Tag: Carina SA60

The Carina A6 in the Toyota Family Tree

March 1, 2013 / banpei / 1 Comment

A couple of days ago Japanese Nostalgic Car posted (yes I do read their blog occasionally) that because of their 75th anniversary Toyota created a big family tree of all models they created. Of course I immediately looked up the third generation Carina in it:

The nice thing is that they have a fairly good description on the timelines and model and it even includes what plat produced the car. The whole Carina lineup was produced in the Tsutsumi plant. They do mention the addition of the 1C diesel, 4T-GTE and 4A-GE engines but they forgot to add them to the specification sheet.

Another fun fact is that they set the release date to a specific date and in the case of the third generation Carina it was 7th of September 1981: coincidentally my dads birthday. ;)

Direct links to the model pages:
Carina A60 sedan (RA63/TA61/TA63/SA60/AA60)
Carina A60 coupe (RA63/TA61/TA63/SA60/AA60)
Carina A60 Surf (SA60)
Carina A60 van (TA67)

You can also view the original/initial catalogs, but later ones are not included. Links to the catalogs:
Carina A60 sedan and coupe (September 1981)
Carina A60 Surf (February 1982)
Carina A67 van (September 1981)

If you really want to reverse engineer you can actually access the scanned pages of the catalogs directly. These are the first page and last page of the first catalog. ;)

BTW: I just realized the old site got broken after the server upgrade a few months ago and the old content has disappeared. I’ll see if I can fix that. :)

Carina Sightings: SE 1800 drawing

May 23, 2012 / banpei / 0 Comments

Don’t you just love it when people get inspired by the Carina A60? This drawing was made by someone getting inspired by the Tomica Limited Vintage Carina sedan:

When I looked through the Carina 1500 brochure I noticed this page:

The resemblance is striking. ;)

Carina Sightings: Roman’s SA60 Carina

March 16, 2011 / banpei / 4 Comments

I’ve been (slowly) watching Roman fixing up his AA60 Carina coupe. Every few months he posted another update or image on AEU86.org showing what progress he made, either a F series live axle, an engine bay spray or acquisition of a 3SGE. Two weeks ago his Carina came back from the paintshop and all he has to do now is to put that puzzle back together. :D

This is how the project looked half way in 2008:

Romans SA60 Carina coupe project

And this is how it looks now in light greige metallic:

Romans SA60 Carina coupe project
As you can see, most of the interior is already back in. Bumpers, fuelcap, fenders, headlights… A long list of (small) parts to be fitted.
BTW: those tail lights are his “spare” tail lights. Two (almost) new tail lights will be fitted when it is done!

Romans SA60 Carina coupe project
As you can see I’m very excited about his project finally coming together! Can’t wait to see the pictures of his car when its done!

Pictures taken from [

Carina Sightings: Rusty Carina SG in a field

August 18, 2010 / banpei / 0 Comments

To say in yesterdays rustoseum spirits we will continue today with a rusty Carina SG left in a field:

Rusty Carina SG
I found it here and the translated text mentions something about a famous catchphrase “Carina foot guy”. I searched on it and found here that it was the catchphrase of the first generation Carina GT.
Anyone more familiar with that phrase?

Carina Sightings: Carina Surf

July 28, 2010 / banpei / 0 Comments

I’m not a fan of the rims on this Carina, but as you can see it is an original Carina Surf:

Original Carina Surf
The Carina Surf was part of the original Carina lineup and seperate from the Van line-up. It did feature the live axle we know of the other vans (and non-IRS Carinas) but there was a major difference: it had coil springs instead of the leaf springs used on the van!
BTW: The two extra stripes are not original…

Carina Sightings: what does 19 years Carina driving do to you?

January 7, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

Just have a look at this 1996 Carina commercial:

I thought about how the guy has changed during those 19 years from a tough 70s homie to a 90s salaryman dweeb. So I thought it would be fun to put all Carina drivers before that commercial into a chronological order and see how he evolves. ;)

Early 70s:

Sonny Chiba escaping from motorcycle gang in a Carina coupe TA17

1977:
1977 Carina driver
The cool guy from 1996 commercial in front of a Carina TA40

1982:
1982 Safari Carina driver 1
Safari guy next to a 1982 Carina Road Runner II SA60
1982 Puppy saving Carina driver
Puppy saving dad from the 1982 Carina GT-TR TA63 commercial

1988:
1988 suntanned Carina driver
Suntanned guy in the 1988 Carina T170 commercial

1993:
1993 housedad Carina driver
Housedad in the 1993 Carina T190 commercial where his wife clearly cheated on him

1996:
1996 dweeb Carina driver
Total dweeb in the 1996 Carina T210 commercial

conclusion:
So what happened?? What can we make of this?
Well, first of all if you look at it from the Carina perspective they get more dull on each new generation of the car, but that also accounts for the driver as well.

On the other hand if you look at this chronologically you will notice you start out as a superstud in your late 20s, be a cool guy in your early 30s, get adventurous in your mid 30s, get suntanned in your late 30s, get cheated on in your early 40s and become a loser in your late 40s. I think that sums up the life of a Carina driver pretty much! ;)

I’m pretty glad I’m still in my early thirties (almost mid thirties) and drive the 3rd generation of Carina. So I’m quite safe at the moment. But my next car won’t be a Carina anymore, I can promise you that!! ;)

For the guy in the commercial: lucky for him the girl still remembers him as the cool guy in his late 20s and smiles, so he should be one lucky guy!