Hirstのブログ一覧

At the moment, I'm writing a new magazine article about the original Subaru Alcyone. It's known here as the "XT" and is an extremely rare car. In my whole life, I've only seen one! They were popular in America, though. It's a good time to write, since it's very cold and raining outside.

In that photo, I had driven to Nottingham to see a friend and there was a lot of fog on the empty country roads. Sometimes I could only see about 10-15m in front of me, I had to drive extremely slowly. Even the main motorway was terrible, I had to drive about 40mph (65km/h) in areas where the speed limit is 70mph (110km/h).

I drive this 323-Familia often, so I'd like to fit some front fog lights. I've got some 1980s-era rectangular shape ones to fit below the bumper. I also plan to upgrade the headlight bulbs for PIAA ones for better light.

Lately I've been playing old racing games on the Sega Saturn. Before I could drive for real, I would play racing games instead. I especially liked "Overdrivin' GT-R". I got the TV a few months ago from a junk shop, it's a Sony Trinitron from 1989. The picture quality is great!



I also took photos yesterday of some local food I like to have during winter.



It looks like Fish and Chips. Actually, it's Yorkshire Fishcake and Chips. The usual type of Fishcake in England is fish mixed with mashed potato, stirred together and fried in batter.



That's the "normal" national type of Fishcake.



Instead, the Yorkshire Fishcake is made from a separate layer of mixed fish and sliced potato. The fish part is usually made from fish ends - tails and heads. A fish restaurant would use the main body of the fish for Fish and Chips, then use the ends for Fishcakes.

When I was younger, this was available in most "Chip Shops" (fish restaurant). But it's difficult to find it now, most places only sell the regular national type of Fishcake. I only know a few places who still sell the old Yorkshire Fishcake. Even if you came to England, you would need to come to my region to find it. Maybe you can find a recipe and make it, haha.

Anyway, I'm going to write some more about the Alcyone!

My latest article has been published. Actually, it was published just before Christmas, but I only got the magazine just now. It's called "Economy Travel" and it's about small hatchbacks. I covered five different models: Nissan Micra (March K10), Suzuki SA310/Swift (Cultus SA), Toyota Starlet P70, Subaru Justy J-Series and Mazda 121 (Ford Festiva DA).

There's some other interesting articles in there too, a large feature about the Daihatsu Charade GTti G100 (GTti was the European name of the GTXX with 993cc EFI Turbo) and my friend did a long article about the history of Nissan Electric Vehicles. I haven't read all of it yet.





The magazine is currently for sale, so I've hidden the words again. You can see the pictures, though. I scanned these from some of my old brochures. However, I can show you some extra pictures we didn't use.



This is the earliest type K10. Although it was from a British brochure, the photographs showed left-hand-drive cars. I like the simple design of these cars.



They used the MA-series engine, which is an all-alloy design with very low weight. This engine is quite strong! Even if you don't change the oil, they will run for years. The only common problem I can remember is head gasket failure.



You'll know this as the Cultus, but here it was called "SA310" (SA series, 3-cylinder, 1.0L). After a while, they changed the name to Swift. The main advantage of the SA310/Swift was the high level of equipment compared to rivals.



The GL grade had a digital instrument cluster, which was very unusual at the time. The display would show you the current gear, even though it had a manual gearbox! I don't know of any other cars with this feature.



Later, they changed the front end appearance. At this time, they updated the rear suspension from leaf spring to torsion-beam and introduced a sports version called the GTi. It's the same as the Cultus 1300 GT-i. Many people think it's the best "hot hatch" of that period, the performance and handling are excellent.



You may be surprised that the Starlet P70 is quite a rare model, even though the previous FR-type P60 was very popular. At the time, there was a limit on how many cars you could import from Japan. Toyota had a very large range in the 1980s, so they decided to only bring one type of Starlet E70, the 3-door 1.0 GL. This was a special engine tuned for economy, so it was quite slow, but it had a 12-valve design so it was smooth running.



The main advantage of the Starlet was the high quality. The interior didn't feel like a city car, it felt like a Corolla, but smaller. It's a shame we didn't get the sports models.



We got the Justy, but only as 4WD version. The only other small 4WD available at that time was the Fiat Panda 4x4. Both were very good cars, but the Justy is more easy to drive. It was popular with people who lived in rural areas who wanted a small 4WD. Even today, I still see them sometimes. I've heard they are still popular in some other European countries.



It's normally front-wheel-drive, but you press the "4WD" button on the gearstick to activate 4WD, it would appear on the instrument display. It's a really cool feature. Even though Subaru only made one generation of Justy, people in Europe still wanted to buy it. Subaru put their badges on the second-generation Suzuki Cultus 4WD.



The Justy instrument display reminds me of the cars from Sega Hot-Rod, if you can remember that, haha. It's the game with 3 or 4 steering wheels.



Finally, here's the Mazda 121, the European export version of the Ford Festiva. I've talked about this car before. This grade is the SunTop with an electric roof. My friend has owned these and says they're quite fast!



