Author Archive

Authors’ Cars: this is why squid will never be finished, Ed!

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August 1, 2011
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After selling my white T-top MR2 SC, I lasted all of two weeks before giving in to temptation and commenced searching for another AW11 to trundle around in for everyday duties.

If anyone’s keeping count, this is number five.

Test drove a couple of examples up here in Auckland and was severely disappointed by a) price, b) various mechanical faults, and c) an endemic reluctance on the part of each seller to negotiate a) based on b). Gave Ewan @ hayatonka a call as well, but a search of the auctions and yards in Japan yielded no results within budget, apart from a couple examples with major rust that would never have passed compliance here in NZ without $$$$ worth of repairs :doubt:

Then just as I was about to give up, I received a phone call from a good friend in Wellington saying that one of his mates was selling a tidy hardtop manual AW11 SC, in more or less standard condition, and was I interested at all?

And it's all over you. Electric Blue.

(more…)

: Authors Cars, Automotive Documentation, Inspiration, Random Retro Snap

Car for sale: Hasemi Skyline replica

1
July 12, 2011
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Can’t help but think: one drive around the block here in NZ and that front spoiler’s gonna break off…

Looks like a lot of time and effort went into reproducing the Silhouette kit, and the price tag reflects that. The rims aren’t exactly right and it may not be running a LZ20B under the bonnet, but there’s more than enough cool bits attached to the FJ20 to make it sound like it could be pretty fun!

Yours for a cool 2.5 million yen.

I don't even think I could get it into my driveway.

Tomica DR30 Skyline Silhouette replica for sale on Yahoo Auctions Japan »

: Car Spotting, Cars for Sale, YAJ - Yahoo! Auctions Japan

Random retro snap: Dish o’ Wedge

1
June 27, 2011
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Damn, those dished Works fill the guards nicely on this AW. I wonder what the measurements are?

Red Two, standing by.

Photo courtesy of minkara

: Car Spotting, Inspiration, Random Retro Snap

“So anyway, this is the height of lunacy…”

1
June 22, 2011
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Combine a 12 volt battery, a GM-4M amp, a KP-707G cassette deck/graphic EQ combo, a speaker I pulled out of my old AW11, and an old tape I had lying around… clearly I had nothing better to do this evening.

The setup will eventually be going into the RX-7 anyway, so it was a useful test if nothing else.

: Authors Cars, Automotive History, Retro Videos

Let the retro audio build commence!

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June 6, 2011
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Fresh off the container from Japan!

I now have all the components required to build the audio setup for the RX-7 (and eventually squid, seeing as there’s enough stuff for two cars here, plus some leftovers…) As soon as I find my spare 12V battery I can get on to testing each unit to see what is operational and what isn’t.

No, I'm not going to put them all in one car.

Being a “Component” system, the cassette decks don’t actually function unless plugged in via one of the main amps (each module has a ‘standard’ Pioneer 8-pin connector), with the graphic equalizer being an in-line unit. As you can see from the photo there are three amps to choose from – the top one is a “baby” GM-2 with 6.5W of continuous power, the middle one is a midrange GM-4M with 16W, and the bottom one is the mean mother thirty-watt GM-D8. Nifty.

The decks themselves, from top to bottom, are a KP-77G, another KP-707G (to match the one I bought off trademe for a dollar), and a KP-88G.

Now all I gotta do is conjure up some cassettes to test with. Off to Real Groovy with five bucks I shall go!

: Authors Cars, Inspiration
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