Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: BUTAKETSU (Page 1 of 2)

JDM Trivia #7: Kaido Racer part swaps

JDM Trivia #7

The feedback I got from the picture I posted was great! Some people suffer from Pareidolia just like me. Pareidolia is when you see faces in everything and some of you saw angry and happy faces in the photo. But what I actually was aiming for were the swapped tail lights on the kaido racer in this photo. Some of the commenters already uncovered me as the person behind the Bosozoku Style blog and yes that’s me.
JDM Trivia #7: Kaido Racer part swaps
In the kaido racers scene swapping parts between various cars is a highly valued modification, especially if it something original.

Kaido Racer part swaps

I haven’t done any statistics on this but I can say the most swapped parts are the tail lights of a Nissan Cherry X-1R and most of them end up on either a Skyline C110 or C210.

Second most swapped parts are the banana tail lights of the first generation JDM Toyota Celica liftback and it is unbelievable how well they look on Glorias, Fairladies, Skylines and Laurels. It is almost like the Nissan owners are jealous of this magnificent Toyota design.

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Family Album Treasures: Bell-bottoms Nissan Laurel C130

Bell-bottoms were a big fashion craze throughout the early 70s and the same applied to coke-bottle styling, like on this Nissan Laurel C130, on cars.
Family Album Treasures: Nissan Laurel C130
The owner Willchan first owned a Nissan Cherry X-1R and then upgraded to this Nissan Laurel 2000GL 6 cylinder KHC130 coupe. The butaketsu (pigsbutt) Laurel looks great with the added fog lights integrated in the grille surrounding.

Given the shape and (less) flare of his bell-bottoms I’d reckon this photo must have been taken late 70s when slowly but surely the bell-bottoms were on its way out. Just like the coke-bottle styling got replaced by the squared off and ruler car designs.

Willchan11

WTF: Exhaust pipe routed through Calsonic Nissan Skyline R31

Being one of the early bloggers about kaido racers (aka bosozoku style) I don’t get a high brow often, but this JTTC Calsonic Nissan Skyline R31 race car replica in the shape of a kaido racer really gave me a WTF:
WTF Exhaust through NIssan Skyline R31
This video features a couple of Showa cars that are either kept (in mint) bone stock or modified to a great extend, including this Nissan Skyline R31 GTS-R. Now the interesting part is why the owner chose to hacksaw a big hole in the floorpan where the passenger seat used to be and routed the exhaust to the side of the car (through the sill) and not chose to do it directly through the sill from the . Or even welded something around the exhaust pipes to keep the noise levels a bit down. On the other hand, this makes the modification more obvious for the eye…

Apart from this Skyline there are the following cars: Toyota Celica GT-R AA63 (unmodified), Dual-Factory green Toyota Publica Starlet KP40, Body-Make Nissan Bluebird 810 coupe kaido racer, kyusha kai pigsbutt Nissan Laurel C130 on Hayashi Sakura rims, kyusha kai Nissan Skyline GT C110 on Racing Hart rims, Toyota Crown MS80 kaido racer, orange Nissan Skyline GT-R KPGC10 and a white G-Nose Nissan Fairlady 240Z S30.

You can watch the whole video below: Continue reading

Picture of the Week: Dutch Datsun car dealer in 1977

I found this scanned newspaper photo of a showroom of the Dutch Datsun car dealer Rhenoy (in 1977) posted in japanseklassieker.nl Facebook group and immediately thought to share it here:
Dutch Datsun car dealer showroom
What I quickly spotted in this photo was (from top left clockwise):

  1. Datsun 160B / 180B / 200B coupe (aka Nissan Bluebird 810)
  2. Datsun 260Z (aka Nissan Fairlady Z S30)
  3. Datsun 200L coupe (aka Nissan Laurel C130, aka pigsbutt Laurel, aka butaketsu)
  4. Datsun 280C sedan (aka Nissan Gloria 330)
  5. Datsun 160B / 180B / 200B sedan (aka Nissan Bluebird 810)
  6. Datsun 100A (aka Nissan Cherry E10)
  7. Datsun 160J coupe (aka Nissan Bluebird 710, or plain 710)
  8. Datsun 100A F-II two door sedan (aka Nissan Cherry F-II F10)
  9. Datsun 100A F-II coupe (aka Nissan Cherry F-II F10)

Now the big question is where is the Datsun 120Y (aka Nissan Sunny B210) in this photo? Or did I guess the first car wrongly here?

In my opinion the most interesting cars at this Datsun car dealer are the first four cars. Styling wise the late 70s was when Nissan shifted from coke-bottle styling to ruler styling and that’s quite visible in this showroom. The all new 160B/180B/200B (Bluebird 810) just arrived and also shows the arrival of the ruler styling with its sharp lines. There is just one tiny coke-bottle hip left over at the rear quarter of the car. Even sharper lines and more angular design would arrive with the all new 1977 Datsun 200L (aka Nissan Laurel C230), 1977 Datsun 160J (aka Nissan Violet A10) and the 1978 Datsun Cherry (aka Nissan Pulsar N10).

If I had to pick one car from this Datsun car dealer showroom back in 1977 I probably would have taken the four door Datsun 180B sedan. Simply because of it practicality and fuel economy for as far as you could call it economical at all. However if I had to pick one today I would choose either the Datsun 200L coupe (I just love the word butaketsu!) or the Datsun 200B coupe.

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