Tag: Soarer MZ11

Brilliant: collection of Showa scale model cars

February 4, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

Now this was a big jaw-dropper: two videos of a Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 literally covered in Showa scale model cars. This must be the largest personal collection of scale model cars I’ve seen!

Now if you look carefully enough you can see that each and every scale model car has its own special paint job (mostly kaido racer, race car livery or kyusha kai) and set of (rare) JDM rims! If you count the number of hours it took to make them look this way alone it already is an amazing job!

Now the list of cars, mainly from the late Showa-era, is going to be a lengthy one, but I’ll try to sum up the most important ones:

Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 (duh)
Toyota Soarer GZ10/MZ11/MZ12 (including the Shakotan Boogie Soarer twice)
Numerous Toyota Celica XX GA61
Toyota Celica GT RA45
Toyota Corolla Levin TE27
Toyota Corolla Levin TE71 four door sedan
Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 hatchback
Toyota Corsa AL11
Numerous Nissan Skylines C10, C110, C210, R30
Numerous Nissan Cedric/Gloria 230, 330, 430
Numerous Nissan Fairlady S30
Nissan EXA
Hasemi Skyline KDR30 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
Nissan Silvia S110 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
Isuzu Bellet GT-R
Mazda RX-3

And the list could go on for another 20 or 30 models that I overlooked…

Watch video number one: Continue reading

Trivia: Why the Toyota Carina A60 failed in Europe

July 14, 2014 / banpei / 2 Comments

There are a lot of speculations why the third generation Carina (the Toyota Carina A60) failed to sell in large numbers in Europe. One of them is that Datsun (aka Nissan) launched their new Bluebird 910 around the same time and offered a better pricing. This is partly true and this posting is about the other part which can be captured in the scan below:

I made this scan of a Dutch book about Honda and Toyota from the mid 80s. During this period the Carina II T150 was selling quite well while the Carina A60 already had been phased out.

The photos above are press photos distributed in the 80s by Toyota Netherlands (aka Louwman & Parqui) and you clearly see a difference in marketing: the old is marketed with a conservative mustached salesman-guy and the new with the streamlined (French) glider in the background. I don’t think the annotation of the photos need to be translated as they are similar. ;)
Notice the glider: I will come back to that later…

This is obviously not the only marketing they did, another example is this 1982 ad targeted at Ford Taunus drivers: Continue reading

video: Soarer MZ11 versus Soarer MZ21

May 1, 2010 / banpei / 1 Comment

After Thursdays overkill in Soarers I started searching on some videos. I found this short 1987 comparison video of the old (1986) and new (1987) Soarer:

As you can see: the new MZ21 Soarer with Air Suspension did improve a lot over the older (yet already amazing) Soarer with TEMS. The Air Suspension clearly compensates breaking out the new Soarer and keeps it in a straight line… Also the 0.2 liter increased 5M to 7M really makes a difference: about two seconds on the 0-400m run. But that is rather normal for a 70hp increase. Still I personally prefer the MZ11 styling above the MZ21…

Japanese rustoseums (part eight)

March 11, 2010 / banpei / 3 Comments

I found this stack of old rusty J-tin on another rustoseum blog. It features a bunch of Toyota X60s, a Soarer Z10 and a Nissan Leopard F30:

Stack of rusty J-tin
Also visible next to the Soarer is the Laurel C34, Gloria Y31 and a blue 2 door Corolla Levin AE86 coupe.

Rusty Toyota Soarer Z10
Zoom in on the Soarer. It appears to have been either a racing car or a Kaidou Racer. I presume the latter. ;)

Need car guidance? Toyota Soarer 2.8 GT Limited

December 12, 2009 / banpei / 5 Comments

Remember the Car Guidance video of the Honda City I posted two weeks ago? Well, there is a whole series of Car Guidance videos and they are dull, boring and only focused on how to handle the car in a normal way.

So I will just bore you with them as well:

Actually this video about the Soarer GT Limited isn’t that boring: I already spotted the badass 80s Carozzeria speakers at the shelve in the back of that Soarer. I also love those Soarer wheels: they are basically the same as the ones on my Carina (Celica Supra rims) but they have a different centercaps with a griffin (logo of the Soarer) on it.

Also great are the numerous switches on the steering wheel: but what can you adjust? The auto gearbox? The airbag suspension?

And what about the exciting ending? 11PM… Kitty bedtime?! :D

Toyota Soarer MZ11 review

July 21, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

Great! Even though my Japanese is really bad I still can understand the car review of this first generation Soarer:

The Japanese automotive website webCG reviews cars from time to time and the June 2004 issue reviewed this factory stock Soarer MZ11!

Just look at those seats! I already said the same about the seats of the GX61 Mark II Grande Limited: they look like comfortable couches from the 60s! Now that’s a Grand Tourer! :)

Damn, just look at that touchscreen panel! Imagine this was the same era as the “modern” turn dials of the A6 Carina!

If you look at all features and gadgets in this car it would still look as modern as an average car from the year 2000. Maybe to create a car as modern as the year 2000 was their aim?