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And another one? What would CR do Japan edition.

Trouble Maker

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Trouble Maker

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- any toyota with a 2JZ engine that isn't a supra or a lexus (An origin would be awesome but you might have to wait 4 years) <---2JZ no shit

 

First of all, I just want to say, fuck you for doing that to me eyes re: Toyota Origin.

 

My suggestions:

 

- Audi RS2 (just became legal so the prices are rising)

- Any 1970's Toyota Corona or crown 2 door fastback (japanese American style muscle cars - we got them here in small numbers, few left)

- EK9 civic type R (this one...may cost you. The ultimate JDM fanboi machine)

- 1997 Alfa GTV v6 turbo (we didn't get these at all, brilliant car with niche following, pretty cheap overseas)

 

All cool ideas, I'll dig into them to see if anything sparks a fire. I'm esepcially digging the RS2 and GTV6 turbo ideas. Edit: Any more info on the GTV6 turbo? It seems like an exceedingly rare and I'm sure expensive and quite impossible to find car. It seems like Callaway made about 36 V6 with added turbos, and maybe Alfa made some version in relatively limited numbers for the Australian and South African markets.

 

- 1994-2000 Subaru WRX STi 2 door coupe (see this go for less than $25K - they haven't had the bump like skylines)

2 door STi

 

I'm really liking this idea. I've always loved that body style. I can't seem to find any on Goo Net right now. :( Seems like it might be a hard find.

 

- BMW e36 Mtech 325is WAGON (people in the west don't even know these exist - dirt cheap but bimmerphiles would go nuts on BAT)

 

Eh, not really interested in some werid niche car that's probably slow just to sell for a profit to some fanboi later that will probably want to pay me half of what it's worth because it doesn't have numbers matching headlight housings.

 

Different direction, Toyota HILUX?

Hilux, any JDM vehicle with good availability of parts here

 

Are the Hilux that much different than some truck we got in the US? Eh, I like small cars but a small single cab truck doesn't really do it for me. If I have something with some off-road capability I want to be able to live out of it to do some back-country driving/camping.

 

I can't remember the name of the shop, but there is a performance brand over there that is selling off hundreds of their Skylines for reasonable prices. They are even offering to store the cars until they are legal to import to the us (for those that do not meet the 25 year rule yet) for $50/month. Might be worth going to check out if you can find out who is selling the cars.

 

I can't remember the company name quickly, but I did read about them and look over their site. If GTRs are a direction I decide to seriously consider I will probably go down there to check it out. IIRC they are just a few hours from here, I think down in Chiba prefecture (east of Tokyo).

I think I wouldn't go beyond 1996 (legal in 2021), since I could ship it over shortly after I come back.

 

S15

 

Too new, started in 1999 so not legal until 2024.

 

How much are the old Datsun Z cars there?

 

No idea, I'll look into these too. It seems like there are definitely some cool options there.

 

Just asking out of curiosity here. Assuming you do find something generally rare in the west. How much of a headache are you giving yourself finding parts to maintain it? I know today's shipping infrastructure is far better than it's ever been, but are you going to have to "overnight parts from Japan" every time you need to do a tuneup? Or does it become a consideration to choose a platform that that has some sort of presence here in the US so you're not trying to maintain something truly obscure.

 

Order of operations is finding something I want, then figuring out logistics. No point in sweating the details if the big picture isn't there.

If I find something I really want, I might just do it regardless of parts issues and just understand that if something happens it will cost more money and time than usual to fix. Between continually better shipping logistics and friends I have here, I'm not that worried about parts. If parts exist, I can always ship to a friend and they can ship to me or even hand carry over if a smaller part when the come to US.

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Green Bastard Newbie

Green Bastard

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I can't remember the company name quickly, but I did read about them and look over their site. If GTRs are a direction I decide to seriously consider I will probably go down there to check it out. IIRC they are just a few hours from here, I think down in Chiba prefecture (east of Tokyo).

