(Read Part I)
The sight of a row of first-generation Celicas at All-Japanese Day reminded me of something: the rows of Mustangs at the last two All-American Day shows I visited and, let’s face it, every American car show in Australia. While American car shows here tend to be wall-to-wall Mustangs and ’57 Chevrolets, All-Japanese Day was a delightfully mixed assortment of vehicles and plenty of young people looking at them or showing them off.
By the time I arrived at All-Japanese Day, just an hour and a half after gates opened to the public, many of the owners were fleeing the scorching hot sporting field. That included the owners of two Skylines: a C210 series sedan, sold here as the Datsun 240K, and…
…a 1982-85 R30 hatchback, the first and last generation of Skyline sold in this body style. Nissan Australia imported the Skyline and 280C/300C (Cedric) and positioned them above the locally-built Bluebird. Those two imports could not have been any more different – the Cedric was your typical, plush, Japanese barge, while the Skyline was trim, nimble and almost European. Power was provided by the same fuel-injected, 126 hp 2.4 inline six as used in the American 810 Maxima.
Sadly, Aussie Skylines didn’t have the iconic “hotplate” taillights of the JDM models which have been retrofitted to this one. Nissan probably thought premium sedan buyers in Australia were too conservative. Well, they eventually brought out the hotplates shortly after the R31 arrived looking almost exactly like the R30. Anything to put some character in that box!
The Datsun 200B was related to the North American 810 Maxima, only without the inline six, IRS and the will to live. To be fair, though, the 200B was targeted right at the heart of the four-cylinder, mid-size sedan market here, building on the strengths of the 180B that came before it. That is to say, the strengths of bland competence and solid reliability.
Early 200Bs were imported from Japan and came with IRS but this is a later, Australian-made GX; a live rear axle was fitted to meet local content quotas. GX was the up-level model with velour trim (plush!) but I don’t believe those wheels are stock.
With the R31-series Skyline, Nissan Australia followed the same strategy as it had before with the Bluebird: take a JDM Nissan, swap out the IRS for a live axle, and pitch it as more of a mainstream offering than it may be sold as in other markets. And while the 200B range initially had an imported coupe model, there was no coupe version of the replacement Bluebird (aka 810 Maxima) nor of the R31 Skyline. This, then, is a coupe imported from Japan.
The subsequent R32 and R33 Skylines were beautiful cars but the R31 was a typically boxy, origami-style Japanese car of the 1980s. The coupe is the looker of the bunch in my opinion, followed by the wagon and then the nondescript sedan. This is a GTS-X with a 2.0 turbocharged inline six, producing 190 hp and 177 ft-lbs. Our Skylines came with a 3.0 naturally-aspirated inline six with 157 hp and 185 ft-lbs, although sporty Silhouette versions bumped up the horsepower number a bit. We also had a four-cylinder Skyline badged as the Pintara.
It’s a pity Americans were so weird about five-door hatchbacks, or automakers were just weird about offering them. They seemed to die out there during the 1980s but they dominated elsewhere, including Europe and Australia. Compact sedans were for old ladies… Hatches were cool! That rule of thumb still carries some significance today but it was especially pertinent in the early 1990s. This is a Mazda 323 Astina, known in other markets as the 323F or Lantis.
While the equivalent sedan was almost always painted white and fitted with innocuous wheel covers, the Astina was the sporty hatchback for young, fun people. Despite this, no Astina/323F ever left the factory with a turbocharger or four-wheel-drive. These were still plenty fun, mind you: the Astina SP had a twin-cam 1.8 four with 123 hp and a 0-60 time of under 10 seconds, while the regular Astina’s SOHC 1.8 produced a still-decent 101 hp. It’s cars like this that arguably cemented Mazda’s image in Australia as the “cool” Japanese brand. Honda never had a Civic quite so rakish.
As a rule, I find the hatchback variant of any Celica generation to almost always be more attractive than the notchback. There are two exceptions: the first-generation models, where the hatchback looks like some clunky Mustang knock-off, and the third-generation. There’s something about these that looks aggressive. Perhaps it’s pareidolia but those taillights look like they’re glaring…
While I almost always prefer hatchback Celicas, the legendary AE86 Corolla Sprinters look fantastic as notchbacks. You’d think that, being another right-hand-drive market, we’d get a lot of juicy Japanese offerings. I can confirm we did get the AE86 (yay!) badged as the Sprinter but with only a carbureted SOHC four, rear drum brakes and no limited slip-differential or exciting performance hardware (boo!)
