You know the BMW Art Cars, Chicago’s Cows on Parade and Washington DC’s Pandamania, right? In 2008 the venerable Honda Super Cub had its 50th birthday, and to celebrate Honda gave 60 of these best-selling bikes — one for each million sold — to artists for customizing. It was called the Love Cub 50 project, and the bikes were on display at museums in Japan. Now they are being auctioned off on Yahoo Japan with proceeds going to UNICEF. Pics of the bikes currently available for bidding after the jump. (more…)
Here’s an interesting specimen that’s been making the internet rounds. Perhaps unsatisfied with Nissan Yulon’s X-Link as a worthy flagship for a revival of the Datsun brand, someone calling himself Iacoski has offered this alternative.
We’re not really feelin’ the GT-R front, but that side profile definitely recalls the S30 Z and looks good doing it, proving just how timeless the original shape was. In fact, we think it looks better than Nissan’s own leaked 370Z photo. What say you, yay or nay?
For today’s history lesson, we trace the origins of a name synonymous with the import movement: Integra. Say that name and images of bespoilered, front-wheel-drive street racers immediately spring to mind. But before Type-Rs and GS-Rs there was the VT250F Integra, a full-fairing version of Honda’s VT250F motorcycle. Debuting in 1983, the 8-valve V-twin four-stroke made 35hp and revved to an 11,000 rpm redline. It wasn’t a very notable bike, but its early usage of the Integra name should pique some interest in devotees of Acura’s new-age hot rod.
Honda held a ceremony in Tokyo yesterday to celebrate a half century of the Super Cub motorcycle, which went on sale in August, 1958. Although its engines have grown in size and technology, the basic design of the bike has remained the same. The Super Cub has been sold in over 160 countries and in April, Honda sold its 60 millionth unit. Clearly, it holds the record for best selling motorcycle of all time. (more…)
While this isn’t exactly a car, we like how Suzuki has recalled its historic triple blue on white racing livery for a new special edition GSX1400Z. With fuel costs going through the ceiling, motorbikes are looking more and more appealing as an alternative to four wheeled travel. Unfortunately, like many great Japanese vehicles, this one is unavailable in North America. Australian, European and Japanese readers can bike all they want.
With major Japanese manufacturers like Honda and Yamaha going retro with their motorcycles, why not some throwback cars as well?
By any stretch of the imagination, the Honda City was a small car. It’s smaller than the modern-day Fit, which is still sold as the City in some Asian markets. That’s why it’s even more surprising that when the City debuted back in 1981, you could get one with a motorcycle in the back. However, know that the “motorcycle” was actually a 49cc two-stroker with a top speed of about 30mph, and that it would make any rider over age 12 look like a circus bear. Still, it was the perfect trackside runabout, and folded – nay, transformed – into a tidy little rectangle just small enough to prevent any obstruction in the City’s gaping rear window.
Now, thanks to ebay, a brand new, never used Motocompo that some nut has kept in the original box for 26 years can be yours for the price of $3500, or about the price of a spanking new City back in ‘81. Now you might think that’s a bit steep considering the Motocompo cost only $360 then, but for cryin’ out loud, the plastic is still on the seat! We’re sooo tempted to abscond with all that magazine subscription money y’all have sent in and head down to Huntington Beach right now.
Apparently this is quite the hot video meme in Japan right now. We were positively floored by the amazing skills of these Japanese riders, instructors at the Fushimi Techincal Center motorcycle driving school. The Japanese are just as fanatical about their two-wheelers, if not more, as they are about their four-wheelers. During one of our trips to Tokyo in the dead of winter, when our hands were shivering too badly to even take a picture, bikers were flying down narrow Shuto lanes at 70mph, slicing past Hino trucks with inches to spare. Maybe spiking adrenaline makes up for the wind chill. Anyway, if you’ve ever tried to wield a squirrelly, 400lb hunk of steel between your legs, then you know the prowess required to make this video. It takes a while to get started; the good stuff comes along at about 1:30 in. Thanks to yoshi for the tip.
