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Could you survive this crash at only 35mph? (56 km/h)

Shocking 1985 Honda City crash test – WTF?!

February 4, 2024 / banpei / 1 Comment

The crash video of the 1985 Honda City below is only 3 seconds long and it must be one of the shortest videos you can find on Youtube! Regardless of this, the three seconds (and video description) contain a lot of information. So let’s dissect that information!

First of all, the title is “1985 Honda Jazz (City) crash test” and that gives us the information that either the car is a 1985-model, or the crash test was performed in 1985. I think the former may be true as there is a timestamp in the video that reads 21-12-1999, which indicates the test might have been performed on the 21st of December 1999.

Better than JDM: German AE86 vanity license plates – Brilliant

February 3, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

For readers from the US, this is probably difficult to understand, but not every country has vanity plates. And even if they are allowed, most of the time they aren’t completely free form. A good example is the British plates where you often need to decypher what the buyer intended. German plates do allow a bit of freedom, but most of the format is set in stone.

VW Polo with German license plate BRB-AE-86

Maybe these two are both supposed to be glass houses?

Why is this Toyota Carina in front of a big mirror-glass cube? – Carina Sightings

January 30, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I bought my first Japanese Toyota Carina brochure somewhere in 2007, just after I purchased my own Carina TA60. Many brochures followed over the years and I think I have almost all of the third generation complete. Here and there I also picked up some Japanese second-generation Carina brochures. Over 10 years ago I purchased this second-generation Carina brochure:

Second-generation 1977 Toyota Carina brochure

Ever since I bought that brochure, it has intrigued me why this Carina was parked in front of a gigantic mirror-glass cube-shaped building. What is the purpose of that? Am I missing some cultural reference here?

Are you a demanding person? Then the Isuzu Bellett 1500 is the car for you!

Isuzu Bellett and Florian passenger cars – How many are left?

January 28, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

At a time, Isuzu imported Bellett and Florian passenger cars into the Netherlands. This started back in 1963 when the Dutch company Seinen in the Hague started importing the Isuzu Bellel and Bellett. In fact, Isuzu was the first Japanese car company to set foot on Dutch soil. The Bellel (with diesel engine) was mainly sold to taxi operators because what better way to prove reliability than running it as a taxi. Naturally, this also backfired when they proved to be far less reliable than their European counterparts. Toyota repeated the same strategy with the Crown and was successful as the Crown proved to be a reliable car. You could argue Isuzu was a pioneer and Toyota followed and succeeded.

Isuzu Bellel used as a taxi in Amsterdam or The Hague — Isuzu Bellel used as a taxi in various Dutch cities like Amsterdam or The Hague

Near the end of the decade, the Bellel was replaced by the Florian. By 1972, the Bellett was replaced in Japan by the Isuzu Gemini. The Gemini is an Opel Kadett C built in license through General Motors. Opel has a very strong foothold in the Netherlands and therefore the Gemini couldn’t be sold in the Netherlands.

I have no idea why this March Polka sits on a plate either

Nissan’s nearly last and final K11-swansong: the March Polka – March-athon

January 27, 2024 / banpei / 1 Comment

In the final year of Nissan March K11 production, the Nissan March Polka was introduced as a special version alongside the Bolero and Rumba. So today in the March-athon series we’re moving on to the fourth in the quartet: the Nissan March Polka! Naturally, I’ll compare the Polka against the other three musical dances: Tango, Bolero and Rumba.

But first, we need to verify if ChatGPT can outdo itself once more and make an even better joke about the March Polka:
What did the Nissan March Polka say when it won the dance competition?
“I may be small, but my polka moves are in a class of their own – the compact class, that is!”
That one was even better than the joke it made about the March Rumba!

ZLA 831 ABO plus AE86 equals ZLAE 861 ABO?

Double rally monster Levin Delta Integrale – AE86 Wall of Shame

January 25, 2024 / banpei / 1 Comment

Someone sent me a picture of this Lancia Delta Integrale with a Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 front end crafted on it. I don’t remember who sent it and I’ve searched to no avail through my WhatsApp history. So if you are the person who sent it to me: very much appreciated and you deserve all the credit!

Lancia Delta Integrale with Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 front swap

The Delta Integrale is about the same red as the panda-red AE86 colour scheme. I love the previous owner retained the panda-paint scheme on the front bumper. It would have been even more radical if the whole Delta Integrale had received some panda-paint as well. However, the Delta Integrale doesn’t feature the necessary lines to support that.

The photo is a typical Japanese car auction photo, so my guess is that it went through auctions some time ago. I’m not a big enough expert to distinguish the 8V from the 16V Integrale. All that I know is that it looks mad enough! So, what do you think? Blasmephy or the perfect marriage?

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