Saturday, July 20, 2013

What's in our Car Town garage today? (July 20, 2013)

What's in our Car Town garage today?

2013 Honda N-ONE

A year after the launch of the Honda N BOX kei car and months after the launch of the "+" version of the N BOX, Honda launched the N-ONE, the third addition of the Honda N-series range of kei cars. The N naming stands for NEW NEXT NIPPON NORIMONO, marking this a new chapter in Honda's kei car story. Although it is an entirely new model, the N-ONE traces back to its roots from the legendary N360, Honda's first kei car ever made from the late 60's.

2013 Honda N-ONE

1969 Toyota 2000GT

Dubbed as Japan's first supercar, the 2000GT from Toyota is one of the most historical cars ever made in the history of Toyota Motor Corporation. Back at the Yatabe, the 2000GT set a top speed of 220kph, which is a little by modern standards but it's worth a crushing against the little compacts of today. Popularity aside, there has been an open-top version driven by Aki from the Bond film You Only Live Twice. Reason why the 2000GT's top removed for the film is because of Sean Connery's height can't accommodate the inside of the car. Only 300 units were made and back in the 60's, it costs 2.38 million yen, but now, it's a collector's item in the game of high-price auctions.

1969 Toyota 2000GT
1970 Datsun 240Z

The Nissan Z-Car story began when Yutaka Katayama (then-president of Nissan USA) and his people began developing the 240Z project and by the October of 1969, the Z-car was born. The S30 Z-car is the first of its kind and for the Japan-spec model, it was powered by a SOHC L20A inline-6 engine which develops 130PS of power. The US-spec model, however, features a 24L engine which develops more power than the Japan-spec one. Popularity aside, the S30 propelled the starring role of the Devil Z from the Wangan Midnight manga franchise.

1970 Datsun 240Z

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