Author: banpei (Page 24 of 318)

Abandoned MR2 AW11 in Tokyo, photo by Dino Dalle Carbonare

Friday Video: Dino Dalle Carbonare’s insane abandoned Japanese cars

October 13, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

It’s Friday, so I have another video for you! I was doubting whether I should post this under the Rustoseums or the Friday Video category. I chose the latter because it is quite a lengthy video to watch! Dino Dalle Carbonare, Dino DC on Youtube, is a quite famous car photographer who works and lives in Japan. He posts regularly on Speedhunters, but nowadays he also is more active on Youtube.

Abandoned Japanese cars in Tokyo

A few weeks ago he posted this video about the abandoned Japanese cars he encounters on a daily basis. This is quite similar to what Daniel O’Grady has been dedicating his entire channel to, but for Dino this is quite a side step. As Dino lives near Tokyo, most of these cars are found in the greater Tokyo area.

Down on the Street: Terracotta 1990 Nissan Pao

October 12, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

The Nissan Pao was, just like last weeks Nissan S-Cargo, one of the Pikes cars. Each and every Pikes car had its own distinctive retro styling: the Nissan Be-1 was styled after the Austin Mini, the Nissan Figaro after the Autobianchi Bianchina Trasformabile, the Nissan Rasheen after the Wartbug 353, Nissan S-Cargo after the Citroën 2CV Camionette and the Nissan Pao after the original Renault R4. Well actually the Pao more a mashup of the Renault R4 (overall shape), Citroën 2CV (flap up windows), Kübelwagen (ribs), Aston Martin DB4 (grill and logo), Austin Mini (outside hinges and the front overfenders) and the Austin A40 “Farina” Countryman (split rear tailgate).

AE86 wall of shame: Corolla GT-S with Levin complex

AE86 Wall of Shame: Corolla GT-S with a Levin complex

October 10, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Over the past years I have created a vast collection of AE86 photos. Within this collection I managed to isolate some contenders that I would consider to be part of the wall of shame. At one of my jobs we featured a so called customer wall of shame, where customers would send weird and funny emails to customer services. So yeah, this new section will be my AE86 wall of shame which fill feature the weird and funny AE86es that I encountered over the past years.

AE86 Wall of Shame: Corolla GT-S with a Levin complex

Today I kick off with this USDM Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86 which has a Levin complex. We all know how much we like the forbidden fruits. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The United States and Canada had to do without the fixed headlamps that featured on the Levin. On the other side of the pond in Europe we craved for the USDM popup headlights. Naturally the owner of this Corolla GT-S loved the looks of a Levin AE86 or a European Corolla GT AE86 and then used some clever DIY to make his/her own version of it!

Carina Sightings: EvenFlow’s hilarious Me, Myself & Carina GT-R video

October 9, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

I was totally unfamiliar with Evenflow‘s Carina GT-R until I stumbled upon a video called Me myself and the Carina. It’s a ff-ing hilarious video that tells you all about what makes the Toyota Carina GT-R stand out from the rest. I did remember seeing those two chaps in one of their earlier videos but I never actually subscribed to their channel. I’ll explain later why I never bothered to subscribe to their videos. But I regret it now as I clearly missed this one by a long shot! They posted this video well over a year ago and I would have loved to see it right there and then!

Friday Video: breathtaking stunts of Shuto Kosoku Trial 5: Final Battle

October 6, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

The Shuto Kosoku Trials (also known as Megalopolis Expressway Trials) is one of the best Japanese car related movie series from the late 1980s until the late 1990s. Unsurprisingly they closely collaborated together with Keiichi Tsuchiya to make the racing action more realistic. This video that I found is a VHS tape transfer of the making of the stunts used in Shuto Kosuku Trial 5: the Final Battle. This movie was shot in 1992 and you see this reflected in the use of a brand new red Mazda RX-7 FD! It’s also amazing to see how much care is taken into making these stunts!

Shuto Kosoku using old school film cameras

Nissan S-Cargo versus Citroën 2CV Camionette versus Garden Snail

Down on the Street: extravagant 1989 Nissan S-Cargo

October 5, 2023 / banpei / 1 Comment

Of all the Pikes cars, the Nissan S-Cargo is definitely the most extravagant. Almost all Pikes cars were retro styled after a specific European car: the Nissan Figaro was styled after the Autobianchi Bianchina Trasformabile, the Nissan Pao after the original Renault R4, the Nissan Rasheen after the Wartbug 353, the Be-1 after the Mini and the Nissan S-Cargo after the Citroën 2CV Camionette. (also called the Fourgonette) Shortly after the Citroën 2CV was released, it received the nickname Ugly Duckling thanks to the Dutch and nowadays this is considered the defacto nickname for it. However, in the UK it has the nickname The Tin Snail and escargot means snail in French, so the name S-Cargo is a double pun here! If you squint your eyes, you can see what the design of the S-Cargo is based upon below:

Author: banpei (Page 24 of 318)

Friday Video: Dino Dalle Carbonare’s insane abandoned Japanese cars

Abandoned Japanese cars in Tokyo

Down on the Street: Terracotta 1990 Nissan Pao

AE86 Wall of Shame: Corolla GT-S with a Levin complex

AE86 Wall of Shame: Corolla GT-S with a Levin complex

Carina Sightings: EvenFlow’s hilarious Me, Myself & Carina GT-R video

Friday Video: breathtaking stunts of Shuto Kosoku Trial 5: Final Battle

Shuto Kosoku using old school film cameras

Down on the Street: extravagant 1989 Nissan S-Cargo

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