Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: Honda City (Page 1 of 4)

Would you like some Meiju Saucer on your Honda City? – Commercial Time

This aero kit and Saucer wheels on the Honda City was developed in the early 1980s by a tuning shop called Motor Sports Meiju in the Kyoto prefecture in Japan. 40 years onwards, it looks strange and heavily dated. It looks crude and this is not how Aero evolved over the past 40 years. So what is it and who is this Keiji dude sitting with a wheel in his lap?

1983 Motor Sports Meiju Saucer wheel ad
1983 Motor Sports Meiju Saucer wheel ad

Motor Sports Meiju history

I guess I first have to explain what Motor Sports Meiju is. It all begins with the late racing driver Keiji Matsumoto (松本恵二). Matsumoto started his career in 1968 when he bought a used Toyota Corolla and, unbeknownst to his parents, he stripped off all unnecessary accessories and started practising on Suzuka Circuit and the Higashiyama route near his hometown of Kyoto. He debuted in 1969 in the T-1 class and worked his way up via FJ1300 to F2000, a precursor to the F2 class in 1976. In 1979 he managed to win the, by now renamed, F2 class. Shortly after this, he started his own tuning shop called Motor Sports Meiju. Matsumoto is a very well-known Japanese racing driver and featured in many Cabin Spirit ads.

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These Honda City Turbo prices are madness! – Classic valuations

Only a few days ago I posted the incredibly scary crash video of a Honda City. Lately, I haven’t been paying attention to the classic valuations of anything other than an AE86 or Carina A60. Understand my huge surprise when someone (Emin) sent a Honda City Turbo II for sale in Düsseldorf. The asking price? A mere 69,000 euros! (Or 74,000 dollars)

Honda City Turbo II for sale in Düsseldorf for 69K euros
Honda City Turbo II for sale in Düsseldorf for 69K euros

Okay, it’s one of the best City Turbo IIs on the market and has only driven 9000 kilometres. It’s completely bone stock and even features the original disk wheels.

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Shocking 1985 Honda City crash test – WTF?!

The crash video of the 1985 Honda City below is only 3 seconds long and it must be one of the shortest videos you can find on Youtube! Regardless of this, the three seconds (and video description) contain a lot of information. So let’s dissect that information!

First of all, the title is “1985 Honda Jazz (City) crash test” and that gives us the information that either the car is a 1985-model, or the crash test was performed in 1985. I think the former may be true as there is a timestamp in the video that reads 21-12-1999, which indicates the test might have been performed on the 21st of December 1999.

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The tall boy dissected: Honda City – Picture of the Week

This week I already posted twice about the Honda City, so why not stick to it for the picture of the week post? Today we will look at a dissected Tall Boy: the Honda City! For those unaware: Honda nicknamed the Honda City the Tall Boy. They did so because of the relatively high profile of the car, giving it a lot of space.

Honda City was nicknamed the Tall Boy
Honda City was nicknamed the Tall Boy

The Honda designers created the tall CITY logo to support the tallness of the car. The Honda leadership liked it so much that they retained this. That’s also the reason why all sorts of tall and city puns, like the Manhattan HiFi, were created. It’s a shame no Motocompo can be found in this cutaway drawing.

Better than the motocompo: Honda City R Manhattan HiFi – WTF?!

If you thought the Honda Motocompo moped was the best accessory of the Honda City, you’re very wrong! The best accessory for the Honda City R is, by far, the Manhattan HiFi! If you’re wondering what the heck that is, it looks like this in the brochure:

Honda City Manhattan Sound accessory
Honda City Manhattan Sound accessory

Yesterday we featured a Family Album Treasure lightly touching upon the Honda City, but today we have a deep dive into the Honda City!

What is the Manhattan Hifi?

As the name implies, the Manhattan HiFi is a Honda City boombox! Literally! It wasn’t an accessory you could order, but rather more a whole car! Basically, you could order the Honda City R with this big boombox mounted to the ceiling in the rear making your Honda City a boombox!

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Baggy Trousers with my Honda Civic – Family Album Treasures

The owner of this second-generation Honda Civic strikes such a strange pose that I immediately had to think of the wacky Madness Japanese TV ads for the Honda City! It’s like he’s doing that strange Madness-walking dance!

Honda Civic owner doing the Madness walking-dance
Honda Civic owner doing the Madness walking-dance

If you are unfamiliar with what that dance looks like, this is the album art of the Madness Honda City LP that was released in Japan:

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