Author Archive

Classic Plastic?

January 13, 2009

Nowadays, there’s so many FRP (Fibreglass Re-inforced Plastic) and Carbon Fibre panels, components and different styles of bodykits available, it’s seems almost commonplace and it can be hard to remember a time when all these things weren’t really a concern for most.  Afterall there was a time when having the car was enough, but of course, with affordability and access to cars becoming so much greater over time, in order for people to maintain some form of individuality over their friends and co-workers who had bought the same car. If you had no fabrication or mechanical skills to speak of, what on earth would you do?!

You’d buy something from manufacturer’s of body-kits and styling products such as this…

Mk 3 Ford Escort with Kamei Body Stlying

Mk 3 Ford Escort with Kamei Body Stlying

They became the thing to have, they could be ordered from many local “speedshops” and/or where a local automotive or bodywork retailer had managed to snaffle the distribution rights.  Generally, as it is now, they were able to be bought in pieces for you to affix yourself or bought as a kit and installed by the retailer.  As you can see by that picture with it’s colour coded wheels as well as kit, taste is a fine thing and you can almost taste that car just by looking at it.

Of course, Kamei wasn’t the only manfacturer of bodykits during the earlier days, there were plenty of others…

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Skyline History, Part 7.

January 12, 2009

Continued from “Skyline History, Part 6.

The C110 series and 4th Generation of Skyline was released for sale in September of 1972.

1972 Nissan Skyline 1600 (4th Generation Skyline)

1972 Nissan Skyline 1600 Hardtop (4th Generation Skyline)

The lineup was very similar to that of the previous generation, with both 4 and 6 cylinder options in a range of either Coupe/Hardtop, Sedan or Wagon/Estate.  The engines were again the G16, G18 in 4cylinder and L20 in 6cylinder form for the Japanese Domestic Market and as with the previous C10/3rd generation Skyline…

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Mayday!

January 9, 2009

This one word may well be what you would hear cascading out from many a classic lover’s mouth once they start to delve in behind the panels of a project car they’ve just bought.  As we all are well aware, old cars rust and they rust badly unless well taken care of.  In the UK, things are even more tragic, with salted roads and by comparison to NZ a mammoth population, it’s a wonder they have as many classic or retro cars as they do.  Despite this fact, the UK like everywhere else is by no means immune to spectacular finds of decidedly rare beasts.  One such car which has been unappreciated in almost all era’s it’s been witness to since it’s inception is the Austin A40 Somerset.  Having only been available from 1952 through to 1954 with production figures around 170,000 it’s safe to say it isn’t a particularly common motorvehicle at least in good shape.  Which this one in question, really wasn’t.

The beginning!  Appears fairly solid from 3 metres.

The beginning! Appears fairly solid from 3 metres.

Most, seeing this car as it stands and looks there in the picture, would think “Well… that’s not all bad… I’ll start stripping it down and replacing a few bits and bobs, she’ll be back on the road in no time.”  However ‘scaryoldcortina’ , famed member of the retro-rides forums and the new owner of this Somerset (thanks to a trade for a Panda (an Italian one, not a Chinese one)) is not most people, he’s a man with a plan, a plan that doesn’t involve the original shape of the car much at all.  So the strip down began…

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Japanese Junkyard

January 6, 2009

Whilst stumbling about for other things entirely I happened upon this website and thought I would share it with you all;

70s Mazda Bonga

70's Mazda Bonga

There’s some cars and trucks in here that I’m sure most people would die for, just scattered about and left to die on their own, in field or yards or other such.  As well as just some peculiar spots.  It’s not uncommon to see pictures of such things from the UK or the US but seeing them in and from Japan is not something that is witnessed with anywhere near the same regularity.

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Selection of Diecasts

January 4, 2009

Over the years, the availability and quality of die-cast cars has increased greatly, due to increased exposure via the Internet and tooling methods used.  It is now possible to cheaply attain high quality, highly accurate representations of a lot of cars, in particular classic Japanese ones.

A good demonstration of this in the 1:64-72 range is the TOMY Tomica “Limited”.  The accuracy and detail of these vehicles is usually quite high.

Tomica Limited Prince Skyline S54B

Tomica 'Limited' Prince Skyline S54B

If you’re interested in what’s currently available new in the “limited” range then visit the TOMY website;  Sadly, it’s all in Japanese so unless you can read it, you’re likely out of luck, translation tools will miss most of the site in that it’s mostly images as opposed to standard text, though with a bit of perseverance you should find your way around fairly well.

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