Remembering Japanese cars from the past
My favourite Showa-nostalgic Youtube channel Kamepo posted another video: the Shuto Expressway on the Shunjuku route. This time you get a comparison between 1993 and 2024 and there are a lot of interesting cars to spot!
The highlights of this video are a Mazda RX7 FD on a flatbed, a French Citroën BX GTi 8v, two Toyota Prius-es (or Priora in Latin) XW50 and XW60, a Subaru BRZ ZD8, an Autozam Revue and also a Honda Integra coupé DA5.
Today is my third day in the San Francisco bay area and I think I’ve shot at least 50 photos of remotely interesting cars with my phonecam and about 20 interesting cars with my analogue SLR. Time for a small recap!
First of all I found it hard to believe, but in the first 10 minutes of driving with the rental car to the hotel I spotted an 240SX S14, a Lexus SC400 and a drift style 240SX S13. I think if I would have spotted those cars in the Netherlands it would have taken me either a week to spot them or I must have been at a meeting at that moment. ;)
Second of all: everybody drives an Integra!
SF Bay area: everybody drives an Integra
Again: back home the Integra is just as omnipotent as my Carina, so spotting one is quite rare. In the bay area everybody seems to be driving an Integra!
I looked it up on Wikipedia:
A total of 301,102 Acura Integras were sold from calendar year 1994 to 2000 in the U.S.
And I bet most of them are still driving around in the bay area!
Apart from the Integras I saw many many many Nissan 350Zs!
SF Bay area: everybody drives a 350Z
The 350Z is back home a bit less omnipotent as the Integra, but here you see them on about every parkinglot. The one above was shot in downtown SF btw.
Runner up is definitely the Mazda Miata (or MX5s) and for some weird reason none of them was topless. After the Miata it gets a bit harder, but I guess it probably would be the four door Charger…
I did see much variation in the styling: from lowrider trucks to drift cars to big rim cars to hellaflush ratlook roofracked Integras:
SF Bay area: Hellaflush roofrack Integra
I must say this car was pretty bad maintained and the rat look was not deliberately made.
Last but not least: I spotted many many older cars including this Cressida MX61.
From this angle it looks great, but on the right side it was pretty smashed up. Which brings me to another weird thing: everybody tends to keep on driving with insanely dented cars. In the Netherlands most people get their cars fixed as soon as they get a dent in it, but it appears as if you don’t need to fix up your car and you keep on driving as if nothing ever happened.
SF Bay area: Smashed up Cressida
That’s it for now, but I’m positive I’ll have more of this stuff in the upcoming days. ;)
I was re-reading some of the old magazines and in a volume of Practical Classics from a few years ago they were featuring the Honda Quintet, aka the Honda Quint in Japan. So of course I started looking for old commercials of the Quint and Quintet:
Wow! What a cheesy 80s synthesizer tune! And look at those special effects!
The Honda Quint was literally filling the gap between the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord: the car is a lengthened Civic with a mix of Civic and Accord bodypanels, and most importantly: the Accord 1.6 cvcc engine!
It is also funny to see where the Honda Integra started from: the 1985 Integra was initally lauched as the Honda Quint Integra in Japan!
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