“When it’s relaxing time, make it…..Suntory Time” Ahh, one of my favourite movies. But it reminded me the other day about Japan’s fascination with western celebrities. It seems that if you are a Hollywood movie star, you may be called to Japan at some time to sell seedless watermelons or washing machines or something.
And the car industry is certainly not immune.
First it was the wakaba mark (also called shoshinsha mark), the green and yellow symbol that new drivers in Japan are required to display on their vehicles for one year. Wakaba marks gained popularity in the US when JDM scenesters began to plaster their cars with them in ironic fashion. Of course since we’re dealing with nostalgics, we opted for the kareha mark (also called fukushi mark), the counterpart for elderly drivers, for our logo and car. In case you hadn’t guessed, the color and shape of the marks represent a spring leaf and autumn leaf.
The four-leaf clover, so frequently seen on St. Paddy’s day, is part of a lesser known yotsuba (or shintai shougai) mark for handicapped drivers. It’s only been around since 2001 and it’s optional. Yeah, it’s not green, but hey, it’s hard to find the luck o’ the Irish in Japan.
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.
After a quite a long period of firstly waiting for the car to arrive from Japan, and then a seemingly-even-longer period of fixing the various issues that the car came with, it was with a certain trepidation that I fired her up and gingerly backed her out of the garage under her own power for the first time.
Okay, all you brochure freaks, thanks to our dear reader colhogen, you’re in for a real treat. Prepare to whittle away hours of your once productive life at the Catalog Gallery of Automotive Nostalgia, a Japanese blog that has nothing but scan after gorgeous full-color scan of vintage car brochures. If you’ve ever been to the specialty shops catering to old brochure collectors, you know that this is several used cars’ worth of eye candy right here. Bon appétit, or should we say, Itadakimas!
Here’s another speculation about the alleged 2010 Supra found in Japan’s BestCar magazine. Ugly, ugly, ugly. The FT-HS concept looked cool because of its angular lines, but this thing just looks like a piece of hard candy that’s been sucked on for 20 minutes. At least the 370Z resembles the 350Z, which resembles (vaguely) the 240Z. The massive intercooler is nice and all, but it’d be much nicer if the car had some remote semblance of Supras past. If this is indeed in the works, let’s just hope Toyota reaches out to fans before tooling up the sheetmetal stamps.
Honda has often turned to the world of music for its model names – Concerto, Prelude, Jazz, Aria, Quintet, Beat, and the subject of today’s plunge into the rabbit hole of rebadging, the Ballade. Introduced in 1980 as a four-door sedan version of the popular Civic hatchback, the Honda Ballade had a British twin, the Triumph Acclaim (not to be confused with the much-maligned Plymouth Acclaim in the US).
This was the product of a deal between Honda, who was looking for a way to break into the European market and meet the UK’s domestic content requirements; and British Leyland, who desperately needed a modern, reliable car to regain its footing in the marketplace after years of labor strikes and plummeting quality. This led to what would become a 15-year tie-up between the two companies.
Honda’s investment proved to be exactly what British Leyland (later renamed Rover) needed to turn its fortunes around. Throughout the 80s, many a Civic, Accord and Legend were sold as a rebadged Rovers. Customers saw the brand slowly regain its reliability ratings and upmarket status. So much so, in fact, that the owners decided to sell the whole shebang out from under Honda’s nose to BMW in 1994. Burn!
Perhaps this is why ever since then, Honda has remained fiercely independent, even throughout the merger-mania that gripped the auto industry in the 90s. The Acclaim was the final car to ever wear the once-proud Triumph name, but at least British Leyland lives on to entertain us as the butt of frequent jokes on Top Gear.
[Image: Wikipedia]
Yesterday we posted about the beauty of road trips with an old ‘Rolla courtesy of The Truth About Cars. Turns out, they’ve been on a Corolla spree recently, with this article celebrating 40 years of the long-lived compact. Though the first ‘Rolla rolled off the assembly line in Japan in 1966, it didn’t take our shores by storm until 1968. We’ve been working on our own little blog post tribute in conjunction with the magazine, but they beat us to the punch fair and square, so take a look. Also, check out this Corolla 40th celebration that took place in Japan in 2006.
