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.
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).