The brochure also had this photo of a girl enjoying the seats. They're similar to the seats in my later-type BF 323-Familia, so I can agree they're quite comfortable.

Anyway, that's my article. But a few days ago I saw a car I thought you would find interesting!



It's a V20 Camry! It was in really good condition. I've seen it driving around before, the owner is quite a young guy.



It's the 2.5L V6 GXi, which is a really nice grade. You can see my car in front. Unfortunately, I didn't see the owner, but if I see them some time I'll talk to them.

I was scanning some car brochures and I thought this one could be interesting. It's for the B310 Sunny. Most car importers would use photographs supplied by the manufacturer, but Datsun UK would usually take their own photographs in this country.

The B310 Sunny was called "Datsun Sunny" here, though they also have 120Y/140Y badges on the side for 1.2L/1.4L engine. Often it was called it the "New Sunny" until it was replaced by the B11 model.

When I was younger, I would see these all the time. The B310 Sunny was extremely popular, one of the best-selling Japanese cars in the UK.



This brochure is from early 1979. At the time, you could get the car in four standard grades depending on the body style. Here's the 1.2L 4-door saloon model. In the UK, we refer to "sedan" as "saloon". I'm not sure why, since every other country seems to use "sedan".



There was a 2-door version too. Both had the same specification. You didn't get different grades like L/LX/GLX. Each body style had one grade and one engine type!



The Saloon models had cloth seats.



At the time, these warning lights would seem quite modern. I wonder what would be in the spaces below it.



AM Radio was standard. You can see the Datsun logo on the display. I always thought it was unusual that they put their name on the radio. This means the radio manufacturer would need to make two versions, one with "Nissan" and one with "Datsun".



I like the big "D" on the steering wheel.



We also got the 1.2L Estate. That's our word for "Wagon". It's outside a flower shop, that's a very British scene! The owner didn't park it straight...



Later, you could also get a "Fastback Estate" model with a different body style. The back end was more sporty, like a coupe. You may know it as the Sunny California. I think it's really unusual that you could get two types of very similar body style at the same time.



The Estate grade had black vinyl seats... very uncomfortable on hot summer days, but easy to clean.



Here's the Coupe. This had a 1.4L engine and had some better features. The houses behind are a very 1970s design! These would probably be new houses at the time. My real house is quite similar in style.



In the Coupe, you get a tachometer!



The door card pattern is very cool.



A few years ago, I went to a show and one guy had a B310 with an engine swap.



That's a CA18DET with around 170-200ps!

Anyway, I hope you found that interesting.

I'm writing a new magazine article about various cars. This time, it's about a few 1980s-era hatchbacks of around 1.0L to 1.3L engine.

These are the five cars I think I'll be writing about (I may change my mind).


Subaru Justy (first-generation)

We got the first-generation Justy from 1987 to 1994, only the 1.2L 4WD type. These are quite rare now, in a year I will probably see 2 or 3. In the 1980s, Subaru cars were mostly sold in rural areas so you will see these on farms sometimes. The Justy 4WD was fairly popular, since not many small cars had 4WD at that time. I'm surprised that when I did some research, I can't find many in Japan! Are they rare now?


Nissan Micra (March) K10

These were available for 10 years! We got 1.0 and 1.2 engines, but we didn't get the Turbo or Super Turbo, although I have seen some imported Super Turbos. These were extremely popular, one of the most popular Japanese cars sold in the UK. Even today, I will still see one of these every few days. The fuel economy and reliability is still really good, I think.


Suzuki SA310/Swift (Cultus) SA

I haven't seen one of these for a while! The first type was called "SA310" (3-Cylinder, 1.0L). The later version with different headlights was called "Swift" and they changed to 4-Cylinder 1.3L. Later, we got the GTi version with 1.3L DOHC 16-Valve engine. The GTi is considered a classic performance car here, a good condition GTi would cost about £3000 (¥400,000) now!


Mazda 121 (Ford Festiva) DA

We didn't get the Ford Festiva here, because we already had a popular European-built car, the Ford Fiesta. But we got the Festiva with "Mazda 121" badges sold through Mazda dealers from 1988 to 1991. You could get a 1.1L and 1.3L engine. For a car of this size, a 1.3L engine is a big size, so they are quite fast! There was also an open roof version called "Suntop". These are quite rare because they only sold them for a short time.


Toyota Starlet EP70

The FF type Starlet was very popular and available from 1984 to 1989, but it's rare now. If I'm lucky, I will see 1 or 2 each year. I think they had some problems with rust. In the UK, we only got the 1.0L version. However, it was a 12-valve engine, so it was quite powerful. The main rival was the K10 March/Micra.

I still have a lot to write, but I enjoy looking at old photos of these cars.

I made a video slideshow of some of my old car show photos. I haven't posted many of them here, so some of them may be interesting to you.

I didn't record the dates, but I think they are mostly from 2006 to 2011. A lot of them were taken at a Toyota show, so there's a lot of Toyotas there.

The music was free music from YouTube, haha. I don't know what it is... I just didn't want it to be silent.



You could subscribe, but I don't make many videos. Maybe I should do. I have a camera!



It's VHS, though...