Where we left things last was that the mechanicals were now in good shape, but the electrical system was a little haywire. Press the brake, and the headlights would come on (but not the brake lights). Turn on the headlights and the indicators would come on (but not the headlights). Turn the indicators on and….nothing would come on.
So it was time to put down the spanners and pull out the multimeter and get hardcore with a soldering iron.
Our favorite car game of all time has to be Grand Turismo 4. Naturally, the gorgeous graphics and enormous variety of cars and tracks are as fantastic as anything we’ve come to expect from the franchise, but the best part of all was its inclusion of some old school nostalgics – first gen Celicas, 240ZGs, 70s Mitsus, Isuzu Bellets, Bluebird 510s, Prince Skylines, and even tiny kei cars like the Honda S800 and Subaru 360. GT4 made it possible to create our dream garage virtually.
So of course, we were anticipating its sequel, GT5 with mouthwatering giddiness. The new Playstation 3 graphics engines are so hi-res that whereas it took one day to model a car in GT1 – GT2 and one month in GT3 – GT4, GT5 takes an epic six months. That’s why publisher Polyphony is releasing just a teaser in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue as its massive supercomputer rendering farm churns away.
Unfortunately, none of the classics have found their way into GT5. Here’s a list of cars, thanks to our resident game expert Madflava. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for the final version. Those graphics sure are purrdy though. Compare the ’79 Civic in GT4 with the orange TVR Tamora in GT5 Prologue.
Check out our virtual Gran Turismo 4 Show & Shine in the forums.
[Image: Kotaku]
Ever since the first warehouse-sized IBMs appeared on the scene, the unattainable holy grail of computer science has always been a man-made machine that mimics the complexity of the human brain. Well, scientists at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science at Tsukuba, which is sadly unaffiliated with Tsukuba Circuit, have discovered the secret. And as it turns out, the answer is “like a small car,” says researcher Anirban Bandyopadhyay.
This new brain-like computer is only the size of 17 molecules, yet can perform 1000 times the calculations of a modern transistor. We won’t even begin to pretend that we understand the rest of this article, and quite frankly, we don’t even see how this blob of molecules resembles a vehicle, but we’ll take the scientists’ word for it. Dang, we always knew that small cars from Japan held the keys to the human mind!
America ain’t perfect, but damn if she isn’t beautiful. Is there any greater joy in life than taking in this beauty behind the wheel of an old car? Forget voting and the right to pontificate, this is freedom, man. Forgive us as we delve into the realm of sentimentality, but if you want a foolproof cure for every depressing day you’ll ever have, all you need is one nostalgic car and a journey thats at least 500 miles long. Then the next time you feel the weight of the world on your temples, just remind yourself of this experience. For this writer, his beautifully written adventures in a Toyota Corolla have stayed with him, even 30 years later. You can’t buy medicine like that. Makes us want to take the old wagon out for a spin.
[TTAC]
Time for more unfounded rumors from the Japanese auto tabloids. This much is known. The next iteration of Nissan’s landmark sports car, the Fairlady Z, will have the 3.7L motor currently powering its Skyline/Infiniti G37 siblings. What’s pure conjecture, however, is this new shape’s bulging biceps over the wheel wells and arrowhead headlights. We’ve heard from people who study this sort of thing that the next 370Z will be smaller and lighter than the current 350Z, more of a return to the 240Z’s roots, but this pic seems to say otherwise.
[FreshAlloy via Autoblog]
When we were kids, we thought Luke’s landspeeder was easily the coolest vehicle in Star Wars. Why? Because it most resembled a car, of course. Well, except for the lack of wheels. But other than that, it was practically a hover-Miata. Where does a moisture farmer get a sweet ride like that anyway?
Now, as we reveal that we know far too much about the 70s space opera, here’s a vehicle that trumps the landspeeder, AT-AT walkers, the Jawa tank thingy and even Imperial Star Destroyers: the 1977 Star Wars Toyota Celica. The Force is strong with this one, daddy-o. Thirty years ago, this car was a the grand prize in a tie-in between 20th Century Fox and Toyota to promote the movie.
Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that it’s silver and black flanks, plastered with the heads of science fiction characters, would probably draw endless ridicule. It’s got front and rear spoilers, bolt-on fender flares, and nice Centerline-looking wheels. That’s no marketing ploy, it’s a race machine! Oh, wait. It is just a marketing ploy. Still, plenty of people got pulled in by its tractor beam.
According to this article both unearthed by and featuring our beloved Toyotageek, the car appeared briefly in the 80s or 90s to cause a great disturbance in the Force for the bargain price of $1000, only to disappear again without a trace like it had made the jump to hyperspace. Its current whereabouts are unknown, but these aren’t the droids you’re looking for anyway. One thing’s for sure, though. If Luke was cruising around in this baby, he would’ve never left Tatooine.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Nissan teamed up with design house PIKE to create a series of retro-style cars based on the Nissan March. In the West, the most popular one of these cars is the Figaro, which was even named one of the 25 “greatest creations” of the last quarter century by the London Design Museum, even though it was never officially imported to the UK.
Our favorite, however, is its sibling, the awesomely retro Nissan Pao. Keep in mind that in this case, retro means what the Japanese would consider retro. You won’t see an lavish chrome or jutting tailfins here. No, the Pao is reminiscent of early “People’s Cars” cars like the Subaru 360 or Suzuki Suzu-light. These compact, utilitarian machines are what got the majority of the Japanese public on the roads.
Money was very much an object, and the Pao is full of touches that hearken back to those simpler times – check out the exposed door hinges, simple round head and tail lights, beads rolled into the sheetmetal for strengthening, sliding rear windows, color coordinated dash. The list goes on and on. Even the colors – grayish green, powder blue, ivory – were the ones most popular in the late 50s and early 60s. Beautiful!
[Image]
One of the nicest places to visit if you are in Tokyo and have time to kill, is the Toyota History Garage in Odaiba. It’s a small but high quality car museum, cafe and book/toy store.
You’ve seen the photos, now check out some video of the New Year Meeting that our bloke Kev from grandJDM has uncovered. Ah, the memories!
A lot of our readers have Japanese trucks that they use as daily drivers, workhorses, or parts haulers, so this item may be of interest to some of you. 813,000 Toyota Tacoma pickups were built between 1995-2000, and some of those trucks have experienced excessive frame corrosion. As old Japanese car owners, we are sadly all too familiar with the the dreaded oxide scourge. We’re also poor. But, Toyota’s gonna do you guys a solid and give these Tacoma owners a 15-year warranty protecting against the red cancer, and if your truck has already succumbed to the illness, they’ll even repair it for free or buy it back at “excellent” value no matter what the condition is in. Now, if they would only do the same for our 1970s Celicas and Corollas.
In late January of every year, one of the very best classic car events you will find anywhere takes place in Tokyo. It’s the JCCA New Year Meeting, and was beautifully covered by Ben and Dan of JNC.
But in addition to all of the gorgeous pictures you will find at JNC’s event coverage, we’ve found a great deal of video footage of the event. Almost as good as being there….well, almost.
Sigh. We wish we had the budget to head over to Switzerland. We’d love to attend the glitzy shindig known as the Geneva Motor Show (which is going on right now), sample some Swiss chocolate, and visit the Swiss Toyota Museum while we’re at it.
Alas, we have neither the time nor the funds, so we’re living vicariously through our buddies at Autoblog, who snapped some cool photos of Honda F1 racers, old and new. In the sixties, Honda had a knack for coming out of nowhere to take checkered flags, and this RA300, driven by John Surtees in its inaugural race at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix, was no exception. Not bad for an automaker who had only debuted their first car four years prior. Unfortunately, Honda hasn’t been quite as successful in recent years, but the company hopes the new RA108 will change its fortunes for the upcoming year. Maybe by placing the two machines side by side, they’re hoping the RA300’s aura will rub off.
The Geneva Motor Show continues until March 16, 2008.
[Autoblog]