Seriously, Hollywood? Were the millions you made peddling dumbed-down versions of Speed Racer and Transformers not enough? You even managed to dumb down Knight Rider, which had the intelligence of a baked potato to begin with. Do you really need another mountain of gold scraped from the treasured memories of our youth to fill the vaults of your McStudio? Please, Hollywood, no more. We’re begging you. For the love of wrinkly mutant babies, just let us hang on to this one unsullied shred of our childhood.
Readers, in case you haven’t heard, the latest casualty in the remake rampage is Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo’s groundbreaking series about a delinquent biker gang in post-WW3 Neo-Tokyo. If Akira was a car, it’d already be a classic, according to most states’ 25-year threshold. But hell, those who’ve seen it know it was a classic on the day it was born.
Publication started in 1982 in Young Magazine, the Japanese manga weekly also responsible reigniting our passion for hachirokus and Fairlady Zs with Initial-D and Wangan Midnight. It was widely acclaimed as one of the best manga of all time. Likewise, the 1988 anime adaptation cost $10 million for its revolutionary artwork, a record sum at the time, and is credited with introducing Japanimation to the western world.
We’ve watched it at least three times and we still don’t fully understand what the heck is going on. All we know is that it takes place in a dystopian 2030, after Tokyo has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb. And it contains layers of subplots involving terrorists, government conspiracies, nightmarish children that look 87 years old, a hallucinotastic trip with creepy anthropomorphic toys, and killer motorcycle chases. In other words, Totally. F’in. Cool.
In fact, the bikes ridden by main characters Kaneda and Tetsuo have become so iconic that fans have created a slew of real-life replicas. If only Akira’s transformation into live action were to stop there. But no, Warner Brothers is strip-mining this specimen of storytelling perfection and putting Leonardo “King of the World” DiCaprio and some other guy we’ve never heard of in the leading roles. Also, they’re moving the whole setting to Manhattan. At this point, why not just call it something else? Because they want to extinguish our souls, that’s why.
Motorcycle News is reporting that the Honda CB1100F concept unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show will see production as a 2009 model. In a move that seems contrary to the current trend in motorcycle engines, Honda will stay true to the concept and equip the production version with an air-cooled inline-4. Unfortunately, the article also states that the CB1100R, also unveiled last year at Tokyo, will most likely not make it into production.
According to the article, the CB1100F has been in the works for a long time, with patents for it’s innovative air-cooling system filed as early as 2003. In typical Honda fashion, however, no information about this project was leaked in the past four years. Let’s hope Honda has something planned for us on the auto front as well.
By the time you read this, the Tokyo Motor Show will be in full swing, with concepts revealed by the minute. Unfortunately, our Cressida can’t drive on water (yet?) so we’ll have to admire the festivities from afar.
That said, we are both happy and sad to report on this next pair of concepts. Happy, because they are retro-styled. Sad, because they are not cars. Like the Yamaha XS-V1 Sakura, Honda is unveiling two nostalgic bikes for the ToMoShow, the CB1100F and CB1100R.
With a face reminiscent of Asimo’s saucer-eyed mug, the CB1100R concept is a tribute to the 1981 bike of the same name. While the design is all retro, including the red tubular frame, classic Honda racing colors, and gold painted five-spoke wheels, the mechanicals are all modern, with an inverted fork, radial mount calipers, and an air cooled engine that appears to be a stressed member of the frame.
The CB1100F, likewise based on the 1983 high-powered standard of its namesake, has a broader appeal, with a cushy seat for long haulin’ and styling reminiscent of the CBs from the early 80s. The F uses the same engine as the R, although if they make it to production, they’ll most likely exist in slightly different stages of tune.
While these bike are labeled as concepts for now, they seem pretty much ready for production, at least more so than the show’s automotive concepts. For those counting, retro bikes: 3; retro cars: goose egg.
By the time you read this, the Tokyo Motor Show will be in full swing, with concepts revealed by the minute. Unfortunately, our Cressida can’t drive on water (yet?) so we’ll have to admire the festivities from afar.