Tag: down on the street (Page 29 of 32)

DOTS:Suzuki SJ413 Smurf Jeep

December 27, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

Just one step down from the Suzuki Escudo is the Suzuki Jimny, also known as the Suzuki Samurai. Especially the Samurai (the SJ series was sold under that name in the Netherlands) was considered unsafe when doing quick turns at higher speeds, but I don’t think this Samurai suffered from tipping over:

Suzuki SJ413 aka Samurai or Jimny
Now these tiny 4×4 were already considered a laughing stock back in the 80s but actually they were better cars than most of their rivals. They are quite powerful considering their power/weight ratio and extremely agile thanks to their short wheelbase.

Now I did find this nice 1988 example did not do its bad name any good at all:

Suzuki SJ413 aka Samurai or Jimny
Now the big question is what SJ stood for… Could it have been Suzuki Jimny or could it have been Smurf Jeep? You can decide in this poll:

DOTS winter edition: Miata hunting part 3!

December 20, 2009 / banpei / 3 Comments

Yesterdays I already posted a snow covered Nissan 200SX S14 in the Down on the Street winter edition. Today I’m posting up some of the Mazda MX5s and Miatas I shot pictures of the day it had snowed!

First of all I took a picture of the white Miata near the nursery of my son:

White Mazda Miata covered in snow!
I don’t think the color of this Miata can be called snow-white! ;)
As you may recall this Miata had a dent in its front fender. About two weeks ago this Miata disappeared for a few days and when it returned its front fender had been repaired! So it is certainly not going the same way as the Nissan 200SX! ;)

Red Mazda Miata covered in snow!
Of course I took a picture of the red Miata as well. I must say that a snow covered red Miata looks a lot better than a white snow covered Miata!

And last but not least, this Blue MX5 mk2:

Blue Mazda MX5 mk2 covered in snow!
I did not post this one before, but since all three of them were “on the way” from the nursery to my work I took a short detour to make the three pictures needed for this posting.

All pictures were kept as dark and gloomy as my EOS shot them: I took those pictures around sunrise so they are supposed to be a bit dark.

DOTS winter edition: Nissan 200SX S14 covered in snow!

December 19, 2009 / banpei / 1 Comment

Two days ago it started snowing in the Netherlands, so of course I had to take pictures of some of the cars I covered before. I had to wait till yesterday before I could make some pictures of the Nissan 200SX S14 covered in snow.

Nissan 200SX S14 covered in snow!
Funny how this S14 turns out to have the looks of a S14a when covered in snow! The headlights are now less round and appear to be sloping up a bit!

Nissan 200SX S14 covered in snow!
I couldn’t tell anything about the state of the car since it was covered in snow. But I don’t think these few inches of snow will do any good to the uncovered parts.

I also decided not to try to get hold of the car: I don’t think another project will do me any good. ;)

Tomorrow we have *another* DOTS winter edition with a few snow covered Miatas!

DOTS: 1981 Suzuki Cervo SC100

December 13, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

When I 16 years old and still in high school there was this guy in my class who became 18 years old and was allowed to drive a car to school (in the Netherlands the age getting your license is 18). The car he drove was a tiny black Suzuki Cervo SC100 with some wicked rims under it. It looked a bit like the SC100 I found a few days ago:

Down on the Street: Suzuki Cervo SC100
Maybe it is even the same car and still owned by that same guy! ;)

Down on the Street: Suzuki Cervo SC100
Back then I thought it was one of the best cars you could possibly own: a small (economical) car with enough power to make it a bit sporty due to its size… Of course I wanted such a car as well. Back then I never concluded that my size (6 foot 5) would be a problem… I fitted on the passenger seat and my hair was scraping against the headlining, what’s wrong with that?? ;)

When I finally wanted to buy my first car I was looking for such small cars. I did drive the Suzuki Alto CA71 owned by my brother and found out that it was already hard to drive a car longer than 30 minutes when you are cramped between the seat, the headlining and the steering wheel… So in the end I started looking for a B class car instead.

To give you an impression on how small these Cervo SC100s are:

Down on the Street: Suzuki Cervo SC100
Yes that’s right: it is parked between a Toyota Starlet and a Peugeot 206 and it is about three quarters of the size of that Starlet! :D

DOTS: 1982 Hyundai Pony Mk1

December 6, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

Somewhere during the summer I spotted this abandoned 1982 Hyundai Pony Mk1:

Hyundai Pony Mk1 1400 TLS Automatic

You may think: WTF?! This is supposed to be a JDM section only? So what is that Pony doing here?. Completely true: Hyundai is a Korean brand and this Pony was produced in Korea…

Hyundai Pony Mk1 1400 TLS Automatic

Hyundai started with producing a copy of the Ford Cortina in 1968 and released the first Korean car in 1975 with the introduction of the Pony. Well, partly Korean: the Mitsubishi Motor Company provided the engine and drivetrain. That is one of the great things about the Hyundai Pony: you can actually swap in a RWD Mitsubishi engine this way! ;)

Hyundai Pony Mk1 1400 TLS Automatic

Now this is where TE71Corolla comes in… I know him through AEU86, bought my AE86 from him somewhere in 2005 and I know he owns two Hyundai Ponies (Mk1 and Mk2). Back then he told me that the Hyundai Pony was based upon Mitsubishi underpinnings, had a licensed Mitsubishi engine and drivetrain and he wanted to put a Starion engine (4G63 or 4G54?) in one of the Ponies!

So I gave him a call and he was very enthusiastic about my “barnfind”! So I gave him the address where the car was parked and after some thorough investigation he found the owner! :)

It turned out that the car was parked at the same spot for over 4 years! Knowing that it is amazing how well the car still is! Another Pony saved!

So, TE71Corolla now owns 3 Ponies! Looks like he’s starting to be a serious collector now! ;)

DOTS: Miata hunting! (part 2)

November 29, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

This week more I continue with some more Miata hunting!

First of all this MX5 caused a lot of pain:

Mazda MX5 mk2
It came around the corner quite quickly when I was on my bike. I immediately grabbed my camera, pointed it to the car and turned around to take a picture. I was just in time to take the picture. Doing this maneuver strained my back because I was still sitting on my bike. ;)

This red Miata was parked in a multi-story car park:

Mazda Miata (or 323?)
Never seen it there before but immediately took a picture of it. :)
When I looked it up at the license plate register it turned out to be registered as a Mazda 323 1.6 instead of the Mazda MX5 I would have expected it to be registered on. The car was imported to the Netherlands in 2001, so that could not have been the reason to register it as a 323. And even tax evasion (import taxes are based upon luxury options as AC and PS) could not have been the case… Maybe the worker at the register could not come up with the MX5 designation and registered it as a 323?

Last one for this week:

Mazda MX5
This originally Dutch first generation MX5 was registered on the very last day of 1992. It is currently owned by the same owner for almost 11 years now! Now that is certainly a faithful owner! :)