Sunday 9 October 2016

December 1989, and the Japanese enthusiast car market...

A little look at Japanese automotive-enthusiast used vehicle market, for the very last month of the one-nine-eights; via two of the more popular tuning magazines of the era.

CARBOY, and OPTION - the EXCITING CAR MAGAZINE: December 1989.

Kicking off with the Carboy first. Alphabetical order? No.. It's just it was on top of the Option in the photo above. Lazy.. efficient.. pah! Call it what you will..
Around 2/3rds of the way into both magazines - well into the black&white section - we hit the classifieds and dealer adverts. They're interesting (and the point of today's post) in that they're a fun representation of what people would've/could've been buying at the time: plenty of mid-to-late 70's Datsuns/Toyotas/Mazdas, along with some much newer machinery.. from both dealer and private sellers. The page above - JAPAN AUTO PART ("JAP - Since '86") - is particularly heavy on the Nissan Z cars... and as it turns out, they're not alone...

Some private seller ads. HR31, Z31, and a warmed-over AW11 Toyota MR2 G Limited. 1.7 stroker, T04B, a little aero.. and all in 'Italian Red'... ooh...

C10, S30, and a now-rarely-seen S12 2000RS-X Silvia/Gazelle...

...Musashino... seemingly a Fairlady Z and Skyline specialist.

Meanwhile on the opposite page...
...a wicked 1985 FC3S Mazda Savanna RX-7 GT-R. T04E, Re-Amemiya aero, and all dressed in red again. All yours for 1.95million yen.

The RX-7 options just get better: 1980 SA22C, in red/silver over FRP-everything. 890,000yen.

Spot something you like here? Early AE86 Sprinter Trueno? An A60 Celica XX? Isuzu 117 coupe?

More Z's, and heavy on the RS Watanabes...

A decade of AW11 ownership has my eyes going straight to that tidy, two-tone, t-top, G Limited, Supercharger here. Ohh, those accessory power-fold foglamps...

ARITA SPEED, and the AMERICAN DREAM! Please inquire for a price on their tremendous three-litre, G-nose, S30 Fairlady Z...

Middle, right; the rarely-seen 910 Bluebird SSS-X; a 1980 2dr hardtop, with a 2litre and high-mount TD05. Bottom left, an '83 Celica XX (Supra) with a supposed 380ps...

...or there's the '86 Z31 Fairlady Z 2000ZR-II; three years old, and 2.26million yen...

Now for the Option magazine, and its pun-tastic "Car buy bye" section..

'84 AE86 Corolla Levin GT-V...

.....and some more Z31's: a two-tone '83 300ZX, and an '84 on what look to be (..please..) Tomei Turbo's...

Tough '75 C110 Skyline hardtop. Lip, flares, and a F8.5J/R10J stagger...

A personal favourite: the CA72 Suzuki Alto Works RS-X, in superleggera FWD form. This one a cmon-it's-still-new 1988 model...

Finishing up here with Shonan Suncruise Co. Ltd.; and yet another page of classic Skylines and Z-cars. Interesting to note that the C10 Skyline GT-R...? Yep, still solid money in 1989. A classic's a classic...





Done. A bit of fun. Just pretend it's December 1989 Japan, and you've got.. say.. a million yen. What would you be buying...?






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