I think I wouldn't go beyond 1996 (legal in 2021), since I could ship it over shortly after I come back.

 

For some reason it just came to me, Trust is the name of the company.

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Trouble Maker Rookie

Trouble Maker

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Toyota Starlet.

 

We can even overnight some neon lights from Japan if we need to.

 

Autozam AZ-1

 

I've had an on-again, off-again obsession for a while to put a (sports bike) motorcycle engine into a small car.

This could be a perfect candidate.

Wow, those are actually more expensive than my expectation, being a 25 year old kei car.

https://www.goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars/MAZDA/AUTOZAM_AZ-1/summary.html

 

Forgot about these Lancia Intergrale

 

I've seen a couple of these running around. They are fairly to extremely expensive though, ihmo for what you are getting.

https://www.goo-net-exchange.com/php/search/summary.php?maker_cd=3035&car_cd=30351503

I think I might go with a Nissan Sunny (Pulsar?) GTIr if some rally/AWD hot hatch is the direction.

Don't get me wrong, cost not being an object it's the Lancial every day, but the cost of the Sunny is less.

https://www.goo-net-exchange.com/php/search/summary.php?maker_cd=1015&car_cd=10151023

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Trouble Maker Rookie

Trouble Maker

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I think I would go with something like the Jimny. Or, and this is something I haven't exactly found yet, a Kei mini-van that is also off-road capable and covert it to a camper van probably with some rooftop tent.

 

I was just telling Otis in CB that a Kei truck would be perfect for him.

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gillbot Rookie

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I think I would go with something like the Jimny. Or, and this is something I haven't exactly found yet, a Kei mini-van that is also off-road capable and covert it to a camper van probably with some rooftop tent.

 

I was just telling Otis in CB that a Kei truck would be perfect for him.

 

I’d love to have one myself but licensing seems to be an issue after import. There are a bunch of people who have gotten them licensed, but many more who can’t seem to get past some hurdle to get them on the street.

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Geeto67 Apprentice

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First of all, I just want to say, fuck you for doing that to me eyes re: Toyota Origin.

 

I like it, but I guess it isn't for everyone. Something about a 2JZ powered car that looks like an old 50's British diamler and a Studebaker had a sloppy one night stand in a pub bathroom tickles me, esp if you slap a big turbo on it, but eh at least you'll never see yourself at cars and coffee.

 

 

All cool ideas, I'll dig into them to see if anything sparks a fire. I'm esepcially digging the RS2 and GTV6 turbo ideas. Edit: Any more info on the GTV6 turbo? It seems like an exceedingly rare and I'm sure expensive and quite impossible to find car. It seems like Callaway made about 36 V6 with added turbos, and maybe Alfa made some version in relatively limited numbers for the Australian and South African markets.

 

The made almost 7,000 GTV 2.0L turbo coupes for the european and asian market (and 444 spyders), most of them in 1996. Most that I see on euro car sites hover between 7,500 and 12,000 euros - might be more in japan though due to low import volume. Alfa's factory turbo was a 2.0L that made 200hp, Calloway's twin turbo v6 was on the 80's generation v6 GTV and those are ver expensive animals - but we did get them in the US.

 

I drove a new GTV turbo v6 in italy in 1997 when I lived there, it's not a "Fast" car but it's quick, high revving, and handles really well. It's like if honda actually made a turbo civic and it wasn't ugly - that's the 916 GTV6 Turbo.

 

 

 

I'm really liking this idea. I've always loved that body style. I can't seem to find any on Goo Net right now. :( Seems like it might be a hard find.

 

all the fan boi's brought them over to the states already :p

 

Eh, not really interested in some werid niche car that's probably slow just to sell for a profit to some fanboi later that will probably want to pay me half of what it's worth because it doesn't have numbers matching headlight housings.

