Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Author: banpei (Page 54 of 318)

Down on the Street: 1978 Mitsubishi Sapporo GSR

Last Thursday when I encountered this 1978 Mitsubishi Sapporo 2000 GS/R I thought I was very lucky to find it! I never found one parked on the side of the street before! However when I checked my bag for the compact camera I usually carry around it wasn’t there. Neither was there any charge left in my smartphone so apparently my luck balanced out and I had to take pictures with my Nokia C2 dumbphone. In the end they turned out better than I expected but certainly they don’t meet my personal baseline.
Down on the Street: Mistubishi Sapporo 2000 GS/R
As you can see at the bottom of the driver door this Mitsubishi Sapporo suffers from the well known tin-worm: the very same that killed many before.

From the rear it is visible it also attacked the boot lid and it has been replaced by one in a slightly different shade of grey/silver: Continue reading

Picture of the Week: Toyota Carina A60 initial design sketch

As I described a few weeks ago: I bought a CD-ROM with all Toyota Carina FR workshop books (scanned) on it and it is a treasure of information. From now and then there are a few hidden gems in there, like the initial design sketches for the four door sedan of the Toyota Carina A60:
Toyota Carina A60 design sketch
The front is a bit more slanted than the production version and if you squint your eyes you can see the Toyota Corona A140 in it that shared the same platform. Wheel arches are more squared off than the Carina and this is quite similar to the Corona as well.

However the sketch from the rear is unmistakeably the four door Toyota Carina A60 sedan:
Toyota Carina A60 design sketch
The tail lights are clearly the same design as the tail lights of the zenki sedan. Even the rear door has the blacked out triangular part that finishes of the lines of the rear door.

Perhaps Toyota made a study to see if they could fully merge the Corona and Carina with the A60/T140 generation? Eventually they managed to do it in the next T150 generation.

Japanese Rustoseums: the very rare junkyard

From various sources (like WasabiCars) I understood that finding a junkyard in Japan is very rare. There are some private yards that are mostly owned by garage owners and use the cars in the yard as spare parts. When I saw this photo of a real junkyard on a Japanese blog I couldn’t believe what I saw:
Japanese Rustoseums: the rare junkyard
In this big pile of rust I detected: a Mercury Cougar, a four door Toyota Chaser X30, a Mitsubishi Galant Λ (aka the Mitsubishi/Plymouth Sapporo and Dodge Challenger), a Toyota Celica A60 (maybe an XX?), a Nissan Skyline C210, a Toyota Corona T130, a Toyota Crown MS50 and the nicest of them all: a Toyota Publica van.

More photos of this junkyard can be found here: route0030

Friday Video: Nissan ATTESA E-TS explained

As already posted yesterday by JNC the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 is as of today an official Japanese classic. Released on 21st of August 1989 means it is now 25 years old and legal to import to the US (about the only place on earth where it wasn’t) while in some other countries it no longer has to oblige to certain rules anymore (CO2 ratings and such).

The BNR32 Skyline was stuffed full with various electronic gadgets like the ATTESA E-TS system, SUPER HICAS 4 wheel steering and the twin-turbo PLASMA RB26DETT. Back in the 80s the Japanese car manufacturers loved acronyms!
Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32 ATTESA E-TS
Now if you wonder what the ATTESA E-TS system is: that basically gave the Skyline GT-R four wheel drive by splitting torque between front and rear wheels once it loses traction.

Coincidentally two days ago IKnowSkyline posted a clip taken from the Best MOTORing July 1989 edition featuring the all new BNR32 Skyline GT-R and an explanation of the the ATTESA E-TS system: Continue reading

WTF: Tomica Nissan Gazelle S12 Super Silhouette replica

After yesterdays TOMs Corolla Group 5 I was searching for Group 5 cars and found this Tomica Gazelle.
Wait a minute! Isn’t that supposed to read Tomica Skyline Super Silhouette replica?
No, it isn’t! This is all about the Tomica Nissan Gazelle S12 Super Silhouette replica:
Tomica Nissan Gazelle S12 Super Silhouette
Yes, someone made a replica of the Tomica Skyline Super Silhouette racer in the early 90s but used a Nissan Gazelle S12 body for that. He even included all correct livery… WTF?!

You can watch the video below: Continue reading

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