Getbig.com: American Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure
Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: Palumboism on April 01, 2017, 07:25:12 AM
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The Corona was a giant step for Toyota in the U.S. It went on sale in 1965. That year Toyota's U.S. car sales were 2,847. The next year sales shot up to 16,411. "It was the first car we could drive in American driving conditions that would not break," recalls Tatsuo Hashiguchi.
They kept testing the American environment, he says. "This was a good teaching ground. If you survive in the U.S., you can survive anywhere in the world. This is a car country." The Corona's target was the Volks-wagen Beetle. In its first year in the United States, the Corona lifted Toyota's annual sales from 6,404 to 20,908. In 1968, Toyota sales reached 72,554, almost entirely because of the Corona.
The little Corolla arrived in 1968 as a subcompact with a 60-hp, 1.1-liter, four-cylinder engine that soon was expanded to 1.2 liters and then 1.6 liters. As the engines grew, so did sales.
With the addition of the Corolla, sales jumped from 72,554 in 1968 to 124,356 the next year. The Corona and Corolla together had put Toyota on the U.S. map.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20071029/ANA03/710290307/after-toyopet-trauma-corona-got-toyota-up-to-speed-in-u.s. (http://www.autonews.com/article/20071029/ANA03/710290307/after-toyopet-trauma-corona-got-toyota-up-to-speed-in-u.s.)
The beginnings of the Japanese car companies in America were humble.
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(http://toyotanews.pressroom.toyota.com/images/toyota/photo//1999005_1971_Hilux_2-prv.jpg)
The Toyota pickup was introduced in 1969 with sales of 1,756.
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The early history of Nissan starts at the 3:30 mark. Both Toyota and Nissan targeted the Beetle owner as their market. They knew they had something when they could beat a VW Beetle up a hill, which shows you how slow and under powered cars were back then.
Katayama (Vice President of the Nissan North America): “What we need to do is improve our car’s efficiency gradually and creep up slowly before others notice. Then, before Detroit realizes it, we will have become an excellent car maker, and the customers will think so too. If we work hard to sell our own cars, we won’t be bothered by whatever the other manufacturers do. If all we do is worry about the other cars in the race, we will definitely lose.
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The Datsun 410 was first exported to American in 1964
(http://momentcar.com/images/datsun-411-1967-5.jpg)
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Datsun 520 pickup 1966-1968.
(http://www.earlydatsun.com/datsun5201966.jpg)
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The first Honda Civic in America sold in 1972.
(https://7solutionsracing.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1976-civic.jpg)
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Then the oil embargo occurred in 1973 and suddenly sales of Japanese cars take off.
(http://fuelfix.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/731/files/history-behind-u-s-crude-export-ban/hi_j0109.jpg)
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Datsun 520 pickup 1966-1968.
(http://www.earlydatsun.com/datsun5201966.jpg)
Big fan of Datsun pickups here.
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Surely by 1975 there had to be at least one Japanese car in the top 30 best selling models.
1975 best selling cars
Pos Model
1 Oldsmobile Cutlass
2 Ford Granada
3 Chevrolet Chevelle
4 Ford Pinto
5 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
6 Chevrolet Nova
7 Plymouth Valiant
8 Chevrolet Vega
9 Ford LT D
10 Ford Mustang II
11 Chevrolet Impala
12 Buick Century
13 Dodge Dart
14 Cadillac DeVille
15 Ford Maverick
16 Chrysler Cordoba
17 Chevrolet Camaro
18 Chevrolet Caprice
19 Chevrolet Monza
20 Plymouth Fury
21 Ford Elite
22 AMC Hornet
23 Pontiac Grand Prix
24 Buick LeSabre
25 Buick Electra 225
26 Mercury Monarch
27 Pontiac Le Mans
28 AMC Pacer
29 Pontiac Firebird
30 Oldsmobile 98
I guess not. Apparently America was still addicted to full-sized V8's.
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Datsun 280ZX was one of my favorites as far as Japanese imports went. A friend of mine had one and once the engine was on its way out he put in a small block Chevy lol...
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I don't want to forget the Datsun 510 and 240Z. The 510 was a perfect balance of engineering, styling, and cost. The 510's engineering left all who bothered to crawl under the hood, or under the car itself, inspired by its genius, and by its potential. The styling was practical, smooth, and very comparable to European sedans of the era. The cost was impressive. A 4-door sedan sold for just $1996 in the US, that's less than a dollar a pound. The 510 with it's low cost, up to date engineering, and inoffensive styling, made it a big hit with buyers. A 4-door sedan sold for just $1996 in the US, that's less than a dollar a pound.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6a/c4/a8/6ac4a88872c79121a0becb24d0e44131.jpg)
33,000 z cars were sold in 1971, 52,000 in 72, and 45,000 in 73.
