Tag: Carina AA63 (Page 1 of 18)

Baby-blue Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 kaido racer – Carina Sightings

February 7, 2024 / banpei / 0 Comments

I love to browse stuff for sale on Yahoo Auctions on a weekly basis and every now and then I find interesting stuff, like for instance the TRD Sports Accessories brochure. This week I encountered this baby-blue Toyota Carina GT-R kaido racer that is for sale for a mere 1.6M yen! (10K euros, 11K dollars)

Baby blue Toyota Carina GT-R kaido racer

Weak spot for Kaido Racers

I have a weak spot for kaido racers (also known as zokusha), especially if they are done well. This one is done very well, looking at the amount of work that went into this. First of all, you will notice the Levin AE86 front bumper has been widened and made its way to the front of this Carina. It’s not clear why they didn’t use an AE92 bumper as that would fit without any issues. Then the lip underneath the bumper makes it look more like a zokusha.

Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 with N2 over fenders

What looks better on a Carina? N2 or zokusha fender flares? – Carina Sightings

November 27, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

Fender flares will give you the ability for a much wider track than with your standard OEM fenders. Fender flares range from the simple bolt-on types as introduced on the Hakosuka Skyline to the bizarre wide creations of the Group 5 and N2 racing. Zokusha were copying racing designs, hence a lot of the zokusha have giant wide fender flares. I found this Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 from Okinawa on Cartune and it actually featured both N2 and zokusha fender flares. So my question to you: N2 or zokusha fender flares?

N2 style

I’ll first start with the N2 Style (not to be confused with the N-style) fender flares:

The N2 used to be a one-make racing series in the 1980s and early 1990s where it was based upon the FIA Group N rules. In Japan, the Group N was already driven as the N1 series which later became the Super Taikyu Series. N2 started out as a racing series organized by Toyota to have the Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 and Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 compete against each other. Keiichi Tsuchiya, who just graduated from the Fuji Freshman series, wanted to join the series but was denied entry because he wasn’t an established driver yet.

Hot Version 1998 - Keiichi Tsuchiya reviews a turbocharged Carina GT-R AA63

Watch Keiichi Tsuchiya diagnose an insane turbocharged Carina! [Carina Sightings]

October 23, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

In this video, Keiichi Tsuchiya diagnoses an insane turbocharged Carina GT-R! When I posted Keiichi’s Carina review video a few weeks ago, I thought he had never driven a Carina GT-R AA63 before, but this video clearly proves I was wrong!

Hot Version Diagnose section

In Video Option Hot Version in 1998, Keiichi Tsuchiya performed a so-called “diagnose” section. In this section, he and his co-presenters will look at a cheap entry-level car, inspect what modifications they have made, diagnose what they can do better and conclude whether their investment was worth it. There is a lot of humour in that last and final part! Luckily this is an official Bestmotoring video, so you can switch on the subtitles to read the conversation in English.

Carina Sightings: insane 3S-GE BEAMS Carina drift taxi

October 16, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

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!

Sweet ITB Sounds

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!

Carina Sightings: EvenFlow’s hilarious Me, Myself & Carina GT-R video

October 9, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

I was totally unfamiliar with Evenflow‘s Carina GT-R until I stumbled upon a video called Me myself and the Carina. It’s a ff-ing hilarious video that tells you all about what makes the Toyota Carina GT-R stand out from the rest. I did remember seeing those two chaps in one of their earlier videos but I never actually subscribed to their channel. I’ll explain later why I never bothered to subscribe to their videos. But I regret it now as I clearly missed this one by a long shot! They posted this video well over a year ago and I would have loved to see it right there and then!

Keiichi Tsuchiya pushing the Carina GT-R but not beyond its limits

Carina Sightings: Keiichi Tsuchiya ends up as a driving instructor!

October 2, 2023 / banpei / 0 Comments

How often do you see a Carina GT-R being reviewed? I bet rarely. It would be even much rarer to see it being reviewed by no other than Keiichi Tsuchiya! Yes, really: DK himself is reviewing a 1984 Toyota Carina GT-R AA63 that is for sale at Wonder in Nabari City, Mie Prefecture in Japan! His usual sidekick Sumire Sawa (沢すみれ) has been replaced by actress Nanako Aizawa who Keiichi keep calling Hachiko in this video. Hachiko will also get driving lessons from DK in the Carina in a second and third video further down below! The two (and the third man Takahiro Kudo) represent the Kurumaerabi car search website so I guess it is kind of sponsored content from them.