Even if the Aussie-spec AE86 didn’t really engender as much enthusiasm as the JDM models, the AE86 became a pop culture phenomenon thanks to its appearance in the anime Initial D and the video game Gran Turismo. I doubt there’s a single bone-stock, Aussie-spec AE86 left as they would probably have all been modified.
It wasn’t all young people and sporty cars at All-Japanese Day. Check out these 1969 Corollas. One of them was bought new by the owner’s mother and he’s taken good care of it over the years. That’s sweet.
Here’s another old Corolla in military green.
More vibrant colors abounded in the Mitsubishi section…
…although my favorite color was the pale yellow on this Mazda Capella.
The bright yellow of this Mazda 626 is more era-appropriate. I had forgotten how clean and unadorned the styling of these was.
Here was a poor Mazda 929 sitting all on its lonesome. Ok, so it’s not the more desirable hardtop sedan but I still like it!
These were high-quality, well-rounded cars and probably deserved to sell better than they did.
Those ’69 Corollas weren’t the oldest cars at the show. Here’s a 1967 Datsun 1000 (Sunny), the very first generation of Sunny.
When did interior blinds like those fitted to this Mazda Capella disappear…
…and these rear window louvers, as seen on this Datsun 280ZX, become so popular? By the way, I can’t look at these 280ZXs without that “Black Gold” song getting stuck in my head.
The first-generation Mazda Luce was designed by Giorgetto Giugario and it was quite a looker. I see hints of BMW, Chevrolet (Corvair) and NSU in its elegant lines. These had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it run in the US, offered from 1970-72 with a conventional 1.8 four-cylinder.
Those of us who don’t live in Japan will probably know the Toyota Starlet as being a conventional, rather dull subcompact hatchback. You may be surprised to learn there was a GT Turbo variant.
With a turbocharged 1.3 four-cylinder engine under the hood producing 135 hp and a curb weight of under 2000 pounds, the little Starlet could fly. There was also some juicy performance hardware like an optional limited-slip differential, adjustable suspension, and Recaro seats.
I may have been late to the show and the field may have been half-empty but I, along with my fellow millennials in attendance, got to see plenty of fascinating cars. And the Japanese sightings didn’t end when I left Banyo. After seeing the above Familia Rotary/R100 as I was leaving the show…
…I saw this regular Mazda Familia as I pulled into Aldi to do some shopping.
I’ll be marking my calendar for the next All-Japanese Day. And next time, I’ll get there earlier. Or they could just schedule it for a time outside of the hottest part of the year…
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S – The Legendary AE86
Curbside Classic: 1983 Datsun 280ZX – The Cutlass Supreme Brougham Z?
Curbside Classic: 1986-1991 Mazda 929/Luce – Aren’t You Supposed To Dress For Success?
Curbside Capsule: 1986-90 Nissan Pintara/Skyline – The Boxes Enter The Ring
Another interesting glimpse of the parallel universe, thanks!
Haven’t seen an old Corolla in ages. One of my uncles had one like that (Dutch immigrants were early Toyota adopters in our area because one owned a tiny dealership)
Don’t remember much about it other than it’s ability to rust, later Toyotas were much better in that regard.
“It’s a pity Americans were so weird about five-door hatchbacks”
I don’t know that we were. Didn’t North American carmakers deliberately eliminate 5-door hatchbacks to drive Americans to higher-profit SUVs (which are also 5-door hatchbacks)? Anecdotally, I remember my family members and friend’s parents embracing the hatchback car wholeheartedly in the early 80s before the SUV boom. Heck, even my grandparents had both a Dodge Omni 5-door hatch and a Chevette 5-door hatch…
Five door hatchbacks are a big reason Priuses are so popular around here. Put the back seats down and you’ve got tons of room. We carry two Christmas trees with the hatch closed every year. Who needs an SUV? I don’t know why they’re not available on every sedan.
The Chevrolet Citation ruined 5-door hatchbacks for many Americans.
I mean the Jetta outsells the Golf year after year, and I think we’re the only country where that happens. And when domestic automakers tried offering them (i.e. Chevy Corisca, Geo Prizm) alongside sedans, the sedans outsold them handily. Even the Escort eventually added a hatch. So while North American automakers may have stopped manufacturing them to promote SUVS (although I hadn’t heard that before) it also had to do with sales.