(https://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/57735359-770-0@2X.jpg?rev=1)
Nissan sold over 58,000 vehicles in the US in 1968, Over 90,000 in 69, and 154,000 in 1970. These are small numbers compared to the American big three.
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Then comes 1979 energy crisis due to the Iranian Revolution. Surely Japanese cars must be cracking the top 30 list.
Best selling models of 1985 list
(https://i1.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1985-1-34.png?resize=300%2C860)
By 1985 there were five Japanese cars in the top 30 vehicle list.
7) Toyota Truck
16) Nissan Sentra
20) Toyota Corolla
24) Nissan Truck
25) Honda Accord
For anyone who doesn't remember how dominant GM was, they had 50 percent of the top 34 best selling vehicles in 1985.
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In 1976 Honda came out with the Accord. It was based on a stretched Civic body and initially only came in the hatchback with a 1.6 liter engine. The four door and 1.8 were added in 1977.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nkM7xAcEKCc/VD7CpWA3IWI/AAAAAAAARlA/0CEQQrnsv4w/s1600/1979-Honda-Accord-5000.jpg)
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The Datsun 410 was first exported to American in 1964
(http://momentcar.com/images/datsun-411-1967-5.jpg)
Datsun 510s and 240s are classics.
I remember building a 240 with tripple side draft Weber carbs for SCCA autocross back nearly 20yrs ago. Fuck those Webers were a pain. Buddy of mine has 2 510s still. One with an NA 13b rotary with straight pipes. Sounds fucking beautiful.
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20 years of progress at Honda (1971-1991).
1971 Honda N600
(https://assets.hemmings.com/story_image/397811-1000-0.jpg?rev=2)
1991 Acura Legend
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ilnwzc6rKu4/U5cGc7oxGCI/AAAAAAARRmc/bjGnAWCyNuI/s1600/1991-Acura-Legend-5.jpg)
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I remember the early days of Toyota. The paint would flake off in 2 years. Early Honda's had modified motorcycle inspired motors.
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The story about how Soichiro Honda decided to modify a Chevrolet Impala after the head of GM talked trash about Honda's CVCC is legendary:
In some ways this reminds me of Mr. Honda getting furious when he heard the chairman of GM making this dismissive remark about the CVCC engine (after both Ford and Chrysler had bought the rights to it in the summer of 1973): “Well, I have looked at this design, and while it might work on some little toy motorcycle engine…I see no potential for it on one of our GM car engines.”
When Mr. Honda heard this, he bought a 1973 V8 Impala, air-freighted it to Japan, designed and cast a set of CVCC heads for the Chevy engine, tested it in our own emission labs, then flew the car back to the EPA’s facility in Ann Arbor, and had it tested by them…where it passed the stringent 1975 emissions requirements. You didn’t mess with the old man…
Worth a read: http://jalopnik.com/when-honda-gave-gm-one-of-historys-most-amazing-smackdo-1576732771
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I remember the early days of Toyota. The paint would flake off in 2 years. Early Honda's had modified motorcycle inspired motors.
The 1971 Honda N600 had a 2 cylinder air cooled engine. I think it's safe to say it was a motor cycle engine.
(http://www.honda600coupe.com/ready_for_install.jpg)
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The rise of Japanese cars were quite simple, oil crisis, they were reliable, fuel efficient, that while American cars went down the toilet in the 70's and continues to be so so even in today's standards
Compared to the 60's and back, they were dominant
Their performance cars have come a long way now but design language and many of their inspirations come from Europe/Germany like Cadillac V series which were blue printed from past BMW M cars
in ways the corvette is the only sports car that is "American" but rumor has it there's going to be a mid engine version
Soon to be discontinued again viper and dodge products are all owned by Italians
Shelby 350 mustang is more euro in approach and design is euro influenced, pretty much all Ford is from Ford euro/England based
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In 1978 GM sold more cars than Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Datsun, and Honda combined.
1978 car sales
Toyota 441,800
Datsun 338,096
Honda 274,876
GM 5,341,700
Ford 2,536,738
Chrysler 1,087,987
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In 1978 GM sold more cars than Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Datsun, and Honda combined.
1978 car sales
Toyota 441,800
Datsun 338,096
Honda 274,876
GM 5,341,700
Ford 2,536,738
Chrysler 1,087,987
How times have changed....
