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Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: Nurburgring Nordschleife

Video: Trueno – Sexy Cruising In Europe

March 23, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday I already posted the Levin video that was posted on HR Blog earlier this week. I promised a follow up, so here it is: the Toyota Sprinter Trueno variant of the same video! D.O posted this additional video on AEU86.

Rally drivers Per Eklund and Klaus Fritzinger drive the Sprinter on the Nurburgring, Zandvoort and Spa again (only the order is a bit different).

This video is even better than the Levin video: the Trueno video shows even more sideways action than the Levin video. Who said Keiichi Tsuchiya and Initial D were the ones to popularize drifting? I think it rather was Toyota with this video! It is a beautiful sight how the panda red Trueno and white Levin do a tandem drift on Spa Francorchamps!

I also spotted a Carina on Spa Francorchamps at @5:41 where Fritzinger talks about the zenki Sprinter Trueno performance. At first I thought he was holding the zenki Trueno catalogue, but when I double checked I found out that pictures of this trip were used in that catalogue, so that wasn’t possible… What was he holding then?

To complete the whole video, the Sexy Sprinter song at the end makes you feel you are back in the 80s again. The echoes of the squealing tires make me want to watch Shuto Trials again! :P

Only the choice for the title of the video is a bit weird IMO. Nowadays it would definitely have a very different meaning. :D

Video: Levin On European Circuits

March 22, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Evan already posted these videos on HR blog, so I’ll just repost them here! They are videos from Toyota shot on several European circuits:

Probably an exhibition video by Toyota to see how well the new AE86 was appreciated in the old world, so this has got to be between May and August 1983.

As you can see they did not use the Euro Levins (aka Corolla GT) but took their own. Both Levins are early GT Apex models: apart from the decals you can see both have the rotating grille and the white coupe has a black moulding on the trunk.

The white Levin shows some nice action when it goes sideways on the Nurburgring before heading over to Spa and Zandvoort. Funny detail is that both Zandvoort and Spa were Formula One circuits at that moment while the Nurburgring was working hard to make a comback with the Eifelring. On Spa they really go wild on the long corners and on Zandvoort they do some faint drifts on consecutive corners. :)

The Corolla sedan in Europe Scenery is a bit of a letdown after all that action! ;)

Tomorrow a follow up on this video, so stay tuned for more! :)

Honda NSX promotional video

December 14, 2009 / / 1 Comment

Personally I’m not really a Honda man, but I do like beautiful things like the NSX! :)

Hiroun156 uploaded this beautiful Honda NSX promotional video from the early 90s (probably 1990) with the NSX driving through European landscapes:

Note that both NSXes used in this video are RHD, so a (temporary) Japanese car import was required to shoot these videos.

And the hand of the driver at the Nürburgring, could that have been Motoharu Kurosawa?

On the other hand, Gan-san did not wear an helmet when he drove that NSX to a 8:16 recordtime in 1990:

Motoharu Kurosawa driving the Nurburgring Nordschleife

January 25, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Yesterdays posting about Motoharu Kurosawa made me wonder what videos I could find about Motoharu Kurosawa. I did find a lot of videos from which I like this video the most:

It is Gan-san doing an almost flat out round on the Nurburgring Nordschleife with a Honda S2000 prototype! Imagine that the whole S2000 wasn’t available back then and it must have attracted a lot of attention back then. If you look careful enough on the last seconds of the video a large part of the car was wrapped in covers so the press wouldn’t see its final shape!

As you can see the car is very fast! It passes a lot of motorcycles with great ease and he drives several times at the limit, sometime losing control just a tad bit. But during most of the run he remains seated very calm.

The run isn’t timed, but it is somewhere around the 8:45. If you look at the laptimes you will see that it around the same laptime as Horst von Saurma did with a S2000. But it is nowhere near Gan-san’s own record of 7:56 with the NSX-r.

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