 

I mention this because a) I love wagons, and b) I like e36 bmws. granted I would rather have an M car wagon but those are only in the e34 5 series body style and already big money. the e36 chassis is well balanced, but you are right it isn't all that fast, and Mtech means it has the m3 bodywork but none of the m3 power so...all looks, no books. There was an imported e36 diesel wagon that was rotted to the door handles that sold for something stupid like $3K last year because someone wanted to convert their m3 coupe to a wagon and needed the roof and interior bits, so there is a market for these cars but if isn't your scene, no big whoop.

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Hwilli1647545487 Newbie

Hwilli1647545487

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I'll be a party poopers here and say it sounds like a lot trouble and expense to find something you aren't already in love with.

I also personally hate the idea of the here in the states.

 

But playing along, I'd look at older cars

Datsun z cars

Hakosuka skyline

Toyota Sport 800

 

I have no idea of the cost or availability of any of these.

 

I also think the cappuccino is neat for what it is.

 

I'd personally buy something fun to dick with while you are there and then sell it before I came home.

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Trouble Maker Rookie

Trouble Maker

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I mention this because a) I love wagons, and b) I like e36 bmws. granted I would rather have an M car wagon but those are only in the e34 5 series body style and already big money. the e36 chassis is well balanced, but you are right it isn't all that fast, and Mtech means it has the m3 bodywork but none of the m3 power so...all looks, no books. There was an imported e36 diesel wagon that was rotted to the door handles that sold for something stupid like $3K last year because someone wanted to convert their m3 coupe to a wagon and needed the roof and interior bits, so there is a market for these cars but if isn't your scene, no big whoop.

 

Actually, this made me remember that we got 'detuned' e36 M3s here.

Looking into them here now since they got the full powah engine!

 

Yes, please! https://www.goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars/BMW/M3/700012305130181227001/index.html

 

This is interesting, it seems like they didn't make (or at least export to Japan) a RHD e36, just from the few I've looked at. A few of them I've clicked on, are LHD. This is actually a Positive in my book. A RHD only has some novelty if it's a JDM car, imho. I've driven enough RHD cars on the right side of the road and vice-versa to know that, at least for me, it's not a thing that is highly desired. If I find some cool Japanese car, it will be fine, but that's not why I would do this thing of buying a car over here.

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Trouble Maker Rookie

Trouble Maker

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Haven't read the whole article yet, but it strikes me that plenty of the cars in those pictures are new relatively mundane cars. We always have this image of these super cool collectors cars being exported from japan. But the reality is most of those 1.4 million per year are probably just regular slightly used cars.

 

Talking to my coworkers yesterday, most Japanese people will consider a car, or at least a regular car, DONE after 100,000km or 10 years. But, clearly those cars have plenty of life left. So, many relatively new but used cars, often even newer than that, get exported to other RHD countries. In NZ, one of our taxi drivers was driving some run of the mill Prius. He said it would be very expensive new, something like $50k. So, not as many new cars are sold there. Definitely not enough new cars sold to satisfy the markets demand. But he said many used cars are imported from other RHD countries to there. One of my Japanese coworkers said this maybe true of Asutralia. One of his friends was there, drove someones car, and the ETC (electronic toll card reader) started talking to him in Japanese! Someone left it in there and it got exported to Australia. Cars that are a little older or more worn, might get exported to developing countries that are RHD, like Indonesia.

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Trouble Maker Rookie

Trouble Maker

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Can't bring used cars into Indonesia easily, its market allows only new cars brought into the country through sole importers or dealers. I believe the ASEAN countries have about the same policy regarding used cars.

 

Interesting, the Indonesia guess was just speculation.

I get that it will protect local vehicle production. But, and this is just my armchair economic view point, the reality of the economics are most people can't afford a new car. So the new car market is not enough to fill the demand. So, people who may be able to get into a used car can not. So more people and families stay on scooters. I can't help but think that is slowing the growth of the economy down... I actually saw many 'small' things like that there.

 

Granted it was just from talking to the 1 taxi driver and looking on the roads, but I think they do import used into NZ. I saw Honda Fit and Jazz on the roads there, which seems to support that fact.

 

P.S. I think you spelled Asian wrong. :gabe:

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