There was a time Lamborghini was a tractor company, Mercedes almost bought BMW, Audi was irrelevant, Porsche was bankrupt in the early mid 90's hence why they expanded their line up with the boxster first
The Koreans are on a roll fast, with their ex Audi designers, BMW engineers
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The rise of Japanese cars were quite simple, oil crisis, they were reliable, fuel efficient, that while American cars went down the toilet in the 70's and continues to be so so even in today's standards
Compared to the 60's and back, they were dominant
This isn't what the numbers say. In 1975 after the first oil crisis there were no Japanese cars in the top 30 sales and the majority of the cars on that list were full sized V8 powered. People were willing to buy Vegas, Pintos, and chevettes, but they weren't yet ready to buy Toyotas and Datsuns in large numbers. When gas prices went down they went right back to the full sized V8 American cars. Although, the oil crisis did convince some people to try Japanese brands.
I think it was more of a generational thing. The people who were driving Toyotas and Hondas in the 70's and early 80's were all young. The people who were driving large Oldsmobiles, Buicks, and Cadillacs were older. flash forward 20 years and the people who were driving Oldsmobiles and Buicks are dead and the people who were drive the Toyotas and Hondas are still driving Toyotas and Hondas.
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This isn't what the numbers say. In 1975 after the first oil crisis there were no Japanese cars in the top 30 sales and the majority of the cars on that list were full sized V8 powered. People were willing to buy Vegas, Pintos, and chevettes, but they weren't yet ready to buy Toyotas and Datsuns in large numbers. When gas prices went down they went right back to the full sized V8 American cars. Although, the oil crisis did convince some people to try Japanese brands.
I think it was more of a generational thing. The people who were driving Toyotas and Hondas in the 70's and early 80's were all young. The people who were driving large Oldsmobiles, Buicks, and Cadillacs were older. flash forward 20 years and the people who were driving Oldsmobiles and Buicks are dead and the people who were drive the Toyotas and Hondas are still driving Toyotas and Hondas.
I didn't just list oil or fuel as primarily the reason, it's still one of the reasons but factor in reliability which is a must for the average American with a car, enthusiasts maybe not so much
It takes time to turn the tide, doesn't happen over night, but the stigma of American cars were they were big piles of crap with quality problems, reliability problems, inefficient, etc
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WHAT DO
jap cars look like today?
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WHAT DO
jap cars look like today?
This is the next Camry. It'll probably be the best selling car in America when it comes out.
(http://autoguide.com.vsassets.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/2018-toyota-camry-official-photos/2018-Toyota-Camry-1.JPG)
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Datsun 510s and 240s are classics.
I remember building a 240 with tripple side draft Weber carbs for SCCA autocross back nearly 20yrs ago. Fuck those Webers were a pain. Buddy of mine has 2 510s still. One with an NA 13b rotary with straight pipes. Sounds fucking beautiful.
Why would he put a NA 13b rotary in the a 510? Gutless dorito. Apex seals,etc. If one were going to do something like that stick with the Nissan theme and go SR20DE/SR20DET and KA24DE if it fits. If one wants do a swap and stay Japanese maybe either the F20C/F22C1 from the S2000. Or go German with an S14 from an e30 M3.
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Yutaka Katayama - The father of the 240Z and 510
Yutaka Katayama's story is very interesting. He was too outspoken for Japanese management and he made a lot of enemies. America was considered a gamble, and no conservative execs would give it a shot. Heading up Datsun in America wasn't a promotion; it was exile. The name Datsun was chosen instead of Nissan because America was a gamble and if it failed they didn't want to tarnish the Nissan name.
In those early days, Yutaka Katayama actually went house to house in the Japanese areas of LA, trying to sell Datsuns to Japanese immigrants, and to farmers who saw the rugged little trucks as a good deal. Katayama also delivered cars to dealers himself, having another employee follow him to drive him back Gardena.
Datsun dealers were a bit of a nightmare at the beginning. Quite a few Datsuns were sold off used car lots and gas stations, and from economy car "supermarkets". Several Datsun dealers operated out of private homes using the family garage as the service bay.
(http://photos.nissan-global.com/EN/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1960_circa_In_his_office.jpg)
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Better sound and no turbo to worry about. Ive seen plenty of rotary powered 510s over the years. His brother has a rotary powered Cressida? I think its a cressida. One of the rare 4dr drift cars. Fuck thats gonna bother me i cant think of the name. Anyways.. Hes got 2. The other is completely stock except for susp stuff, bushings and whatnot. Gotnit mint condition i guess of an old man in san gabriel
Who the hell puts a damn rotary in a Cressida? Either 1JZ or 2JZGTE or LS it. There. That's it. He just made the car unreliable. Unless he is doing 2-4 Doritos and turbo he ain't got no power. And all it sounds like is a loud bee.
