were taken individually, but both of them are stunning! You can clearly see that the car is featuring a 3S-GE with ITBs. From what I heard that engine is perfect for lightweight cars, like the AE86 or this SA60.

I suspect the car started its life as a SA60 Carina Surf and not a A67 Carina van as believed earlier. edited: The car probably started its life as a SG67 van. The front indicator lights are inside the bumper and that’s only applied to the van and not to the surf. It would be far more easier to swap the 1S for a 3S-GE. And the round lights from the Carina A67 van could be swapped just as easy later on.

Here you can see a picture I’ve posted earlier:
Carina Firevan next to other Carina surfs
The firevan next to two other Surfs. Compared to them it is really low! A really nice example of a car in Shakotan style, and not too distorted to be referred as Kyusha Kai or B?s?zoku. Lovely stretched tires on the first picture, and even more stretched on the other two. 🙂

Second picture is courtesy of Auto-otaku.com. You can find more pictures from him here:
Mooneyes Street Car Nationals  (210 of 321)

Anyone got an idea where to find more pictures of the set which features the first set?

Carina sightings: tuned Carina Surf (van) with 20v 4AGE blacktop

I came across this very nice tuned and lowered Carina Surf:
Tuned Carina Surf (van) with 4age 20v blacktopTuned Carina Surf (van) with 4age 20v blacktopTuned Carina Surf (van) with 4age 20v blacktop
I must say it is not overdone and these rims fit the car very well!

The Surf is the public version of he Carina Van and came standard with a 1S 1800cc engine and had a solid rear axle (like my TA60). Basically it is the same as the Van, but it is more luxurious.

This car has been tuned with a 20v 4AGE blacktop:
20v 4age blacktop in Carina SurfOriginal gauge cluster
But it still got the originial gauge cluster. Why isn’t there a aftermarket revmeter? Perhaps the owner doesn’t stress the car??

The car has also a bed in it. Must be really comfortable for all those meetings the owner is attending. 😉
Even a bed in the Carina Surf

And it is not the only nicely tuned Carina Surf/Van around:
Carina Surf next to other Carina vans
Next to it you can see the famous very lowered Carina Firevan!

Also a strange thing: I can’t find the owner of the Carina Firevan. I can only find it in pictures of other people attending meetings. Did anyone else find the owner yet?

Source:
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