Remembering Japanese cars from the past
A Toyota Sprinter Trueno Black Limited AE86 with Lambo scissor doors? That must be the worst entry in the AE86 Wall of Shame, right? Well, actually at first I thought it would. But as I was trying desperately to learn more about this car, I found more and more things I liked about this car. So hear me out…
Continue reading
Someone shared a video of an insane 3S-GE BEAMS Carina drift taxi with me! At first I though it was a 20 valve 4A-GE because the Youtube teaser showed “ITB Sounds” but I quickly changed my opinion when I heard the tune of that sweet 3S-GE!
The video was taken at Go Japan! at Brands Hatch three weeks ago on the 24th of September 2023. The driver and owner, Edmard, uses his Carina AA63 as a drift taxi and just drives with various passengers. The footage (cut) is over 35 minutes long!
Continue readingNow for something more refreshing after all those Hungarian Honda Civics: a JDM Toyota Altezza SXE10!
Last Wednesday I was enroute (by bike) to pick up my son from school when in a blink of an eye I spotted something wrong with the “Lexus IS200” on the other side of the street. I quickly grabbed my phone and took the picture above.
There was indeed something odd and it wasn’t only being RHD, nor the JDM Altezza grille and after market bumper: Continue reading
Yesterday I already shared this photo:
And the reason for reposting it now is that I actually forgot to take photos of two important hachis: Oldskull’s and Mark’s three door hatchback Levins! This one does include Oldskull’s AE86 but not Mark’s.
Anyway, ChiKin was by far the youngest of the group but managed to attract most attention with his white panda zenki Sprinter Trueno GT Apex: Continue reading
It has taken about a month for me to finally post up some of the celluloid photographs I took with my Zenit-E and a “new” Industar 61 lens at the Japans Autosport Festival 2011 at Zandvoort. As we Dutch say: “It takes a while but then you have something!” but that probably hits like a plier to a pig! :P
First reason it took so long was that the pictures got lost between the processing company and the photostore. Second reason was that I was too lazy to scan them. Third reason was that I was too lazy to upload them. So here they finally are!
I’ll start with my Carina parked next to this Datsun 240Z:
Datsun S30 240Z @ JAF2011
I made the decision that the Carina would be a better off parked next to a classic 70s JDM sportscar than one of those “modern” cars in the background. ;)
When chatting with the owner of the Corolla AE86 with 3S-GE swap this yellow 240Z stopped by. The owner turned out to be an AE86 owner as well. What is the chance that I parked my Carina next to his 240Z? One out of 10000?
Next up is this first generation green Mazda 626 hardtop coupe:
Mazda 616 coupe @ JAF2011
When I was waiting for someone in my Carina near the exit the owner (plus three his friends cramped) into this coupe made a small detour to yell at me that I had a cool car. :D
Gave them a big thumbs up and yelled back the same!
BTW: There are only 3 of these 626 coupes known to exist in the Netherlands. By chance I also met the owner of another one…
Then I spotted one of the most extraordinary AE86s in the Netherlands:
Corolla AE86 with BEAMS 3S-GE @ JAF2011
A Toyota Corolla AE86 with a 3S-GE BEAMS blacktop swap (SE86) with a W58 and a Carina SA60 bellhousing.
I met the owner a few times before (I bought the Celica Supra rims from him three years ago) and had a long chat about this swap. Amazing it actually fits!
Tight fitted BEAMS 3S-GE @ JAF2011
As you can see the BEAMS is a very tight fit. One of the support beams of the hood had to be cut out and a few things had to be moved in order to make it fit.
Corolla AE86 on Work Meisters @ JAF2011
The Work Meister rims were bought from The Doctor who previously had them under his JDM Toyota Chaser GX71. Some people like them and some people don’t. Personally I think they are an excellent fit!
Then I also spotted this bosozoku styled Suzuki Alto SS40:
Bosozoku style Suzuki Alto SS40 @ JAF2011
I did spot it at the Japan Classic Sunday 2010. Since then a few modifications have been done.
In case you are wondering: the writing on the hood says “STUK” which is Dutch for “broken”
Bosozoku style Suzuki Alto SS40 @ JAF2011
So apparently it broke down during the trip to Zandvoort and was towed to its place.
That’s it for the first part. More pictures will be posted in the next coverage!
The first impressions on the Japans Autosport Festival were that there were waaaaaay too many Skylines in the Netherlands. I think I saw more than 100 R32/R33/R34s and most of them were riced out. On the other hand there were some really nice examples as well!
What was most interesting was this purple hachi I spotted three and a half years ago in someones garage without an engine in it.
Purple Corolla Levin AE86 with 3S-GE Beams blacktop
The owner sold me his 15 inch Celica-Supra rims and just casually told me he owned a couple of Celicas, a Starlet EP70 with a 3SGTE in it and an AE86 as well. So of course I got very interested to see the AE86 and the Starlet. The AE86 looked already as great as the photo above but only lacked its engine…
Shortyly before the JAF the project finally met its end and its 4AGE made way for a different engine. At first the owner planned a 1JZ-swap, but changed his plans and went for a 3SGE Beams blacktop mated to a W58 supra gearbox by a JDM 1S Carina bellhousing!
As you can see the 3SGE blacktop is a tight fit for the AE86:
Purple Corolla Levin AE86 with 3S-GE Beams blacktop
He told me he had to modify the bellhousing because the starter engine was on the wrong side, so he tool the bellhousing of the 4A and had the starter position welded on the other side. You can’t tell unless you look up close and look really well. Very nice to see such a project getting a good ending!
The funny thing was that I would have expected it to be a very loud engine but he used a bone stock muffler of a Hyundai Scoupe and it just sounded like a stock 4AGE! So literally you have a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing!
More pictures of the festival will follow when I’ve developed the films from my camera. :)
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