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Who the hell puts a damn rotary in a Cressida? Either 1JZ or 2JZGTE or LS it. There. That's it. He just made the car unreliable. Unless he is doing 2-4 Doritos and turbo he ain't got no power. And all it sounds like is a loud bee.
Just needs a bridgeported 13b and he will be able to pull around 300hp from it which is quite a lot in such a light car. Don't need a ton of power to have fun if you know how to drive.
But I agree jz for life in terms of swaps.
Sr is ok, I had a 400hp Sr for a while but to make 400 or more you had a very laggy turbo. But don't discount the rotary, they are a different breed of motor and can make a ton of power with boost and can spin very high. Just have to worry about keeping them cooled properly, and fueled as well. 1000cc injectors minimum on any rotary build with a turbo.
Id have a 2.7l closed deck stroker EJ257 over all though, with a rotated gtx3582r turbo setup. Would plop right into my Subaru Legacy turbo. Run that bitch on a flex fuel sensor too and turn it right up when e85 is in the tank ;)
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240 and 280 were awesome cars. Some say the 280 before they remodeled hit had one of the best engines ever made. The car would fall apart before the motor ever would.
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1986 was the year Japanese car sales really started to soar. Three Japanese models were in the top 15.
Toyota became the first import automaker to sell 1 million vehicles in America. Honda also set a sales record of 693,515 units for 1986.
Pos Model 1986
1 Ford F-Series
2 Chevrolet Celebrity
3 Chevrolet CK
4 Ford Escort
5 Chevrolet Cavalier
6 Oldsmobile Ciera
7 Honda Accord
8 Toyota Pick-up
9 Ford Ranger
10 Ford Tempo
11 Ford Taurus
12 Oldsmobile SK
13 Buick Century
14 Chevrolet Caprice
15 Nissan Pick-up
1986 was also the first year of the Acura and Hyundai brands in America. Acura recorded 9,280 sales that year and Hyundai sold 168,882 of its Excel subcompacts.
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The Honda Accord was the best selling car in America in 1989,1990, and 1991. Camry has held the title of best selling car in America for 18 of the last 19 years.
(https://i1.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-2014-07-01-19.49.59.png)
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Not his only car. Also has a 240, a turbod 260 (i tbink was a 280motor), an s13 redtop coupe, a turbod sc300 manual, and a vip gs400 daily driver. His brother is a med-tech at a rehab place i did a "fitness program" for & I went over to see the s13 cuz i had one similar years ago before "tokyo drift" ruined everything and trippled the price by the time i got out of prison.
Ridiculous isn't it for those cars now? Theres a guy near me selling his rb20 s13 coupe for 7500 and its smashed to shit. The deals are out there though I paid 5500 for an sr swapped coupe a year ago, making 400whp on a td06 20g and a built motor with some gnarly cams. Little fucker lost me my license for 3 months! Too much fun.
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Thats not too bad for rb s13. Ive only seen 1 in person and 1 for sale. I think my 240 cpe was 3500 with s13 front end already installed (with hid driving beams and 3500k hid fogs. Forget the driving #.. Slight bluish white. Close to the audi combos back then. Did the same in my VIP Q45 cpl yrs ago). Kept the KA but ditched the auto and turbod it. Aleeady had an intercooler, just wasnt hooked up to anything. Guess the owner ran outta money. Still love those s13 coupes.
Dont think i could ever put an LS motor i anything other than a 62 bel air 53 chevy coupe.
Yeah they are a timeless design especially with the silvia front end. Would love to get into another one in the future for a weekend fun car, stick a 2jz into it.
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Thats not too bad for rb s13. Ive only seen 1 in person and 1 for sale. I think my 240 cpe was 3500 with s13 front end already installed (with hid driving beams and 3500k hid fogs. Forget the driving #.. Slight bluish white. Close to the audi combos back then. Did the same in my VIP Q45 cpl yrs ago). Kept the KA but ditched the auto and turbod it. Aleeady had an intercooler, just wasnt hooked up to anything. Guess the owner ran outta money. Still love those s13 coupes.
Dont think i could ever put an LS motor i anything other than a 62 bel air 53 chevy coupe.
You lack imagination when it comes to an LS engine.
https://www.google.com/amp/jalopnik.com/this-corvette-powered-1976-jaguar-xj-coupe-was-perfect-1792614465/amp (https://www.google.com/amp/jalopnik.com/this-corvette-powered-1976-jaguar-xj-coupe-was-perfect-1792614465/amp)
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Given the 4x4 popularity in the USA, why wasnt the 70 series Lancruisers sold?
