Author Archive

Buy my DR30!

0
March 21, 2009
by

Far be it from me to use this blog for personal gain, but unfortunately, it has to be done; the hand has been forced, the die has been cast, all that sort of guff.

under the hammer goes my DR30 coupe. Reluctantly, yes, but also ambivalently so. It’s not that I don’t care about it anymore, but more the fact that selling it may prod me into re-evaluating a few things.

Yeah, it’s personal.

Enough with the obliqueness. Here’s the link, so tell everyone you know who might be interested!

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=209129009

DR30

DR30 for sale

: External Projects

Fuego! Fuego! Fuego!

2
March 12, 2009
by

spotted on trademe:

1985 Renault Fuego TURBO! 117,000 miles, pretty sweet condition, sheepskin seat covers, parts for Africa, and styling only a drunk Frenchman could have come up with… ;)

all for the princely sum of $3000.

Fuego

FIRE!

This guy explains the Fuego Turbo phenomenon far more eloquently than I ever could, but it’s nice to know that it wasn’t only the Japanese who were successfully tinkering around with forced induction back then.

 

technical specs

Renault Fuego
SOHC 8 valve, single carburettor, turbocharged

Displacement: 1.6 litres (1565cc)
Compression ratio: 8.0:1
Power: 134ps/5500rpm
Torque: 20.1kg-m/3000rpm
: Car Spotting

Yard spotting…

2
February 5, 2009
by

Wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise to walk into a car yard and stumble across a tidy nostalgic hidden amongst the late-model plastic fantastic? Here are three such picks from vendors across Japan.

on offer this week from Mibu, Tochigi-based yard GARAGE-SUCCESS is this mint condition 1984 Mazda Savanna RX-7 GT-X. Mileage is 81,000km. Asking price? 840,000 yen.

SA22C

1984 SA22C Mazda Savanna RX-7 GT-X turbo - click to view ad

12A turbo RX-7s, as always, command a healthy premium in the homeland and 840,000 yen is pricey given the current NZD-JPY exchange rate ($18,400 after conversion)… but nowadays you’d be hard-pressed to find another S3 turbo in similar condition on a Japanese yard for any less than around 750,000 yen – especially the mid-range GT-X model with its plush maroon velour interior, full electrics and removable sunroof. This one seems to have escaped serious modification apart from the aftermarket strut brace in the engine bay.

(more…)

: Car Spotting

End of an era – zeppan.jp to close

1
February 3, 2009
by

It is with some regret that I recently learned of zeppan.jp‘s impending closure. For those who have never heard of the site before, it’s one of the interweb’s longest lasting repositories of original showroom Japanese car catalogues, founded in 2001 by a chap who lives in Hiroshima by the name of Takeshi Kubo – once upon a time it was the only place online where anyone not living in Japan could directly obtain hard-to-find vintage and nostalgic car catalogues from, as well as modern ones.

SP310 catalogue

SP310 Fairlady, anyone?

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: Automotive History

’80s turbo talk: Mazda B6T

8
January 29, 2009
by

Hands up if you, or someone you knew, ever owned a BFMR or BFMP Familia at some point. Now keep those hands up if you’ve ever blown a gearbox in one of ‘em before… just kidding.

it’s not hard to see how the humble Familia managed to garner a reputation over here as being the “Evo” of their day. when import laws were first relaxed in the early 1990s they were one of the most popular hi-po vehicles shipped to our shores directly out of Japan, purely due to their ubiquity and bang-for-buck value – at a time when most 2-litre turbo vehicles still remained the domain of rich middle-aged folks, the Familia with its smaller 1600cc B6T engine offered a sizeable chunk of the experience for comparatively little money. The fact that a locally-sold version (the Ford Laser) also shared the Familia’s mechanicals and drivetrain further added to its perpetuity.

BFMR

1985 BFMR Mazda Familia GT-X

And as the decade wore on, the natural rate of devaluation brought them within easy reach of many an 18-year-old amping for their first taste of performance car nirvana.

(more…)

: Automotive Documentation, Automotive History
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