Remembering Japanese cars from the past
There are some questionable memorabilia that I own. Like for instance an unused official Toyota Carina notepad with Sonny Chiba and Kayoko Kishimoto riding on top of a 3A-II engine. Yes, that sounds more bizarre than it actually is, but I digress… I found this Toyota 3T-GTEU ashtray for sale on Mercari and I was stunned by its price: 166 dollars!
It does look very similar to the 3T-GTEU head. For comparison, here is an image of a Bond-girl hugging a 3T-GTEU engine:
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Last week I came across a box of Max Orido’s Magical Fuse in one of the blog items of the AE86 Black Limited in the AE86 Wall of Shame. I had never heard of this product, but the name intrigued me very much. Max Orido is a well-known name in the AE86, 86 and GR86 scenes and he must know what’s good and what’s not. But magical sounds too good to be true! So is Max Orido’s Magical Fuse just a snake oil scam or is it really that wonder product that he claims it is?
Let’s begin with what it is. Max Orido didn’t create the Magical Fuse himself. A company called Magicalfuse was the one who developed and created them. Orido just sells them in his shop. The Magical Fusebox is nothing else but a box full of fuses. And this box costs well over 130 dollars. Yes, really! Those fuses are expensive! But why?
You may think what was he smoking? Revolt against Fortran which are mega rare Japanese alloy wheels? Yes, I wasn’t aware of these wheels myself until I found a brochure for sale on Yahoo Auctions. I wasn’t interested in the brochure, but rather more the big REVOLT on it. This is the brochure in question:
1985 was the peak of the digital gauge clusters. When digital gauge clusters were introduced with the Aston Martin Lagonda in 1976 they were a luxurious feature. However, by the early 1980s, Toyota already launched their Soarer with a similar digital gauge cluster. Toyota being Toyota, copied their new technology to other upmarket cars like the Chaser, Cresta, Mark II, Celica, Carina and Corona. Soon other brands, like Nissan, followed suit and also featured digital gauge clusters in their top models. By the mid-1980s these digital gauge clusters had trickled down to even the smallest commuter cars like the Honda City and the Nissan March. The gauge cluster of the Nissan March is what we feature today!
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I thought a Nissan Sunny GTi-R registered as a van was already outrageous, but one driven by a diplomat is even more bizarre! But like every new Guinness world record: it will be broken. So yeah, a GTi-R on diplomatic license plates has become the new norm! I have to admit that, as a big exception, I didn’t spot this car myself.
If you have never heard of the 1987 Mazda Étude: you are not alone! I personally never heard of it before and it was a big WTF?! when I saw it first. At first I thought I was looking at an Isuzu Gemini, but those tail lights resembled something else. When I looked at the badge I was even more baffled: Étude?
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