Category: Carina sightings (Page 3 of 6)

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!

Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 with N2 over fenders

What looks better on a Carina? N2 or zokusha fender flares? – Carina Sightings

November 27, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Fender flares will give you the ability for a much wider track than with your standard OEM fenders. Fender flares range from the simple bolt-on types as introduced on the Hakosuka Skyline to the bizarre wide creations of the Group 5 and N2 racing. Zokusha were copying racing designs, hence a lot of the zokusha have giant wide fender flares. I found this Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 from Okinawa on Cartune and it actually featured both N2 and zokusha fender flares. So my question to you: N2 or zokusha fender flares?

N2 style

I’ll first start with the N2 Style (not to be confused with the N-style) fender flares:

The N2 used to be a one-make racing series in the 1980s and early 1990s where it was based upon the FIA Group N rules. In Japan, the Group N was already driven as the N1 series which later became the Super Taikyu Series. N2 started out as a racing series organized by Toyota to have the Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 and Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 compete against each other. Keiichi Tsuchiya, who just graduated from the Fuji Freshman series, wanted to join the series but was denied entry because he wasn’t an established driver yet.

Premium Shitbox's Toyota Carina TA60 on SSR Longchamps

Carina TA60 with cut springs, coilovers and TRD Tosco – Carina sightings

November 13, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Some time ago somebody forwarded me the Carina TA60 owned by Premium Shitbox on Instagram. I really love the way they fixed up the Carina and lowered it.

Premium Shitbox's Toyota Carina TA60 — Premium Shitbox’s Toyota Carina TA60

They picked up this bone stock 1982 Toyota Carina DX TA60 in Germany. Apart from the body colour, this Carina is 100% the same as mine: same brown/tan interior, seatbelts on all five seating positions and an A40 automatic gearbox.

Hearty swapped Carina GT-TR with lots of love – Carina Sightings

November 6, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Hearts and love surround this Toyota Carina GT-TR TA63. Let me explain to you why! I was split between posting this in Carina Sightings and Family Album Treasures, so I’ll post it in both.

First heart: the girlfriend

In this first photo, you can see a girl posing next to the Carina GT-TR. Her name is Kobayashi Koto (小林古都) and according to the ex-owner of this Carina in the 1990s she used to be a model in the 1980s. She was most famous for being the model featured on the 1987 Bridgestone calendar. We can only assume she used to be his girlfriend as she has her arm wrapped around him. Or at least, as much as we can see of him in that photo. She is clinging to him so much that she must have loved him very much. Unless he was in her friendzone…

Toyota Carina SG Jeune with the same sticker on the tail light

I found an amazing Carina Jeune who remained young for the past 11 years! – Carina Sightings

October 30, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

This Carina Jeune was covered by Tonken TV and he decided to ask the owner to show his car as he thought it looked gorgeous. At first, I thought it was a bog standard Carina SG AA60, but I was very wrong! The more I watched this video, the more convinced I got I had seen it before. Let me explain why!

Toyota Carina SG Jeune that I've seen somewhere — *Toyota Carina SG Jeune that I’ve seen somewhere*

Where did I see this Carina Jeune before?

Hot Version 1998 - Keiichi Tsuchiya reviews a turbocharged Carina GT-R AA63

Watch Keiichi Tsuchiya diagnose an insane turbocharged Carina! [Carina Sightings]

October 23, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

In this video, Keiichi Tsuchiya diagnoses an insane turbocharged Carina GT-R! When I posted Keiichi’s Carina review video a few weeks ago, I thought he had never driven a Carina GT-R AA63 before, but this video clearly proves I was wrong!

Hot Version Diagnose section

In Video Option Hot Version in 1998, Keiichi Tsuchiya performed a so-called “diagnose” section. In this section, he and his co-presenters will look at a cheap entry-level car, inspect what modifications they have made, diagnose what they can do better and conclude whether their investment was worth it. There is a lot of humour in that last and final part! Luckily this is an official Bestmotoring video, so you can switch on the subtitles to read the conversation in English.