Tag: nissan pulsar

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

Down on the Street: insane Nissan Sunny GTI-R

November 14, 2015 / banpei / 2 Comments

Everything about this Nissan Sunny GTi-R is insane and I’m not only referring to the specifications of the car! I covered this GTI-R a few years ago with a couple of photos but back then I was ignorant of its importance. As I had to pass this car every other day I decided to collect some more footage this time:

On the Dutch licence registration page the information told me it had been registered officially as a Sunny 2.0 GTI-R van. Wait a minute: someone was able to register a Nissan Sunny GTI-R as a van in 1993?

The video

Enjoy my homage to the Nissan Sunny GTI-R below that I created using the footage I collected during some five to six times passing by:

WTF: Nissan Pulsar N11 Sports-matic gear shifter

June 6, 2013 / banpei / 0 Comments

I accidentally posted this as a blog post earlier this week while it was meant as a linkdump saved as a draft. Probably I pressed the publish button instead of draft…

Anyway, I had a bit WTF when I spotted the automatic gearshift lever in this picture:

Taken from the brochure of the N11 Pulsar (aka the Datsun/Nissan Cherry here in Europe) and it states something about this being a Sports-matic mechanical auto gearbox with an electro magnetically operated clutch. You are supposed to put it in L for the first (low gear), then D for drive (up to 80km/h) as the second gear and OD (overdrive) for the top gear. Do you still get it? I don’t and that’s probably also the reason this ingenious gearshifter never made it past the N11 Pulsar. ;)

This is what the N11 Pulsar looks like as a coupe: Continue reading

WTF: Japanese cars in the Red Light District!

October 22, 2011 / banpei / 0 Comments

I visited Amsterdam earlier this week and while waiting for my train on the Central Station this Amsterdam tourist postcard caught my eye:

Yes indeed: a third generation Mitsubishi Galant, a Nissan Sunny N13 (Pulsar N13 was sold here as the Sunny) and a Datsun Cherry N11 (Pulsar) and ehrm…somthing in the background. ;)

Somehow I knew in the back of my mind it was bad that I spotted these Japanese cars first and a second later the five brightly lit red windows behind them… And I know: it is also a really bad thing to admit… :(

Anyway, I just had to buy this postcard as proof and what unfortunate soul should I send it to? Any volunteers that wish to receive greetings from Holland? Or should I just send it to Japanese Nostalgic Car and see if they can appreciate it as much as I did? :)

WTF: US Nissan Pulsar, 200SX and 300ZX commercial

March 16, 2010 / banpei / 0 Comments

This 1987 US Nissan commercial was posted by Reich and it clearly illustrates why cars and Flashdance don’t match:

WTF were the Nissan executives thinking in the 80s? Apart from the fact that flashdance and cars don’t match it is also weird to have such a commercial in the late 80s when flashdance was clearly out of fashion. Now if they would have come up with the Lambada it might actually have caught the attention of the teenagers. ;)