Now, if you're from Japan and if you're aged from 50 and up, then you might remember a memorable classic Japanese TV commercial for Asahi Pentax camera but more importantly is this...
Yes, it maybe a classic oldies Japanese commercial for some oldies camera but with some 60's Japanese cars got featured in the ad like the Toyota 2000GT, Nissan S30 Fairlady, and the Mazda Cosmo, we kinda wondering that what if we can do that part from that ad...
To recreate that part from the classic Asahi Pentax ad, we decided to find a place to stage it and we think we found it...
We have chosen this venue to stage a reenactment. Yes, this is the Eiger Nordwand from the Gran Turismo 5 game. It maybe short, but thanks to its green scenery, recreating this part from the classic Japanese commercial from the 60's would be easy but in order to do this, we have to find the cars seen from that ad and it must be from the 1960's...
This fits right through its qualifications. This is a Japanese car from the 1960's and it's a kei car. It's called the Honda N360 and this set a benchmark for Honda kei cars. Produced from 1967 to 1972, the N360 is the brand's first kei car; small in size but big on fun. The N in the N360 name stands for
norimono, which is Japanese for vehicle.
What surprised me that the N360 is a bit more of a Japanese clone of the classic Mini and we really do mean the Austin Morris Rover kind of Mini, not the BMW kind of Mini because we're talking nostalgia fun here but I think it looks broadly similar to the car that the Asahi Pentax commercial girl's driving. Hey! It does look like that one and that's about it. Anyway...
Kei cars in the past are powered by the 2-stroke air-cooled engines but for the N360, it comes with the air-cooled 4-stroke engine. This 2-cylinder SOHC engine produces about 31HP of power but at the end of its production life, it had increased to 36HP. For the first two years of the N360, about 400,000 units have been sold, and amazingly, outselling the legendary kei car, the Subaru 360. This car really helped Honda became a full-fledged carmaker even though the fact that Honda makes motorcycles for a living.
Mated on the N360 was the 4-speed manual gearbox with dog-clutch engagement, capable of reaching a top speed of about 115kph.
Enough analogy for now and since we're on the subject of 60's Japanese cars from the Asahi Pentax ad, look what we brought to complete the process...
This is the Toyota 2000GT. Dubbed as Japan's first supercar, the design of the 2000GT really resembles more of a Ferrari of that time but surprisingly, this car was made to crush opponents at Fuji and Suzuka and then set a top speed of 220kph when this car was tested at the Yatabe test course. Little known fact that they made a one-off convertible version for the James Bond movie
You Only Live Twice. It maybe a Bond car but it was driven by a Bond girl on that film named Akiko Wakabayashi or Aki, who was a Japanese special agent aiding James Bond's mission. Originally they would put a coupe version but because of the height of the interior that cannot accommodate Sean Connery's head, they decided to chop the 2000GT's roof away and made it open-top for the film.
Rarity aside, the Toyota 2000GT is a very rare classic car because they only made 300 of them, about 200 less than today's Lexus LFA's 500 units. When it was launched in the 1960's, they can't afford the pricing of 2,380,000 Yen, which in today's money, I think, is about 15 or 16 million yen. I think it could be more than my guessing but anyway, let's move on to the next one...
The Mazda Cosmo, when it was launched in 1967, is the first ever car to come with the world's first mass-produced two-rotor Wankel rotary engine. The rotary wankel engine was the brainchild of Sir Felix Wankel who sold the rights to Mazda from that time. This car is another instant rarity because when it stopped making these at 1972, about 1,176 cars were sold. Oh and for the fun of it, because of its futuristic styling, it did landed a role on the Ultraman TV show.
And here it is. Our last ingredient to finish it up, this is the first generation Nissan Fairlady and this was launched in 1969. I know, this is the first Fairlady Z car. 'Nuff said.
Now that we got all of the main ingredients, the stage of recreating a scene from the Asahi Pentax commercial is finally ready. Let's not forget that in that scene, the 2000GT was first then followed by the Cosmo, and the S30 Fairlady so the sequences has to be in that order...
...and that does it. The reenactment's done and those 60's Classic Japanese Cars finally got their...um...let's not say 60 seconds of fame, let's call it THE X FACTOR because the may be old but they still have their X FACTOR shining through their golden days of Japanese motoring.
This goes to show...60's Japanese Classic Cars are COOL.
CLASSICS ARE COOL...
