Remembering Japanese cars from the past
Last week I wrote about the Nissan brochure from 1965. I mentioned the Nissan Grandrive proving ground at the Oppama plant (????) in Yokosuka. I was a bit curious about it and tried to find pictures and videos of the track.
I did find two videos on Youtube. The first one is a video by Nissan to promote the Grandrive track. Continue reading
Some time ago I saw an ad on Marktplaats selling a brochure Nissan 1965 without any picture with it. The description sounded good, it was fairly cheap (considering the age of it) and I contacted the seller. He didn’t have any possibility to send me pictures so I took the “risk”. Few days later this arrived:
Brochure Nissan 1965
It is actually a book of 50 pages and it is entirely in English. It was meant to be given away to new possible import companies and dealerships.
Brochure Nissan 1965
It shows the modernized Nissan during the early 60s: a modern car lineup, healthy figures, four modern production plants and even a test facility! Their growth is amazing during the late 50s and early 60s: between 20% and 25% growth each year!
Brochure Nissan 1965
As you can see: they have a model for almost everyone! On the front row the Fairladies on the left, the bluebird 410s in the middle and the new Silvia on the right. On the second row all the Cedrics are lined up. On the remaining rows all the utilitarian vehicles are shown.
Brochure Nissan 1965
This is the Oppama plant (????) in Yokosuka with a private pier at the Tokyo Bay and you can also see the test track on the background. The plant was considered the most modern car factory back in 1961 when it was opened and later in 1970 the first car factory to make use of robot welding. The test track is the very same as the one used in the 1960s Nissan Bluebird crashtest videos I posted some time ago.
Brochure Nissan 1965
And of course their latest product: a 1595cc two seater listening to the lovely name Silvia.
There is much much more in this book and I’m very happy I took the gamble to buy this unseen. A true gem! :)
Last week Beeoneoneoh posted some very beautiful pictures and info about a Nissan Sunny Excellent k120Y PB210:
Nissan Sunny 120Y PB210
And there was something about those pictures… I could not pinpoint what it was… Until he posted these beautiful pictures and info on a Nissan Cherry 100A X-1R:
Nissan Cherry 100a X-1R
It was the exact same location as the Carina Sighting of the almost mint TA63 GT-TR:
Toyota Carina TA63 GT-TR at Flyrat!
I never took notice of the name of the dealer who sold that particular Carina, but it remained in the back of my head somehow… :D
Damn, I think I have another car dealer to follow now! ;)
Yesterday Japanese Nostalgic Car posted pictures of the Z-Car Club of Inland Valley Show in Temecula. Even though the name implies that it was a Z-Car only meeting, there were actually quite a lot of non Z-Cars at the meeting!
The most spectacular of them was this double frontend Datsun Cherry F10:
Double frontend Datsun Cherry F10
The two 1977 Cherry F10s were welded together by Fram to show how important car maintenance is: one half did get its proper treatment while the other half was neglected. The car was driven 20000 miles per year and after 75000 miles the neglected side really performed worse, got a bad MPG and produced more smog.
Double frontend Datsun Cherry F10
After they had proven their point the whole car got neglected until Steve Jasik found it more than 10 years ago parked next to a church.
The funny thing is that the lights in the grille serve as brake lights to make it road legal. So you can actually drive this car on the road without any problems at all!
He called the car Ying and Yang. According to Wikipedia: Ying and Yang is used to describe how seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn. I think the name suits the car very well!
Remember what I wrote almost half a year ago? I wrote something about that Skylines are ugly.
About two weeks ago apparently someone from the R31 Skylineclub in Australia read my rambling and posted it on the forum. You can read in the comments what people think of me now. ;)
Round taillights on this beautifully lowered Nissan Skyline R31
Anyway, I got an email from James pointing out that not all R31s got round taillights and that the Australian built R31s got the RB30E engine. Now we’re talking potential here! As he writes that the RB20, RB25 and RB26 heads fit on it a lot of people must put the RB25DET or RB26DETT head on the RB30 block.
Round taillights on Nissan Skyline R31 GTS Silhouette
I found an article on Wikipedia about this RB30+other RB head and read there are basically the same problems as with the 7AGE: the block is not capable of revving above 7500 rpm and is less strong as the other RB blocks. It may not deliver as much power as the RB25DET but it sure promises to deliver a lot more torque than this engine! Tommy Kaira’s M30 did make use of such engine, but mated it to a RB20DE head. This engine produced 294Nm torque opposed to the 255Nm of the RB25DE, so imagine what the potential torque would be of a RB30DET. ;)
Compare the two noses of the Nissan Skyline R31
In this picture you can compare the two noses of the Skyline R31. On the left you see a series 1 or 2 R31 and on the right you see a series 3 R31 (looks the same as in Japan). If you’re interested in all the differences:look here at r32skylineclub.com.
Well, it’s not that I’m all of a sudden going to write that what I thought was ugly half a year ago is now all of a sudden beautiful. In contrary: I still have the same opinion about the R31 and R33 4 door sedans in that posting… I do have a bit different feelings towards the R31 van: it a car with a lot of potential if you put a series 3 front on it, a bit like the famous Stagea with R34 nose swap.
I do love the R31, honestly I do! But what I don’t like is the series 1 and 2 headlights… But that is, of course, my personal opinion and you may or may not share that with me. Sorry if you feel offended by that… ;)
I think we all have bought a car in the past which held really nice surprises. For instance my good old trusty Trueno had a really nice surprise of a thick layer of bitumen to cover a really badly rusted spot. Or my new TA60 Carina had the really nice surprise of having retro tires mounted in 1983 under the car and only to be replaced in 2008 when I mounted the Celica Supra rims. Or the Mitsubishi I once owned had the original instruction manual which was illustrated with manga. ;)
Well, I think we all had these happy or unhappy surprises in the past… But I don’t think you can match up with the nice surprise Nori Yaro had when he bought his Nissan Skyline GTS-t!
First of all: his Skyline featured a period Kenwood double-din tape radio which was non functioning. He tried to fit another one, but he did not have the right connector for that so he fixed up the old Kenwood:
Double Din Kenwood tape radio
Then he discovered there was a forgotten tape inside the Kenwood:
Surprise: Hello Kitty tape inside!
Who would like to hear Hello Kitty when driving in a Nissan Skyline GTS-t with a mechanical diff, coilovers and sitting in a bucket seat?? I can only come up with the answer that the previous owner must have been a women drifter! ;)
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