Author: banpei (Page 15 of 318)

Can you think of a longer car name than Toyota Estima L Aeras G Edition?

Not so boring Toyota Estima L Aeras G Edition ACR30 – Down on the Street

December 9, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

I have a nose for out-of-the-ordinary cars and today’s Toyota Estima L Aeras G Edition ACR30 is a prime example of that! While driving through the parking garage I noticed this minivan making an attempt to park in a very tight spot. Even though it has the same shame, it didn’t match the ordinary Toyota Previa that we’re used to over here. When I drove passed it, I noticed the different tail lights and front. That’s when I knew I had to take a small detour one level down after I managed to parked my car one deck above.

Is that Toyota minivan interesting at all?

Following the nose

My suspicions confirmed, it was indeed a second generation Estima and not a Previa. Not that it differs on the outside that much from the Previa, but the Estima was a JDM only model. Walking more up close I noticed the badges stating it is an Estima L and the Aeras version. But what does that mean? I’ll run you through all this Japanese goodness that we didn’t get!

Star Road's Fairlady Z with a 3200cc L-series engine

Legendary voice: Star Road tuning garage- Friday Video

December 8, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Video Option has a regular recurring series called Legendary Voice. This series will make a portrait of a legend from the automotive scene. Their latest video is zooming in on the man behind the Star Road tuning garage: Masatsugu Inoue.

Masatsugu Inoue, the man behind Star Road

Star Road is a tuning house that originated in the 1980s. He was determined to do whatever he liked until the age of 25 and then settle on a job. But by the time he turned 25, he never settled on a job. Being a street racer himself, he knew all too well what people wanted and then started building his own aero parts and tuning cars. His speciality is with the Nissan Fairlady S20 platform.

You can watch the entire documentary below:

Was the Galant GTO still on leafsprings?

Cutaway Mitsubishi Galant GTO MR – Picture of the Week

December 7, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Even though I have a soft spot for Mitsubishi, I post far too little content involving that brand. So to make up for that, here is a cutaway drawing of one of my all time favorite Mitsubishi cars: the Galant GTO MR.

Mitsubishi Galant GTO MR cutaway drawing

The drawing is attributed to Takashi Jufuku and this is definitely one of his earlier works. I would personally say this was drawn when the Galant GTO was still new.

What I love about this cutaway drawing, is that you can actually see how the Galant GTO is built. One of the things I wasn’t aware of is that, despite being the high end performance model, it was still on leaf springs! Another detail that brings up more questions is what is that center pod on the roof supposed to be? Pilot lights?

And finally, the exhaust third muffler is mounted vertically. A single exhaust pipe enters this muffler, but two pipes exit, make a twist and then are sticking out of the back horizontally again. What a waste of resources to make this car look more sporty with two exhaust pipes. At least they were “functional” and not some cosmetically added pipes.

Mark II my words – AE86 Wall of Shame

December 6, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

It has been a while since I posted an AE86 in the AE86 Wall of Shame. It’s not that I have a shortage of content, in the contrary: I have lots of AE86 photos that may raise your eyebrows. However, I have rather more other interesting things to blog and share. Luckily, earlier this week, a friend of mine sent me this AE86 with a Mark II JZX110 front crafted on it:

I hope they swapped over the 1JZ engine as well!

You may think that doesn’t look too bad, but wait until you see the rear end:

This RHD Levin AE86 suits me well in LHD! – Family Album Treasures

December 5, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

There are so many questions I have about this Levin AE86:

It has a GT-S door sticker. Where did it come from?
It has correction stickers for the headlights going from LHD to RHD while the dashboard is on the RHD side. If it were a RHD car I would expect it to be the other way around!
There seem to be traditional Chinese writings on the wall of this garage / gas station
It has a kouki grill and zenki bumper and the car appears to be a kouki model.

So what’s going on here? The traditional Chinese writing on the wall would place this car either in Taiwan, Macau or Hong Kong. Cars drive on the right side (so LHD) in China and Taiwan and on the left side (RHD) in Hong Kong and Macau. I could explain the LHD headlights if this person lived in mainland China or Taiwan. So my best guess would be that this Levin used to be owned by someone living in China mainland or Taiwan and he was visiting Hong Kong or Macau.

That still doesn’t explain the GT-S door sticker and the zenki bumper though.

What trim level is this Carina in Okayama?

Identifying the 1983 Okayama mystery Carina – Carina Sightings

December 4, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

A few days ago I experimented with the Waifu2x image scaler to identify a small car in the background of a Family Album Treasure AE86. Then I remembered I recently came across a black and white photo of a mystery Carina in Okayama. The photo is dated as Showa 58, which is 1983 and thus the Carina must have been brand new!

AI image upscalers

As you can see, due to the slight motion blur, the Carina does not have any readable badges to properly identify it. Also, the photo is a bit grainy, which also makes it difficult to read. So let’s try to improve things with various AI image upscalers and see if we can get anything readable from those!