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Posted
Jul 26 2011, 02:00 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 21 comment(s)
Anyone else a fan of oddball vehicles? Check out this Suzuki Cultus GTi race car from Motor Sports Shop Target in Japan. Equipped with a 1300c twin cam motor, this little Suzuki delivered respectable performance for its time, and its featherweight chassis made it a joy on the backroads. Here in the US it was sold as the Suzuki Swift GT/GTi and can be found cheap on the used car market.
Looking for a unique project car with a little JDM cred? Here you go.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Jun 20 2011, 04:00 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 22 comment(s)
The wife and I are once again in the market for a new daily driver/Speedhunting road trip mobile and there are a few cars in the running at this point. Naturally, we are looking for something that's inexpensive, good on gas, roomy, and maybe even a little fun to drive. The good old Honda Fit is certainly a car that has all those attributes.
My "research" for our next car includes lots of browsing Minkara profiles, and that's where I found this tidy looking GE8 Fit done by Axis Styling out of Japan.
Any other suggestions?
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Apr 26 2011, 03:00 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 13 comment(s)
While I was at the Long Beach Grand Prix I spent some time walking around the expo area inside the convention center. For the most part everything was the same as previous years, but Honda did have a large display and that's where I found the 2010 Honda Fit B-Spec race car....
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Posted
Apr 14 2011, 03:30 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 38 comment(s)
One thing that has always baffled me about the Japanese car market is the sheer number of models available from each maker - many of them seemingly competing with each other.
Since it's Honda Month, I thought it would be interesting to go through and take a look at the vast amount of compact hatchbacks, vans, and wagons that Honda has offered in Japan over recent years....
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Posted
Jun 11 2010, 03:12 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 57 comment(s)
Whenever I travel somewhere and need to get a rental car, I always cross my fingers that I won't end up with a Ford Focus.
As you can probably see though, this Focus is far from the rental-sled that people here in the US associate with the name....
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Posted
Apr 30 2010, 09:41 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 13 comment(s)
Anybody else getting excited for the North American debut of the Mazda2 AKA, the Demio? I sure am. Here's Trial's tuned Demio for a bit of inspiration. Can't wait to have a go behind the wheel in one of these! -Mike Garrett Trial
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Posted
Apr 02 2010, 01:07 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 32 comment(s)
Another big unveiling at the New York International Auto Show this week was from Scion - who debuted two new 2011 models. For the '11 model year, the tC sports coupe gets a much-needed redesign, and the iQ compact will hit the US market wearing Scion badges....
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Posted
Jan 19 2010, 03:03 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 35 comment(s)
Since our theme this month is misfits and mavericks, I figured I'd quickly post about a car that played an important role in my teenage years - a '72 Ford Pinto. Yep, a Ford Pinto , the car that's infamous for erupting into a ball of fire with a slight tap of the rear bumper.
While this hot rodded Pinto was about as shoddy as it gets, it's turbocharged engine swap also made it one of the funnest cars ever....
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Posted
Dec 04 2009, 01:24 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 21 comment(s)
In what was likely the biggest car debut at the LA Auto Show, Ford took the wraps off the 2011 Fiesta. Again, this car is already on sale in other parts of the world, but it represents a big step for Ford as they begin to "European-ize" their American car line up. I had a chance to drive a Euro spec Fiesta at the SEMA show and was quite impressed with the little car. When Ford pulled the covers off the US-spec car on Wednesday I was pleased to see that it looked just as cool the Euro versions that have been making rounds as part of the Fiesta Movement....
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Posted
Dec 03 2009, 03:05 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 12 comment(s)
Back in 2007 I was in a small town in Japan's Ibaraki-prefecture when I first saw the new Mazda Demio driving on the street. It was love at first sight, or at least it was the coolest compact car I had seen in a long time. Now, two years later Mazda is finally bringing the Demio to North America as the Mazda2. Yesterday at the LA Auto Show, a jetlagged Mazda president Takashi Yamanouchi unveiled the US-spec Mazda2 to a large, and energized crowd....
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Posted
Nov 30 2009, 04:05 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
Here's another "Euro"-styled compact car out of Japan, a Z11 Nissan Cube dumped on color-matched OZ Futuras. The boxy, yet organic style of the Cube lends itself so well to this sort of thing.
Somehow I don't think I could convince my sister-in-law in to do this to her Cube in Japan...
-Mike Garrett
...
