WESHOOT2 wrote:I thought the same thing.
Except my phone, while capable of taking pictures, is unable to send them to the 'net;
there is NO WAY I'm going back on that road in that condition;
conditions can, and do, change overnight, sometimes on purpose, sometimes from weather and/or additional traffic.
I wish I could, because anyone owning an AWD Kizashi would feel secure knowing its potential for clearing troubled roads.
I assume my highly tuned and awesome driving skill had a part......
You probably have the most abused Kizashi in North America if not the world..
And seeing that you do these exploits with a CVT tranny makes me feel like I can go that route myself if the 6MT search doesn't pan out soon..
I do not consider my exploits "abuse", but I confess to thinking of my car(s) as "disposable consumables".
I mean, since I get a new one pretty regular, since 1974 (my first new car, a Mazda RX4 Wankel wagon; wagon for its improved aerodynamics).
I care not about outer appearance, as I think of its sheetmetal as "the stuff around me that keeps stuff from bouncing off my head". So a dent here or a scrap there matters little if at all (you should see MY scars ).
I do service when I have the time, money, and inclination.
Yeah, I hear ya. Sometimes Americans get too attached to their cars and stress out about the slightest things and don't really enjoy driving their cars.
On the other hand, I don't think of the Kizashi as just disposable transportation since only 3 model years were made, (and a few hundred 2013 models brought over before the plug was pulled) and it seems like it will be a cult car in the future. I had a 85 Toyota Corolla GTS (legendary AE86) in high school/college and have been looking for a worthy successor ever since. I know the Scion FRS/Subby BRZ are supposed to be the real modern day AE86....but I'm now getting to an age where I prefer something more comfortable and practical.
Even though the Kizashi is larger/heavier than the old Corolla GTS, it still has a lot in common in that it gives buyers a little more than they're expecting for the price...it just seems like old school Japanese to me. (before they started catering to individual car markets worldwide, and implemented cost cutting for their lower end cars)
Well yeah, those cars are classics you'll find all pimped out at auto shows...but "cult" cars (such as the AE86 and possibly the Kizashi) live on because a small group of people keep it that way. Most people would look at a Corolla GTS and just see an old Japanese car from the 80's and wonder why someone would bother keeping it running..
Pyramid1 wrote:Well yeah, those cars are classics you'll find all pimped out at auto shows...but "cult" cars (such as the AE86 and possibly the Kizashi) live on because a small group of people keep it that way. Most people would look at a Corolla GTS and just see an old Japanese car from the 80's and wonder why someone would bother keeping it running..
The Kizashi will never reach the status of the AE86. I'm from Japan so I am very familiar with the AE86 or "Hachi Roku" as they call it there (translated to Eight Six). The car was an inexpensive, lightweight RWD that got popular with Japanese guys because the car was an awesome handling car that was especially a delight in the corners. It was this car that was at the forefront of the drifting movement along with Nissan Silvia (Americans know it as the 240SX).
There are some true AE86 masters in Japan and you can youtube them. They are actually so skilled that they are able to keep up with R33 and even R34 Nissan GT-Rs as long as they are in the corners. They basically can edge out the Godzilla with their handling through the corners. It's pretty insane to watch considering the GT-R has over double the power, even against a tuned AE86.
The anime series "Initial D" also got the AE86 extremely popular as the main character's car was a tuned AE86 with the markings of his pop's tofu shop which he used to street race at night with his team (seriously, this is the storyline). Much like how the Gran Turismo video game got the GT-R popularized, the anime put the AE86 in a spotlight, even overseas.
The reputation even spilled over to the states and any JDM fanboy in the US is probably aware of the legendary AE86.
As Pyramid1 mentioned earlier, the new Scion FR-S, Subaru BR-Z, and Toyota GT-86 is basically the revival of this car. That's why the Toyobaru is a small, lightweight RWD where the handling of the car was the key focus.
The naming of the Toyota version of this car (sold outside of NA as we have the Scion version) was deliberately paying homage to the AE86 hence it's called the GT-86.
Despite the Toyota history, this car is really a Subaru product, IMO. Subaru did the large majority of the engineering and development and most importantly, the new car has a boxer engine. Toyota gave them their direct injection technology and was responsible for the body styling (may be a good thing given how Subarus look these days), but Subaru arguably did the heavy lifting.
The Kizashi will never have the same kind of cult following. It's just too different of a car from something like the AE86. The Kizashi is a hefty FWD/AWD that faded to oblivion among all the other popular, but overrated midsizes. I imagine it will have a small following over time among owners (namely, us here). The cars that comes to mind to compare it to is the Isuzu Vehicross or Isuzu Axiom.
Here are some videos that are worthwhile watching if you are interested in the AE86 and the new GT-86, BRZ, FR-S aka Toyobaru.
This one is the original AE86 vs. GT-R video from a long time ago.
[youtube][/youtube]
This one is pretty weird, but worth watching. Real racing after 3 minutes in of various Japanese cars. It's both subbed and dubbed in English. These guys are obviously paying homage to the Initial D anime (it was seriously that influential).
[youtube][/youtube]
The last one is the development story of the Toyobaru. There is a Part II too.
[youtube][/youtube]
I don't think the Kizashi will reach the cult status of the AE86 either, but then again nobody saw that one coming. I had mine in the early 90's before Initial D, drift racers and video games gave the car cult status. At the time it was just a 7 year old Toyota with nearly 75k miles on the clock, but it had a little 4cyl that revved like a motorcycle engine and RWD in an age where all the Japanese makers were moving towards FWD for nearly everything.
I only made the comparison because both the Kizashi and AE86 (in Corolla GTS form here) both give you a little more than you expect for the price. The more I read about and test drive the Kizashi, the more it feels like old school Japanese compared to current Honda, Toyota, Nissan etc..models that seem a little too big and too catered to whichever world market they're sold in.
Pyramid1 wrote: I had a 85 Toyota Corolla GTS (legendary AE86) in high school/college and have been looking for a worthy successor ever since.
my wife bought one of those brand new while we were dating! Now that was one fast little fun car to rip around in. I used to call it the econo-pocket-rocket. What did that thing redline at? around 9k? It was insane....Supra owners were pissed. They paid a lot more and couldn't hold candle to the GTS.
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