I once heard it was due to valuables being exposed to prying eyes. Which is ridiculous as it ignores the ubiquity of cargo covers.
“young people don’t like cars”
Really means “most young people are not into the same cars as Boomers”. i.e. They don’t care a lot about 57 Chevys, 65 Stangs and 69 Camaros, nor think 1970 was the ‘zenith of autos’.
*raises hand* I do! But I’m not giving a boomer owner $70,000+ for one of them, therefore I must not like cars.
Hopefully this means prices of the 60s and 70s muscle cars drop when boomers are too old to care anymore or passed on. Then young guys like myself could actually afford one!
A fun assortment of things that rusted into the ground decades ago in my part of the world.
I still cannot make up my mind about that 3rd generation Celica notchback coupe.
That bright yellow Mazda 626 sedan looks like the one (in a more sedate metallic beige) owned by a college professor in the early 80s. It was the first piston-engine Mazda in my conciousness. It was a nice car. And I agree with you that the 929 was a better car than its sales would indicate.
Great posts, William!
(Needs some B210s, though. 😉 )
If Mazda really sold any gen1 Luces in the US, I sure never saw one. I had assumed they weren’t sold here, but other sources support yours.
I love those early Mazda rotaries including the R100. I have a sales brochure for one which is probably as close as I will get to owning one.
The 323F was sold in North America but Canada only as a two door for a single year. Most ended up in western Canada. I haven’t seen one for a long time now.
With the gorgeous coupe Astina 323C they were the most beautiful Mazda of the 90’s. Ford made its own too, the Ford Lynx TX3, despite the bizarre front design, it is kinda a cool Aspire with steroids.
They’re still just a click and a credit card away. Nifty accessory, but I wouldn’t want to be in a frontal crash and have a bunch of thin steel blades flying forward toward my head.
That pale yellow Mazda Capella was the exact same color as a plastic model kit of a Mazda RX3 I built around 1973.
As for hatchbacks, I think it’s a hemisphere thing since several SOuth American countries also preferred notchbacks. Personally I like hatchbacks and we had a US spec 1995 Ford Escort 5 door for years, which was basically a Mazda 323 hobbled by a Ford CVH engine.
Mazdas are my favorite Japanese cars, since in addition to our Ford, sort of Mazda I had some fun drives in my mother’s 91 Protege, we owned a Mazda5 and currently run a CX-5.
Nice selection some familiar some not so much these days, Ive always like that first gen Luce, a friend in Hobart had or has three of them and as I learned there was a mechnical upgrade part way through that first model and the bits dont swap over but early capella/RX2 axles brakes and other stuff fits, I hope his are still in good order they were all almost drivers last time I saw them,
Those 60s Corollas could be fun an ex GF had one modded for rallying it was quite fast and nimble lots of fun on Tasmaniam gravel roads and that green must have been mixed in oil tanker sized portions NZ govt green Corollas of the next model were very very common here maybe it was a deleted colour and they got their fleet cars cheaper that shade,
Those Srayan 200B datsuns were a backward step from the 180B having driven both, the 180B from Batlow NSW to Donnybrook WA, I reckon I know which was the better car Aussie local content regs did not help some cars at all, Starfire engined Coronas were not a good Toyota so it wasnt only Nissan that suffered.
Starlet, are you sure there was a factory hotrod called Glanza, the relative we stayed with in NZ when my daughter was born had one, fresh import all the fruit 17 inch wheels and really fast it didnt handle to match the engines power more suited to smooth Japanese freeways than our bumpy twisty two lane blacktop, but stand on the gas and it went.
Very col posts, both part 1 and 2. What struck me was no Subaru’s. Based on a certain ad campaign I thought they were Australia’s national car 😁
Yes but I was there when early Subarus were new rust killed them in droves if you wanted to see Subarus in plague numbers New Zealand was the place to be though something is eradicating the older 90s models now, there doesnt appear to be an effective vaccine to save them.
Another great show. One slight correction – the C210 Skyline was sold here as a Skyline. My uncle bought one new. The 240K name was only used for the Kenmeri generation.
Lots of interesting stuff here! The big Mazda is unknown to me, I think. As was that snazzy white Skyline.
Must use the word “pareidolia” more in future.