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Posted
Nov 16 2009, 04:25 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 14 comment(s)
I've posted quite a few Honda compacts and vans over the past couple weeks, so I figured it was time to show some Toyota love. In this case we have a JDM Toyota Vitz (aka Yaris) modified in a European style. This Euro style seems to getting more popular in Japan, with owners applying VW and Audi style modifications to their domestic cars. In this case the Vitz has some subtle body mods and is dropped on 17x8 and 17x8.5 RH ZW1 wheels with 195/40/17 tires.
The result is a unique combination of Japanese and European automotive tastes.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Oct 29 2009, 02:32 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 17 comment(s)
Found this really cool photo on the Noblesse offical site, taken before a huge nationwide Honda Fit meeting in Japan earlier this month.
Noblesse never fails to impress, whether it's with their sexy dress-up builds or their track cars.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 11:03 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 13 comment(s)
It's been a long time coming, but Mazda has finally announced that the Mazda2 (or the Demio as it's known in Japan) is USA-bound. According to Mazda, the 2 will go on sale stateside in late 2010 and will be priced below the Mazda3. The Demio's Euro-like styling always caught my eye on the streets of Japan, and I can't wait to see them over here. The car in the photo above is the Demio tuned by Auto Craft Kyoto at the '08 Tsukuba Super Battle.
Hmmm...is it time to make plans for a new daily driver?
-Mike Garrett
Source: GT Channel ...
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Posted
Aug 13 2009, 02:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 19 comment(s)
I've been noticing quite a few Nissan Cubes driving on the highways here in California recently. Every time I see one the road, I think about how cool it would look with some proper wheels and good stance. This Z12 Cube dropped low on what look to be SSR Professor MS1R's shows just how nice these things can look when done right. Found on Minkara of course. I'm interested to see if there's going to be any of these on display at SEMA this year... -Mike Garrett
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Posted
May 27 2009, 12:14 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
While browsing through Kevve's photos, one of the cars that drew some interest was this Mk5 Golf 5-door. On the outside, the car looks great. It's dropped low on an RRAS air ride system and has a set of 18" Golf 6 replica wheels that nicely fill the fenders. Besides the suspension, wheels, and a bit of light body work, the car remains a stock 1.6L Golf capable of sipping fuel on the way to work and back. There wasn't quite enough "meat" to do a full feature on this car, so we figured just sharing this one photo would do.
This month we've been seeing a lot of VW's that some might label "all show and no go", so I'm curious to hear what you guys think about that. Are stock-motored cars bad? Is it OK if they don't go for the "race car" look? Or does it even matter at all? ...
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Posted
Apr 08 2009, 11:45 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 26 comment(s)
Besides all the motorsport action going on this month, the auto show circuit is rolling on with the New York Auto Show this week. I've been keeping an eye on the news coming out of New York, and one of the cars I thought was worth a post here is the Scion iQ Concept. This concept is of course based on the Toyota iQ which is already on sale in Europe and Japan. There haven't been any details released on a production version of the iQ for the US market, but this particular car is the most heavily modified iQ I've seen yet....
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Posted
Mar 19 2009, 11:51 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 10 comment(s)
The ultra-compact Toyota iQ has long been rumored to become part of Toyota's US lineup, and it looks like we might be getting some official word on this at the New York Auto Show next month. The iQ won't actually be sold in the United States as a Toyota, but as the latest addition to the Scion line. Scion hasn't released any specs on the USDM version of the iQ yet, but their press release says they will be showing a "micro sub-compact" concept, which is exactly what the iQ is. According to Scion's press release, "the concept reflects Scion's youthful image and represents a new segment for the brand aimed toward the growing urbanization trend"....
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Posted
Mar 07 2009, 01:45 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 19 comment(s)
Last weekend I was in Ginza with some friends when I spotted this Nissan Tiida hatchback sitting low on a set of BBS LM wheels. You hardly ever see fixed up Tiidas on the street, so I was glad to have my camera with me at the time.
If the Tiida car looks familiar, that's because it's basically the same thing as the Nissan Versa in the United States. People are always modifying Honda Fits and Scions, but why not these cars?
Hmm...how many of you are going to be searching for Versas on Craigslist after seeing this pic?
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Mar 02 2009, 06:33 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
If you've been reading Speedhunters for a while, then you might remember that I did a short story about Toyota's "Megaweb" in Odaiba last year. In case you haven't heard of it, Megaweb is a huge showroom where you can check out the latest Toyota models and even test drive them around a special course that's setup outside. It's a worthy stop for any car enthusiast who's visiting Tokyo.
With it being Toyota month and all, I figured it would be a good time to take another trip to Megaweb to see if there was anything new. Visiting Megaweb is also a great way to get a look at Toyota's current JDM car lineup. ...
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