Tag: Japanese
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Former Lane Motor Museum Push-Me-Pull-You 1979 Honda Civic!
How do we know this came from the Lane? We’ve seen it in the basement! Also, anything this weird in Nashville probably has something to do with Lane. So, what is it? It’s two front halves of 1979 Honda Civics grafted together, resulting in two driver’s seats, side-by-side and facing opposite directions. As clearly noted…
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Pre-Volvo Dual Forced Induction:1989 Nissan March Super Turbo
Several years after the original March/Micra launched, it seems Nissan wanted its own race series for these little buggers; so the March Super Turbo was born. What that means is 110 HP out of 0.93 liters. This was achieved using both a turbo and a supercharger! This example was apparently imported to the US by…
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Modified 1988 Suzuki Samurai with VW TDI Power
First, this is an older TDI engine; so don’t assume VW will buy it back! With that out of the way, we think this is a great swap idea. Anyone worth his or her weight in compost knows that the often-disrespected Samurai is an amazingly capable off-roader. Adding torque via a turbo-diesel is, we think,…
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Isuzu Bellel Three-Fer: 60s Japanese Diesel Sedan Goodness
The Isuzu Bellel (which, the interwebs state, references fifty bells – the meaning of Isuzu) was Isuzu’s first in-house design, but was inspired by the Hillman/Sunbeam Imp Minx, which Isuzu previously built under license. These are rear-wheel drive sedans and were originally offered with diesel or gasoline engines. Today’s feature includes not one, not two,…
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Kenmeri from Bahrain: 1974 Nissan Skyline 240K GT
The C110 Skyline was known as the Kenmeri due to the ad campaign which launched it and featured decidedly non-Japanese actors. This started life as a right-hand drive 240K GT but is now left-hand drive and features an L28 in place of the L24. The work on this car appears to have been done to…
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1971 Honda Vamos
Here’s one we’d never heard of! The Vamos was based on Honda’s mini-truck, the TN360, and was a mini-Jeep competitor (think Suzuki). The interwebs consistently indicate that about 2,500 of these were built; so this is rare outside the Lane Motor Museum (surely they have one). The seller of our subject unit provides almost no…
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Factory Supercharged Subaru Sambar Posing as VW
Once upon a time, a Subaru 360-based Sambar van was sold in the US market. This is the fifth generation, which was produced from 1990 to 1998 and was never sold here. The VW appearance it cute and all, but we’d prefer this just be a proud Subie. Surely nothing has been done that can’t…
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Daihatsu Trimobile: The Three-Wheeled Mircocar from Japan
Here’s a rare beast in the US. The Daihatsu Midget was a utilitarian microcar sold in Japan for several years and sold and marketed in the US as the Trimobile for a few years starting in about 1959. Apparently, these were primarily used inside large manufacturing plants in the US, but can be registered and…
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Z21: The Zombie Truck
Yes, it’s called a D21; but we’re referring to this oddity as the Z21 due to its zombie theme. The zombie theme consists of a mural on both sides and the tailgate. For some reason, brass knuckle decals are also featured in several places. Do brass knuckles even work on zombies? The seller claims there’s…
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Rare Datsun 1200 Two-Door Wagon
Nissan positioned this V320 as a small van, and it is closely related to its trucks of the time; but we see it as a small wagon. Either way, it’s damn cool and has massive potential. This example needs a lot of help, both cosmetically and mechanically, but the good news is that it appears…