Author Archive

Want to buy from YAJ? Here’s How.

2
April 20, 2009
by

Having recently gone through this myself, I thought I would share the simple process with you all so you feel less worried by it or rather can just understand the simplicity of it all and realise there’s little to lose and much more to be gained.

If you’re like me, you would have spent ages scouring the YAJ (Yahoo! Auctions Japan) website, countless hours of countless days dreaming the dream of owning those parts that are seemingly unavailable anywhere else other than shops in Japan which you’re unable to visit or they’re un-willing to send, or the worst of the lot that they’re not unwilling to send but rather that there’s the language barrier.  So, here’s the solution!

When you use their contact form, the person you’ll come into contact with is Ewan.  He’s a friendly and exceedingly helpful chap and best of all, he comes from New Zealand and so speaks and understand English perfectly.

So, you’ve got a contact point.  What now? (more…)

: YAJ - Yahoo! Auctions Japan

2009 ‘Exciting Car Show’ – Japan.

2
April 20, 2009
by

OK, so not all these pictures are of a retro nature and on top of that, they’re not a massive resolution but what they do show is another viewpoint taken by the non-professionally mannered photographers, a different angle on some of the cars we’ve already seen at this show via other websites such as noriyaro.com and speedhunters.com.  The few I’ve sampled here are essentially the retro shown.  You can see the rest by clicking the album link at the base of this entry.

Japanese Modified Mini

Japanese Modified Mini

How cool is that little Mini?  The answer…  Very.  Fender Mirrors, SSR’s, Hilarious Roofrack to carry picnic type table.   I dig it.

Next up, this little SE70 Corolla that everyone seems to love; (more…)

: Events

High Resolution Skyline 1900 Sprint

0
April 17, 2009
by

Sorry for the lack of anything posted yesterday and also for the lack of anything of substance in this post. I’ve been a bit busy and had the mind occupied with the potential purchase for me of another Prince Skyline, it has been consuming all my thoughts and in turn I neglected this site, I’ll try to not let that happen again. Honest.

Whilst I try compile something for later today, here’s a big ass picture for your downloading desires;

Prince Skyline Sprint 1900 (R52)

Prince Skyline Sprint 1900 (R52)

The picture is hosted on conceptnissan.com where there’s some pretty cool other vehicles to squizz at too, so take a look around.

-Michael

: Automotive History, Photographs for Wallpaper

Retro Video; Boosted Starlet

2
April 15, 2009
by

A lot of you will be familiar with this car now, it’s been at least mentioned on here a few times, perhaps only once…  regardless.  It’s Alistairs EP70 Toyota Starlet.  When he bought it recently all the hard work was done but externally it looked fairly average.  Rather than tart it up, Alistair decided to return it back to more of an original look.  Being it houses a 4E-FTE from a later model Glanza Turbo Starlet and is quite capable in the performance stakes, the look is one more commonly referred to as “sleeper”.  Though nothing external, here’s a little video Alistair made lastnight and then posted on YouTube, it gives you a little idea of how rapid this tiny machine can be.

Hopefully he’ll have some external shots of it at the strip and at the track sometime in the not too distant future and the moment he does, I can guarantee you that I’ll have it up on here.

You can read more about the car on oldschool, here;
Alistair’s EP70 Nana Racer

-Michael

: External Projects, Retro Videos

Buying from YAJ (Yahoo! Auctions Japan)

0
April 14, 2009
by

OK, so whilst most of you likely went away or did something awesome on your days off over easter, I did very little.  I drove around a very bland looking Audi A4 and although it was very polite and comfortable with it’s ways, it certainly lacked a lot of the character that I’m used to in my own vehicles, perhaps being tip-tronic was of no assistance to it, but that’s beside the point I think.  Mixed in with this driving of a vehicle beyond my means, was the important part.  The sussing out of particulars involved in the purchase made on my behalf of replica 110GT-R flares, in Japan, on YAJ.

The flares themselves, are these ones;

Replica KPGC110 Bolt-on Fibreglass Flares

Replica KPGC110 Bolt-on Fibreglass Flares

Sure, they don’t look like much but they’re specific to the C110 in that they have to cater for the bodylines at the rear of the car and they wrap around the majority of the length of the arch as opposed to the universal type which in general will just crown the wheel-arch.  I managed to win the auction at the starting bid.  Though before any of this even took place, I had emailed the amazing Ewan @ hayatonka.com asking for a basic estimate on what it would be to get these suckers to my door.  He replied within the day and his basic estimate turned out to be very close to the final price.  Being the size, composite and fragility of the items it wasn’t the easiest to guess.  His initial estimate coming only 1820JPY shy of the final costing. The discrepancy in price turned out to only really be the weight, 2kg was actually 3kg and so internal Japanese freight and then International freight to NZ rose slightly because of that.  They should arrive to my door within the next 7 days, once they do I’ll let you all know and probably do a little taped onto the car mockup just for shits and giggles.

-Michael

: 110-Project, Authors Cars, YAJ - Yahoo! Auctions Japan
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