Tag: cherry F10

JDM Trivia #4: Nissan Sportsmatic

December 23, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

JDM Trivia number four: Nissan Sportsmatic

Nobody took a guess at last weeks teaser and maybe it was a bit too strange indeed. So the question was what is this device called and what does it do?
The device is the Nissan Sportsmatic that was featured in both the Nissan Cherry F10 and the Nissan Pulsar N10 coupe.

The sportsmatic for the F10 was a conventional autobox with torque converter, but the Sports-Matic in the picture is the version on the Pulsar N10. This gearbox is an automatic by Nissan that isn’t a slushmatic, but uses an electromagnetic clutch to engage and disengage the drive.

Engagement knob

The engagement knob for this automatic gearbox is a bit unconventional: shifting it up puts it in Drive, shifting it down puts it in low gearing, to the right is the Over Drive while Reverse is left up and Park left down. Continue reading

Picture of the Week: Dutch Datsun car dealer in 1977

December 20, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

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:

What I quickly spotted in this photo was (from top left clockwise):

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

Friday video: junkyard car crashes

November 18, 2011 / banpei / 0 Comments

Where do stuntmen come from? Well apparently in the Netherlands they first work on a local junkyard for a couple of years!
Krimson37 taped a bunch of the crashes he made in 1992 and I picked out two involving destruction of J-tin.
Small warning in case you understand Dutch: be prepared for some foul language…

First of all a bright yellow Cherry F10 gets vandalized:

Also at 3:25 you can see a crushed first generation Honda Accord while the camera zooms in… When the guy enters the Cherry he is surprised that it even features a rev-counter.

The second video features a first generation Toyota Carina TA14 seeing some Seibu Keisatsu action:

Such a shame…

Direct links to videos:
Yellow Cherry F10
Carina TA14

JAF2011: Finally some celluloid photos! (part 2)

June 10, 2011 / banpei / 0 Comments

In total there were three AE86s on the paddock. Yesterday I already posted the purple Corolla AE86 with the BEAMS 3S-GE conversion, so how about this red Corolla AE86 with some deep dished SSR dori-dori rims?

His Corolla Levin AE86 started its life as a Swiss red panda Corolla GT and slowly he migrated it to a driftstyle hachi.

Oldskulls Corolla (Levin) AE86 @JAF2011
He actually downgraded its looks by removing the Vertex bumpers. Personally I like it much better with the stock bumpers back on again: mimics the grassroots JDM driftstyle much better!
BTW: The photo was a bit of over exposed on the left due to inserting the film.

The hachi is owned by my friend Oldskull and I still think it is amazing what he does to it! The SSR Dori-doris are just a small example how great you can make a hachi look!

Oldskulls deep dish SSR Dori-dori rims @JAF2011
To shoot this photo I had to lay down on my knees and I almost knocked over another photographer.

After a while the free runs were due and a long line of cars were anxiously waiting to make some rounds:

Long line of cars waiting for tracktime @JAF2011
The lineup mainly consisted of Skylines, Silvias, Lancers, Integras and Civics…

Another eye catcher was this immaculate Cherry F-II at the Dutch Nissan club:

Immaculate Cherry F-II F10 @JAF2011
It featured some vintage 80s 15 or 16 inch wheels that looked a lot like the Borbet rims.

It also featured an oldskool chin spoiler with a vintage Datsun racing badge on it:

Vintage Datsun racing badge on a Cherry F-II F10 @JAF2011
One of the best things I’ve seen at the JAF!

And also a Heartbreaker for Japan sticker:

Heartbreaker for Japan sticker on a Cherry F-II F10 @JAF2011
Even though this Cherry is a FWD it was by far one of the most impressive cars on the paddock!

Stay tuned for more photos on an even more impressive Nissan in the next part!

Ying and Yang Datsun Cherry F10

May 19, 2009 / banpei / 5 Comments

Yesterday Japanese Nostalgic Car posted pictures of the Z-Car Club of Inland Valley Show in Temecula. Even though the name implies that it was a Z-Car only meeting, there were actually quite a lot of non Z-Cars at the meeting!

The most spectacular of them was this double frontend Datsun Cherry F10:

Double frontend Datsun Cherry F10

The two 1977 Cherry F10s were welded together by Fram to show how important car maintenance is: one half did get its proper treatment while the other half was neglected. The car was driven 20000 miles per year and after 75000 miles the neglected side really performed worse, got a bad MPG and produced more smog.

Double frontend Datsun Cherry F10
After they had proven their point the whole car got neglected until Steve Jasik found it more than 10 years ago parked next to a church.

The funny thing is that the lights in the grille serve as brake lights to make it road legal. So you can actually drive this car on the road without any problems at all!

He called the car Ying and Yang. According to Wikipedia: Ying and Yang is used to describe how seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn. I think the name suits the car very well!