Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: Toyota Soarer (Page 4 of 4)

Need car guidance? Toyota Soarer 2.8 GT Limited

Remember the Car Guidance video of the Honda City I posted two weeks ago? Well, there is a whole series of Car Guidance videos and they are dull, boring and only focused on how to handle the car in a normal way.

So I will just bore you with them as well:

Actually this video about the Soarer GT Limited isn’t that boring: I already spotted the badass 80s Carozzeria speakers at the shelve in the back of that Soarer. I also love those Soarer wheels: they are basically the same as the ones on my Carina (Celica Supra rims) but they have a different centercaps with a griffin (logo of the Soarer) on it.

Also great are the numerous switches on the steering wheel: but what can you adjust? The auto gearbox? The airbag suspension?

And what about the exciting ending? 11PM… Kitty bedtime?! :D

Toyota Soarer MZ11 review

Great! Even though my Japanese is really bad I still can understand the car review of this first generation Soarer:

The Japanese automotive website webCG reviews cars from time to time and the June 2004 issue reviewed this factory stock Soarer MZ11!

Just look at those seats! I already said the same about the seats of the GX61 Mark II Grande Limited: they look like comfortable couches from the 60s! Now that’s a Grand Tourer! :)


Damn, just look at that touchscreen panel! Imagine this was the same era as the “modern” turn dials of the A6 Carina!

If you look at all features and gadgets in this car it would still look as modern as an average car from the year 2000. Maybe to create a car as modern as the year 2000 was their aim?

5th gear on drifting

I’ve become a bit of a 5th gear fan since Discovery Channel is broadcasting it around “just got out of work” time in the Netherlands. So I was just watching a few videos on drifting by 5th gear.

Just compare these two videos by 5th gear:

And this one:

I suspect the first video is dated from somewhere near 2002 or 2003 and the second video is dated from 2007. Just look how much drifting has changed in those 4 or 5 years! The winning car of the first video would have been blown away by the Soarer Tiff Needell is driving in 2007!

Popular Bosozoku cars: Toyota Soarer

This is going to be a regular here: it would be nice to see some really mild to really wild examples of the Bosozoku style cars and then read how they came out of the factory. ;)

This week we’ll kick off with the Toyota Soarer:
Two Bosozoku styled Soarers resemble mobile suits from Gundam
Two Bosozoku styled Soarers

As you probably have read in the introduction an extremely lowered Soarer featured Shakotan Boogie. This most probably helped its popularity among Bosozoku stylers and most Toyota Soarers you see on Bosozoku car meetings are Shakotan Boogie look-a-likes.

Lengthened hood and overfenders on this Soarer
Lengthened hood and overfenders on this Soarer

This milder styled car is of course an exception: it has a lengthened hood and overfenders as well. But apart from that it looks quite stock.

Really gone wild on this Toyota Soarer
Someone has really gone wild on this Toyota Soarer

Big wing, deep dish wheels with huge overfenders and sideskirts wide enough to have somebody stand on!

The Z10 is the most popular Bosozoku styled Toyota Soarer, probably because of its boxy shape and because it is quite cheap to buy. Z20 Soarers are hardly seen and I’ve never seen any Bosozoku styled Z30 and Z40 Soarers, but never say never. ;)

How did it come out of the factory then?
Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10
Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10

The Soarer itself was a successor to the Toyota Crown Coupe, which was a 2 door version of the Crown with a bit more sporty suspension. The Soarer itself did just as well as the Crown Coupe. The Soarer shared the same engines as the Crown and the CelicaXX.

Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10
Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10

Because it shared the same engines as the CelicaXX it is often confused to be the same platform with a different bodyshape, like the Celica and the Carina have. However there is a Supra JZA70 with a Soarer Z20 frontend which makes the confusion even bigger.

Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10 interior
Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10 interior

To confuse it even more: a lot of the interior components of the Soarer look like the interior of the CelicaXX. True, but the CelicaXX also shared a lot of components with the Corolla AE86.

Tiptronic climate control
Tiptronic climate control

The Soarer was the most luxurious car in the Toyota lineup (apart from the Toyota Century of course!) and featured all the state of the art technology! In the picture above you can see the climate control of the Soarer is featuring tiptronic controls, other buttons were normal but about everything is electronically adjustable. The Soarer also featured a digital dashboard, state of the art 4 speed automatic (with sports setting!) and the passenger door had a seperate doorhandle for the passengers in the rear!

I hope you can see now why a Bosozoku styler would choose for the Soarer Z10: it is an incredible car with a lot of comfort which can’t even be found in cars from the 90s! Besides that: it is a very cool car itself.

This was posted earlier today on http://www.bosozokustyle.com.

Touge drifting video from 1995

This amateur drift video (3 parts), made in 1995 on the Hakone Pass, also shows that AE86s back in those days were very popular as well. I counted at least 8 or 9 different hachi-rokus, however it is a bit difficult with so many stock hachis:

I did spot a Z10 Soarer, KE70 corolla and a KP61 starlet as well. Other popular cars are the RPS13 180sx and the S13 Silvia. Must say all these cars resemble the stock look of the early Initial D chapters, which of course is the same period. ;)

Toyota Soarer Z1 rims

On a Celica Supra forum I found a topic about a Japanese Celica XX Meeting. For those who don’t know the Celica XX: outside Japan it got sold as the Celica Supra MK2, also known as the MA6x and the GA6x. So it shares the same platform as the Celica and Carina A6.

I this topic I found a picture of one Celica XX wearing Toyota Soarer MK1 rims:
JDM Toyota Soarer MK1 Z1 rims, same as Celica Supra rims but with different centercaps

Normally I would have called them “Celica Supra rims”, just like I did with my rims on the Carina. Technically they aren’t Celica Supra rims since they featured on the Celica, Carina and Soarer as well.

Anyway, as you can see the Soarer rims have the Soarer logo (a griffin) on the centercaps instead of the Toyota logo on the normal rims. Of course I love to have these centercaps on my rims as well! Anyone got a set of those centercaps lying around?? ;)

Newer posts »

© 2024 Banpei.net

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