Here’s a bummer of a leftover from our NorCal photo reel. This billboard for California’s Bureau of Automotive Repairs, DriveHealthy.com, was spotted in San Jose and features a clapped out Datto Sunny as an example of a polluter. It turns out that The Man will give low income drivers up to $500 towards a repair if their car fails a smog check or, scarily, $1000 toward “retiring” (read: scrapping) the offending vehicle. Poor little Datto.
Why yes, that is an airborne 1980 Toyota Tercel leaping over a herd of the now-extinct species Compactus domesticus. Plus a Honda. Though it began life in Japan in 1978, the Tercel arrived on our shores for the 1980 model year. It was the Big T’s first attempt at a front wheel drive vehicle, and apparently they really hadn’t nailed down the whole concept of FWD because the 1.5L inline four was still mounted longitudinally. Yet, unaccountably, they rub Honda’s nose in it.
Did the Tercel herald the coming of a revolutionary new layout to Toyota’s lineup or tragically symbolize the beginning of the end for rear wheel drive? Also, our readers ask in this forum thread, whether in 2020 the Tercel will be a classic or merely an old car. All we know is, any stuntwoman who can catch that much air in a car of any drivetrain configuration turns the keys to our hearts.
When were were young all we got in terms of radio controlled vehicles was a crappy G.I. Joe-branded Jeep that broke within three hours of its emergence from the box. It sat there, mocking us with its uselessness, for the rest of our childhood and was probably the reason we never got into hard core r/c-ing. Fortunately, not all of our readers had such poor experiences with their EM wave-guided minicars.
From the JNC Tasmanian Devil Bureau, seventhskyline brings us news that the Tamiya 3-speed Hilux is back. We have to admit we didn’t even know it was here the first time, but apparently it had such a following that even after it went out of production it was still trading as high as $1200 Australian, which at today’s exchange rates equals about, oh, $1200 American. Then stationwagonguy went and dug up this awesome vintage commercial in which 14 Tamiya Hiluxes pull one 1:1 scale Hilux. Dammit, G.I. Joe Jeep, see what you made us miss out on?
Also, first JNC’er who can name the white car in the Tamiya building parking lot gets an invisible cookie.
When George Lucas wanted to zazz up Star Wars with an automotive cross-promotion in 1977, he opted for a Toyota Celica Liftback. Say what you will about the prequels, but the man had vehicular taste.
A dozen years later in Japan, that 70s space opera and Japanese cars teamed up once again in this 1989 Nissan Skyline ad. The man you see at the beginning explaining his acid trip concept is John Dykstra, the special effects whiz responsible for all the far out visuals in Star Wars and a bunch of other space movies. The Skyline speeding through an alien landscape with a giant planet on the horizon was trippy and reminiscent of the Knight Rider intro, but the badly-dubbed spacefish totally lost us.
Back when we were kids there was no Wii, MyFace, or whatever the hell kids are into these days. The bicycle was the king of birthday presents, and the freedom of movement it provided is probably what turned us into car nuts in the first place. And yeah, we’d put our grubby little paws all over sweet rides just like this kid. We didn’t know any better, but it helped fuel our lust for fine automotive machinery. Decades later, boom, JNC!
