We suspect most of our readers are not in the Sabrina Carpenter demographic, but there’s no denying she’s one of the biggest pop stars in music right now. Her music video for ‘Manchild’ debuted on June 6 and it plays like a madcap 80s road trip movie. As Carpenter hitchhikes her way across the desert she encounters a wide variety of oddball vehicles, including much Nihon steel.
A light blue 1981 Toyota Celica Liftback is seen repeatedly throughout the video. We think it’s meant to represent several different cars, as opposed to the same car appearing in different scenes. The A40 Celica was everywhere in the 80s, but is rarely seen in movies of the period. The Liftbacks in particular had interesting design elements, especially in the long C-pillar, and we’re glad the directors captured it from a variety of angles.
The weirdest car in the video is half a Honda Acty. We’re not sure if someone actually sawed off the bed of this kei truck or if this was just CG trickery, but the effect is certainly striking. Since the 660 inline-three on a real Acty is located at the rear, it’s not clear how a contraption like this would even run (or stay upright).
Another flat-faced cab comes in the form of the Isuzu Elf. This early fifth-gen actually looks like a complete truck, except for the front wheel. Rather than spinning on its own, it’s strapped to a dolly like an overloaded livestock transport in a developing country.
No collection of 80s heaps would be complete without an NUMMI Corolla. This model not only paradigm shifted Toyota’s mass-market offerings to front-wheel-drive, but was birthed from an unprecedented joint-venture between Japan and America’s largest automakers. This one appears to have a standalone AC unit mounted to it.
Last but not least is the star of the 80s, the Datsun 280ZX. It’s never shown moving under its own power, but the two-tone S130 does make for some good desert eye candy. There’s also a whole lot of Detroit iron throughout the video in a landscape filled with vehicular strangeness.
There’s not a whole lot of coherence in the “plot” of the video, but if this were a film trailer it would seem highly entertaining. We’d check out the movie just for the carspotting opportunities alone.
Who knows, maybe Carpenter has an interest in JNCs! I have seen ACTYs stop hard enough and end up doing an endo, just like the one in the video.
I wish this Honda Acty to be a Segway swap
She should do a concert at JCCS
I’m not really the audience for her music but I quite enjoyed watching the video.