Remembering Japanese cars from the past
It is always sad to see an abandoned project for sale, especially if it may be a well known Nissan Silvia S12 Grand prix widebody:
According to the ad the Nissan Silvia S12 Grand Prix has been stripped to bare metal and all rust has been resolved and a cage has been welded in.
Everything has been properly coated except for the hatch and bonnet: Continue reading
Not only hard tuned cars were present on the Wangan Warriors meeting, but also a lot of oldskool cars from the 80s and early 90s.
I already posted the decals of this original Suzuki Swift GTi before, but here it is in full glory:
Also this original Skyline GT-R R32 can nowadays almost be considered as a classic: Continue reading
On Friday I already promised some some photos of a spectacular Nissan. Well here it is: a widebody Nissan Silvia S12 Grand Prix!
Nissan Silvia S12 Grand Prix widebody @ JAF2011
The car looked very very clean. No spec of rust to be found and the whole car appeared to be 100% authentic!
The Grand Prix version of the Nissan Silvia was a limited edition (4.400 built) from which the majority featured the more powerful FJ20E engine.
Nissan Silvia S12 Grand Prix widebody @ JAF2011
This particular Silvia also featured that very same FJ20E engine. :)
The Silvia also featured a set of periodically correct shoes:
Nissan Silvia S12 Grand Prix widebody @ JAF2011
Most of the S12 Grand Prix widebodies featured these vintage Gotti 3 piece rims.
Nissan Silvia S12 Grand Prix widebody @ JAF2011
I never saw a Grand Prix before and I must admit I was blown away by its appearance! Hence I spent four precious pieces of celluloid on it. ;)
Two months ago I posted some older Down on the Street by me from a period where I didn’t even have a proper digicam yet. So, here are some more beautiful cars taken on a crappy phonecam!
Let’s start with this nice S12:
Down on the Street: Nissan 200SX S12
The Silvia S12 was called the 200SX in the US and even though this car has the “normal” CA18ET under its hood it is still badged as the 200SX. ;)
Back then the owner of this car lived in the center of Amsterdam and took the habit of parking it close to my house (waiting time for a parking license in Amsterdam is about 3 to 4 years!) so I saw it many many times. According to the RDW this car no longer exists in the Netherlands…
How about a non-widebody Starion then?
Down on the Street: Mitsubishi Starion
Owned by the same person who owned the Starion widebody and disappeared a few days after I took the picture. It is no longer registered on the Dutch roads, so I don’t have to guess what happened to it…
This Soarer parked in front of my house was a nice surprise after a long day of work:
Down on the Street: Toyota Soarer JZZ31
Back then I still had my AE86 so within 20 meters apart there were an AE86, a Starion widebody and a Soarer! Too bad they were not directly parked next to each other…
Ten minutes after I took this picture the Soarer left. Engine sounded like a non turbo 6 cylinder engine, so most definitely a JZZ31 with a 2JZ-GE. Only the badge makes it a Toyota Soarer and not a Lexus SC300, the rest of it is identical. However I still like the idea of seeing a real Soarer! ;)
I found this cozy tilt-shifted family photo on RA64Freddy’s blog:
S chassis family by Oh Mai Googles
The picture itself would have been great by itself, but the tilt-shift effect just shifts the picture to sheer brilliance! It almost looks like all of them are incredibly detailed scale models! ;)
I was able to track the original down to Oh Mai Googles Deviantart page.
Today I spotted a Nissan Exa while driving through town. It stopped at the junction which I was passing and followed 50 meters behind me for two or three blocks so I only got a good look at it at the junction. Of course I didn’t have my camera with me, so once again a cameraphone would be quite handy in these occurrences.
Normally the Exa is quite rare here in Holland since it was never sold here and normally was only imported from the US. However this model had a very distinctive front spoiler, so I looked it up and it appeared to be a Grand Prix edition which was only sold in Australia. Hmmm… Forgot to look if the driver actually was on the right side of the car…
The Exa looked like this:
As you can see the front looks very similar to the S12, but actually I think it looks rather more a like the Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno. Too bad it looks horrible at the rear and that it is wwd. ;)
While searching for Exa info I also found this great Nissan Sunny Turbo picture:
Notice the mirrored “Turbo” writing on the grille. Imagine cruising and all of a sudden some car rushes in very fast. All you can see in your mirror is “Turbo” written on the grille… I love those small details on 80s cars… ;)
Thanks to the Nissan Exa club for their info about the Exa Grand Prix.
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