Vintage cars from Japan anyone?

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19tlb84

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Hi all,
since this part of the forum is described as not guitar related, I thought I'd open a thread dedicated to other Japanese products. I have a couple of those, like the famous Panapet portable radio from Panasonic, e. g.:

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/national_panapet_70_r_70.html

How about Japanese cars up to the 1980ies? I have such a vehicle. It's made by Mazda or Toyo Kogyo, as the company used to be called. To be precise, a 1975 Capella 1600 sedan automatic which was known as "616" in most export countries. It's a funny midsize car that looks like the American cars from the 1960ies and 70ies. The Capella was available with a rotary engine too, and that was called Capella-RE or RX2 on export markets. Not many of these are left, and I wonder if someone on this forum might have a Japanese vintage car?

Best, Talbophile
 
OK how did I miss this thread!!!

The first car I ever bought was an '81 Datsun 280ZX. Would love to have a 240 retro modded with a Infiniti 3.7. Big fan of the older Datsun's.
 
ned said:
OK how did I miss this thread!!!

The first car I ever bought was an '81 Datsun 280ZX. Would love to have a 240 retro modded with a Infiniti 3.7. Big fan of the older Datsun's.

As a high schooler in the 70's, the car that blew my mind was the original Datsun 240Z ..... still think they're amazing. I also remember the little square Datsun 510's that became real popular racers .... kind of like the old BMW 2002's
 
The only downside to the 240Z's were the drum brakes in the back.

When I was vintage racing my 911 with the 130HP engine the 240's would kill me on the straights but the 911 corners a little better and I could go much deeper into the corners due to disc brakes on all 4 corners. Sometimes you had to be patient and give it a couple of laps before the drum brakes on the 240's would start to heat up.

I remember when Paul Newman was racing Datsun's, both the Z cars and the 510's. So cool!!!! Adam Carolla owns a large portion of Newman's old race cars (Datsun/Nissan's) and did a great documentary which I believe is on Amazon. Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman Definitely worth the watch if your into old cars and racing.
 
I'll check that doc out!! Forgot about the rear drum brakes.
Were you ever a fan of the Porsche 914's? I recall that they were great little racers when hotrodded a bit. Back out in California as a kid in the SF Bay area, there was a great race track we'd go to .... Sears Point Raceway. Saw lots of great little 60's and 70's cars racing.
 
Love 914's!!!! They are so much fun to drive, weight almost nothing. My wife has one :D
 
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