Some of you will have seen it mentioned if you read these entries a bit, that Ewan of Hayatonka.com, (the New Zealander living in Japan who will help you get almost anything you want from there) has a MkII Celica Supra.  I mentioned it somewhere in a previous post.  A while ago, Ewan sent me a bunch of photos of it (I promptly forgot until now, such is my memory)  at which point I realised that I had actually seen the car before, many moons ago on a Toyota site or some such, it’s quite the recognisable car.  I’m sure you will agree.  Firstly, this lump sits nestled under the modified bonnet;

Super-charged 1UZ Toyota V8

As you can see from the height that the supercharger sits, it required a somewhat abnormal addition for a sleek Japanese 80′s vehicle, though an entirely common one for something from American shores…  (more…)

When a few of my options for an April feature car fell through, I got a few mates to make some suggestions and they were all good ones and ones I’ll keep in mind for future months, however during the same time span I received a message from a good guy on the oldschool.co.nz forums, by the nickname of Raizer, asking whether I would be interested in featuring a VW Beetle on my site that belonged to a friend of his.  The timing was perfect.  I needed a car and what’s not to like about a Beetle?  So I got him to send me some info and some photos and here we are now and here is the car itself;

The Garage, filled with Beetle

The Beetle belongs to Kev his plans for it include a 1600 twin port engine with twin carbs utilizing either a Skat racing or Bosch 009 dizzy, lowering catered for in typical dub style with a beam adjuster up front and turned down splines in the rear to keep things evenly slammed.

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With Isuzu only having such a small stake in passenger vehicles, they’re an often forgotten area of car ownership and people don’t realise just how long they’d been in the game.  They could never compete with the likes of Toyota in Japan, after-all, who could?  They’re really on their own as far as production figures go.  The Isuzu passenger cars that are available are often looked upon with affection, a small and rounded affair, the 117 receiving the pen work of an Italian, as many Japanese cars did of the era.  The Bellett however, was not party to this, though that’s not to say it didn’t go without any means to impress.  As most will know the Bellett received a GT-R version the PR91W 1600-GT-R, it was a DOHC affair that did Isuzu proud on track and road alike.  However the focus of this article is the more humble street sedan.

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From looking and getting around in the last few years, you would think it was only the bad parts of the 80′s that had come back to visit us (one hopes temporarily) things like mullets and clothing infested with horrible patterns of a fluorescent nature.  The return of these alone is enough to make one want to kill themself or at least those who perpetuated this fashion nonsense.  It’s only recently that the only important part of the 80′s, the start of the turbo trend in vehicles and hilarious digitised “space-aged” dashboards has become popular again with the masses.

Of course, as with all things there’s those that appreciated and took care of these cars right from the offset.  Once such person is Ed.  Some of you might know Ed or recognize the nickname from his numberplate.  Ed is a key part of retro-classics, his dedication and love of cars was all part of the same passion that aided in retro-classics coming from a concept to a reality.  His devotion (perhaps addiction is a better word) to cars from the 80′s has lead to him having an impressive and ever growing stable of 100% awesome.   The focus of this entry however is probably his largest and longest automotive addiction, that to the Ford Laser.

1985 Ford Laser TX3 4WD Turbo (BFMRF)

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