Cars

I ride a “big bike” in Thailand

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This is what it feels like in the city, even when you’re not rushing a kid to the hospital:

Quotes are in the title because my CRF is only 250cc; it’s the correct term for Thailand in both the Thai language and the English dialect of Thailand.

From the YouTube page: This is the incredible moment a hero biker saved the life of a young girl having an epileptic fit – by rushing her to hospital while her family were stuck in a traffic jam. The girl’s father Sorachat Sadudee, 51, was driving home after picking up his two daughters from school in Phitsanulok, central Thailand on Thursday (23/05) evening. His youngest daughter Kaimook, eight, told him that she felt sick and very tired, so he tried to make his way home as quickly as he could.

Why, Ben, why?

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I remember seeing the original scene for the first time and that was all I could think. Revision time:

Next station, Synthwave (I heard where we’re going is actually closer to Retrowave, but whatever):

Tomorrow, I will blast this in the Crown (New! Improved! Exhaust Note!) with all the windows down and melt into the Tatooine sunset.

Delfonific!

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I’m on a kick looking for BGM tonight, because I need to start writing chapters 4 & 5 of my master’s dissertation tomorrow. I will be aided by my trusty steed, Dragon Naturally Speaking and all of these badass beats. Sometimes Lofi radio on YouTube gets old…

And speaking of steeds, I’m planning selling my trusty CRF250M to help pay off Max’s upcoming trip to the states… Which looks likes it’s really gonna happen.

RIP Gaijin Shacho Hero Dude

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Dear Nissan,
Now that you have ousted Carlos-sama, can you please stop making horrendous cars?
For example, no Skyline is worth a million dollars. Period. But this isn’t even trying:

The best looking part of this is the shadows!!
“Note from management: Please add ugly color swatch on the side.
Now THIS is how you de-accentuate a historical badge… Just bury it in carbon fiber and instead, make those air vents POP!!

Now, it’s rumored that you gangstabbed your Caesar in the back because he wanted to fully merge Nissan and Renault, but really, at this point you need to look at Renault’s current product lineup compared to yours. Although many Renault products look quirky,  they are at least generically modern, while Nissan’s look like they were designed in North Korea:

Nissan’s tribute to the Ssangyong Stavic?

It’s not necessary for you to compete with everybody on all fronts, but please, stop making ugly-ass cars. Please go back to your roots.

80 years old. This production car has more soul in just its tires than a million dollar Skyline.
Available in most parts of the world from around $500.
Aw hell, maybe there is a Skyline worth a million bucks…

Dajiban Glory

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Road & Track published their first cool story online, maybe ever: The Glorious Madness of Japanese Dodge Van Racing

If I were still in Japan, I might be into that… Different and kinda expensive, but not overly weird. Then again, I think about my homie that drove around a Suburban and was constantly getting stuck parking spaces, narrow streets, and once, even a car wash, and it might give me pause. Still… Those oversize Watas are pretty awesome.

Check out the drifting from around 9:10!

Classic JDM Cars in Thailand

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Note: My Kujira Crown is still running strong and you can find every post on it by browsing through my Cars category.

Recently, there have been a lot of interesting JDM classics popping up in my Facebook feed for sale in Thailand. There’s nothing I would consider buying as most of the sellers are just asking for way too much, but it’s interesting to see these cars are still somewhat maintained. Here’s a few that caught my eye last week.

Mitsuoka Bubu 501. The 502 was much cooler because it was even stranger, but still… 
Hino Briska (with unspeakably horrible wheels)
Daihatsu HiJet S70 or S80

The HiJet is nearly identical to the one I had at university, except the one pictured has a sunroof. I rode this car so hard and created so many legends in it… We once packed 19 people in it and drove from Nara Koen to Amemura. I stood it up on 2 wheels with a parking brake turn while driving back home from Rumours. It may still currently hold the speed record from the top of Tenri Dam to Nara Kyoikudai via Tenri Kaido.

GOT Tacoma?

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Mad props to this guy… Dickon mos def.

As a side note, these retro color scheme (yellow on black) license plates in CA are super popular, but seem strange to me when put on new cars.

America Has Fish Sauce

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But there are so many basic types and specific variants, as well as imported and domestically produced brands, it’s mind-boggling. Referring to any specific type as just “fish sauce” could be quite disastrous, depending on the context (who put pla dak in the nam pla?).

Bonus shot: Ultra dope station wagon in the Costco parking lot.

Auto-parking Slipper Resort in Japan

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Alternate usages:

  • Segways for cats (light load bearing)
  • Go Go Gadget Rollerslips (heavy load bearing)
  • Tech-enabled procreation aid for rapidly aging population (G Parking)
  • Ad-hoc conveyor sushi party set

I wish Nissan would quit spending resources on clickbait and just make better cars… My RB-20 cries itself to sleep every night knowing that its great grandkids are (under) powering ugly hybrid bimbo boxes with whiny CVTs and ridiculous start/stop features.

The Defiant Ones

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Took me a while to get around to it, but this is the best documentary, ever. So, so many memories that basically defined my entire youth. In the whole series, there is exactly one album I don’t own, and I’ve used every hip hop album and artist mentioned in a mixtape or live set at some point (oh the time I had before we had kids lol).

I kept buying CDs long after Napster and Audiogalaxy, mostly because of the huge difference in sound quality those days, but I’ve only averaged about one or two per year in the past 10 years.

And I still load the Chronic in between Kendrick and Gucci every once in a while, because it will always be the king of car beats.