Author: banpei (Page 44 of 318)

Commercial Time: German Honda City ad

February 9, 2015 / banpei / 1 Comment

We all know the Honda City is a great car and even the British band Madness agreed with that. Even in Germany they agreed, however they all got it wrong in Germany!

First of all the Honda City is called the Honda Jazz in Europe because some German car company (Opel) complained that people would confuse the City name with their car with a totally different name (Kadett) because it featured a trim model (City) that sounded like it. Did you get that, mkay?

Well, that’s only the start of what’s wrong with this German Honda City ad: Continue reading

Family Album Treasures: Nissan Laurel C130

Family Album Treasures: Bell-bottoms Nissan Laurel C130

February 8, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

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.

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

Down on the Street: Snowy Subaru Impreza WRX

February 7, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

Earlier this week it snowed in the Netherlands and since everything got covered in a thin layer of snow I’d thought it would be nice to take a short hike over the moors nearby. So I drove to the outskirts of my hometown and while finding a suitable parking space I ran into this blue 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX GDA:

The owner must be proud of it as it is in stunning condition!

It is the pre-facelifted version of the car with an headlight conversion: Continue reading

Friday Video: Cartoonish Nissan Laurel car chase

Friday Video: cartoonish Nissan Laurel C130 chase

February 6, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

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:

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

Games: Over Drivin’ Nissan Skyline Memorial

February 5, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

Back in the 80s I played was a game called Test Drive that allowed you to drive a Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborghini Countach, Lotus Esprit, Porsche 911 and the Chevrolet Corvette C4 (the order is my pick order from 1987). Shortly afterwards it was was succeeded by Test Drive 2 which only had the Ferrari F40, Lamborghini Diablo and the Porsche 959 and Test Drive 3 followed quickly. Then it became silent for a while as the company who created Test Drive created a fantastic game called Stunts. The only game to be considered a successor in the years after was The Need For Speed by Electronic Arts. It basically had the same feeling as Test Drive 1 including the police persuits and Test Drive 2 and featured again a set of “affordable cars” including the Toyota Supra JZA80, the Acura/Honda NSX and the Mazda RX-7 FD.

This game got really high scores from the magazines and became an instant bestseller and successors were made in big quantities. The NFS series also sold in Japan as the Over Drivin’ series. Of course the game quickly adapted to the Japanese taste and in 1996 the Over Drivin’ Nissan GT-R was released which included Nissan-only cars (more on this one in a later post). This series also included a special edition called Over Drivin’ Skyline Memorial which basically is the same as the original The Need For Speed game but this time it contained the full Nissan Skyline range up till 1997:

Nissan Skyline GT S50-B
Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R PGC10
Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R KPGC110
Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-EX KHGC211
Nissan Skyline RS Turbo C KDR30
Nissan Skyline GTS-X HR31
Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32
Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32
Nissan R390

I remember playing this game a lot around 2001 or 2002 on my emulator (I did not own a NTSC capable Playstation) and had great fun with it!

The nice thing is that earlier this week IKnowSkyline posted all the video footage of all Skylines in the game in one single video:

Brilliant: collection of Showa scale model cars

February 4, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

Now this was a big jaw-dropper: two videos of a Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 literally covered in Showa scale model cars. This must be the largest personal collection of scale model cars I’ve seen!

Now if you look carefully enough you can see that each and every scale model car has its own special paint job (mostly kaido racer, race car livery or kyusha kai) and set of (rare) JDM rims! If you count the number of hours it took to make them look this way alone it already is an amazing job!

Now the list of cars, mainly from the late Showa-era, is going to be a lengthy one, but I’ll try to sum up the most important ones:

Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 (duh)
Toyota Soarer GZ10/MZ11/MZ12 (including the Shakotan Boogie Soarer twice)
Numerous Toyota Celica XX GA61
Toyota Celica GT RA45
Toyota Corolla Levin TE27
Toyota Corolla Levin TE71 four door sedan
Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 hatchback
Toyota Corsa AL11
Numerous Nissan Skylines C10, C110, C210, R30
Numerous Nissan Cedric/Gloria 230, 330, 430
Numerous Nissan Fairlady S30
Nissan EXA
Hasemi Skyline KDR30 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
Nissan Silvia S110 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
Isuzu Bellet GT-R
Mazda RX-3

And the list could go on for another 20 or 30 models that I overlooked…

Watch video number one: Continue reading