Dajiban Glory

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

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.

Climate Change in Thailand

The Nation published a cool infographic about what climate change means for Thailand. Having lived here for over a decade, I have noticed huge changes in the seasons and climate. When I came, the first few years contained long drought periods (one year in particular it didn’t rain for almost five months), and the long-term trend since then has been one of persistent flooding instead of drought.

LINK: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30355898