Remembering Japanese cars from the past
When I was on vacation in Hungary this summer, I spotted this yellow Mitsubishi Eclipse. It was parked outside a circus tent and the circus’ main attraction was the Transformers Bumblebee. So was Bumblebee originally a Mitsubishi Eclipse?
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I thought a Nissan Sunny GTi-R registered as a van was already outrageous, but one driven by a diplomat is even more bizarre! But like every new Guinness world record: it will be broken. So yeah, a GTi-R on diplomatic license plates has become the new norm! I have to admit that, as a big exception, I didn’t spot this car myself.
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).
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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:
Last week I already featured another Toyota Chaser JZX100 Tourer V and guess what: within the same week I find another one parked down on the street! Well, actually not on the street but rather inside the parking garage of the nearest Ikea store. Nevertheless, when I drove down the circular ramp I immediately spotted the JZX100 and exclaimed another WTF?!
I spotted this Toyota Chaser JZX100 Tourer V a few blocks down the road of my daughter’s new school. On the second day I brought her to school it was parked on one of the main roads and then the week after I found it parked in this smaller road.
The Tourer V trim level should already explain that this car is powered by a 1JZ with a turbo. This means it’s top of the line of the Chaser X100 family!
The rims appear to be 7-spoke aftermarket items and I have to admit I don’t immediately recognize them. However, I’m sure someone in the comments will.
The front spoiler, side skirts and rear skirts are all part of the dealer options as you can see below:
And also the rear spoiler on the top of the rear window is part of the dealer options:
The rear trunk/bootlid spoiler is not the same as the one found in the 1996 brochure. However, this Chaser JZX100 was sold in 1999 and it could be that the rear spoiler changed over the years when it was sold.
The big canon tailpipe must make a nice deep growl and I would love to hear/see this car drive in person! If you want, you can follow the owner on Instagram under his name @the_sjeeser. That name is actually a pun in Dutch as “sjeezen” means driving real hard!
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