Teruyoshi Iwai campaigns one of the coolest D1GP cars around, a KP61 Toyota Starlet stuffed with a 4AG with TRD and Silk Road suspension components. Apparently Iwai made his triumphant return to D1 in Round 5 at Ebisu Circuit, but was easily eliminated by the newer, more powerful competition. Clearly, though, Iwai is the champ when it comes to style points.

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Here is the first of a series of vintage race videos that we’ll be posting this week. We stumbled upon this while catching up with beoneoneoh, who can always be counted on to unearth the Sunny-related. This is footage from a race that took place at Tsukuba Circuit almost exactly 32 years ago, on May 29, 1977.

In the hotly contested TS Class all the major players came to the fight: Nissan with the Sunny, Toyota with the Starlet, Honda with the Civic, and Mazda with the Savanna RX-3. Sunnys saw much success in the series and this race was no exception. According to the video’s notes, factory Nissan driver Kenji Tohira took first place in the No. 15 Sunny 1200GX.

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Before the Toyota Starlet became a hot RWD hatchback, it was part of the Publica line, chassis code KP40, like the Celica Supra. Before that, there was this, the KP30 Publica Coupe, sold as simply the 1000 in Europe.

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If you happened to see a blue Cressida wagon and blue AE86 pulled over on the 710 by the California Highway Patrol on the way to Toyotafest last Saturday, that was yours truly at JNC. We were running late and, shall we say, briskly, but an irate Officer Poncharello thought we were street racing. Somehow, we were able to convince him we weren’t and made it to the show to take the photos in this gallery. Unfortunately, each of us still got one of these: (more…)

Tired of the same old auto sites gushing nonstop about Porsche this, Ferrari that, ZR1 WTF OMG!? Enter Clunkbucket, an automotive site catering to the most unloved, obscure and forgotten specimens of the vehicular kingdom. Naturally, that includes a healthy dose of Japanese iron, like the Suzuki Cervo. But a typical Clunkbucket cross section also includes homage to motoring luminaries such as the Fiat Multipla, Citroen SM and 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III. Also, the man behind the site, our buddy Mike Bumbeck, has excellent taste in personal transport with his Toyota Starlet and Mitsubishi Starion. Seriously, who needs another Bentley review when you have the Saab Sonnet?

Well, it’s Monday. We know everyone hates them and feel sluggish when it rolls around. So to start your week off right here’s a 3S-GTE Starlet with an intercooler bigger than its entire frontal surface area doing one massive burnout.

[Cardomain]

We’ve been browsing through the back entries on this new Speedhunters site and came across this awesome image of a KP61 Toyota Starlet leaving the terra firma. This rear-wheel romper was part of the recent Sol Rally Barbados 2008 held on that Caribbean island. There’s some old school Toyota love shown at this event, plus the 90s AWD rally monsters. Check out more pics here.

[Speedhunters, Image: JustBajan.com]