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This was criminally underappreciated, Honda's 4WD 4-wheel steering Prelude...
(http://www.dragtimes.com/images/10052503551.jpg)
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240 and 280 were awesome cars. Some say the 280 before they remodeled hit had one of the best engines ever made. The car would fall apart before the motor ever would.
My 2nd car was a 240Z. Had a ton of issues with the carbs. Traded it off after a year. My 3rd car was a 1975 light blue 280Z. Bought it in 1978. I put 125,000 hard miles on it in 8 years and it never missed a lick. I went through 3 clutches, 2 batteries, 1 water pump and 1 alternator. I would race any car with it. I was only beat a handful of times. A damn fast stock car.
260Z are pretty rare. I believe they were just made in '74 but I might be mistaken. They also came out with a 2+2 model on the Z cars. Had a back seat. The length they had to add to it really took away from the car IMO.
The pic below looked a lot like mine. Same spoiler and color. I had the black rear window louvre though and wire wheels.
(https://cdn04.carsforsale.com/3/409828/5595181/thumb/789959095.jpg)
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Didnt think the4wheelnsteer started till the 92/94 model?
Loved the h22&h23 motors though. Only motors i built more of were b16/b18's. So easy to work on a 14yr old could mod everything in them (& i did lol).
Buddy of mine has a right hand drive prelude of this generation. Super underrated cars a lot of quality technology in them. They have decent lines as well, prelude is a nice car even today the last generation ones are awesome
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The Honda Accord was the best selling car in America in 1989,1990, and 1991. Camry has held the title of best selling car in America for 18 of the last 19 years.
(https://i1.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-2014-07-01-19.49.59.png)
The particular car in the photo is probably still on the road too.
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In 1989, Toyota branched out by establishing a luxury line of vehicles with the debut of the Lexus LS 400 and the ES 250. Highly acclaimed cars, plus exceptional customer service, quickly became the hallmark of Lexus.
By the end of 2000, following its tag line, "The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection," Lexus edged out Mercedes Benz by 423 units to become the top-selling luxury brand in the United States, a position it has held for ten years running.
(http://dzag5wgsqu6mr.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/27-first-generation-ls.jpg)
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The Infiniti brand was also introduced in 1989 with the launch of two models the Q45, and the M30.
(http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1990-Infiniti-Q45-03-640x426.jpg)
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The particular car in the photo is probably still on the road too.
Yep, it's a 27 year old car that doesn't look too dated.
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'98 HK Cosmo (1 KP Prototype)
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I didn't just list oil or fuel as primarily the reason, it's still one of the reasons but factor in reliability which is a must for the average American with a car, enthusiasts maybe not so much
It takes time to turn the tide, doesn't happen over night, but the stigma of American cars were they were big piles of crap with quality problems, reliability problems, inefficient, etc
My point is it didn't occur in the 1970's. In the 70's American's still had faith in American cars and Japanese cars were bought by only a small minority. The Mid 1980's is when Americans started buying Japanese cars in significant numbers.
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My point is it didn't occur in the 1970's. In the 70's American's still had faith in American cars and Japanese cars were bought by only a small minority. The Mid 1980's is when Americans started buying Japanese cars in significant numbers.
It's cause by then it caught on, the reasons I listed ::)
In the 70's Japanese cars and Europeans like Mercedes, Porsche, Bmw started to get noticed more than ever, not only going by sales number but word on the street/press and at the same time domestics were declining in quality and even worse reliability , people still bought into it cause of their past but when people started waking up and realizing, it was too late for the big 3
So in fact it DID start to occur in the 70's, not as fast, but steadily
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Still miss my q45. White on black VIP w/chrome ,woodgrain, rear shades, black headlight housings w white hids and yellow hid fogs and a big ol v8.
Love VIP style japanese luxury sedans (no rretarded -14° camber with stretched 30series tires or airbag suspensions though. Lol)
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/71/c3/f7/71c3f77514747d0855b587775aa1d150.jpg)
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(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/71/c3/f7/71c3f77514747d0855b587775aa1d150.jpg)
Fuck thats hot. BMW and Mercedes eat your heart out.
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Yep. Except ot was white and not scraping the ground. Nothing "luxury" about feeling every pebble on the road and crawling sideways over speedbumps. Always though the Q infinitis and LS lexus' were the best vip cars. GS a close 2nd/3d
And now thanks to you im looking at getting this totally untouched rust free unfucked s13 coupe. thanks a lot.