Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: nissan laurel (Page 1 of 4)

Rustheap junkyard – Japanese rustoseums

According to Daniel O’Grady from Wasabi Cars, rusty cars are slowly disappearing from the streets of Japan. This is mostly due to the increase in the price of steel and people actively knocking on people’s doors and offer to take them for free. Luckily I still have heaps of Japanese rustoseum photos in my drafts folder, so I have many more to post here on the blog before I run out of them!

This week we have a junkyard in the Kami district in the Miyagi prefecture. According to the blog poster, the owner doesn’t see it as a junkyard, but as a treasure trove!

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Manga Car Spotting: Shelby GT350 and Koenig Porsche 928 – Ah! My Goddess

Manga Cars

What do a Shelby GT350, a widebody Koenig Porsche 928 and a 3WD Mazda T2000 truck have in common? They are all featured in this fifth episode of reading spotting manga cars! I’ll read these two Japanese mangas of Ah! My Goddess and I found 13 different cars in it!
Mazda T2000 NIT CC special

Ah! My Goddess by Kosuke Fujishima

The story revolves around a student called Keiichi Morisato. He attends the Nekomi Institute of Technology (NIT) in the fictional Japanese town called Nekomi in the Chiba prefecture. Kosuke Fujishima modelled Nekomi after his own home town: Chiba.

Keiichi has to take calls for his fellow sempai in his dorm. He get’s hungry, so he decides to order a pizza and dials the wrong number. Instead of the pizza delivery he actually phones the Goddess Helpline who will help anyone in distress. After some wrong assumptions Keiichi decides his sempai are probably pulling a prank with him and he wishes that the Goddess in front of him stays with him for the remainder of his life. That’s basically the beginning of the Ah! My Goddess story.

So what’s the connection with cars and motorcycles then? Well, Kosuke Fujishima is a petrolhead who loves cars and motorcycles. Keiichi is probably his likeness and is into cars and motorcycles as well. He’s also member of the NIT CC: the Nekomi Institute of Technology Car Club and this obviously helps to increase the number of motorized vehicles in this manga!

You can find the video and the high resolution scans of the panels containing manga cars below:

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Family Album Treasures: Bell-bottoms Nissan Laurel C130

Bell-bottoms were a big fashion craze throughout the early 70s and the same applied to coke-bottle styling, like on this Nissan Laurel C130, on cars.
Family Album Treasures: Nissan Laurel C130
The owner Willchan first owned a Nissan Cherry X-1R and then upgraded to this Nissan Laurel 2000GL 6 cylinder KHC130 coupe. The butaketsu (pigsbutt) Laurel looks great with the added fog lights integrated in the grille surrounding.

Given the shape and (less) flare of his bell-bottoms I’d reckon this photo must have been taken late 70s when slowly but surely the bell-bottoms were on its way out. Just like the coke-bottle styling got replaced by the squared off and ruler car designs.

Willchan11

Friday Video: cartoonish Nissan Laurel C130 chase

When I watched this Seibu Keisatsu video by AE86Lan I thought I was watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon instead of a Nissan Datsun Truck chasing a Nissan Laurel C130 sedan. Chief Daimon’s men borrow a Nissan Datsun Truck (aka the Datsun 720 crew cab) over a couple of hills into the docks:
Friday Video: Cartoonish Nissan Laurel C130 car chase
Especially the cartoonish chase between the stacks of pallets is hilarious! You know the sort of chase: going in on side and getting out from the other. It’s something like that!

Watch the video below for the big finale involving a Nissan Skyline KGC110: Continue reading

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