Bluebird
Twenty year ago there was an excellent car called "Bluebird 510 SSS". My Bluebird had the same emblem as it. (I stole the emblem and stuck it to mine.) I bought the car from my friend with $50 before I had my car license. Engine oil and radiation water was leaking when I drove. So I always brougt a can of oil and one liter of water. The temparature of radiation was rising gradually, then it went down. And steam came from the bonnet. Then I had to stop the car and pour water to radiation as soon as possible. It is important to pour water little by little unless the engine gets damage. But my dream was to be an owner of Porche 911.
(Porsche)
Then I heard about a car called Porsche. The report was that the rotation of engine should not be lower than 3000 rpm, careful manipulation of gas pedal is necessary unless the engine stops, careful connection of clutch is necessary unless it would be defaced immediately, and so on. The report implied that it was impossible for amateurs to drive Porsche. Actually it would be technically hard to drive a car keeping the rotation more than 3000 rpm in Tokyo. And it also reported that it was possible to change the direction of Porsche with operation of gas pedal while turning. It might be due to RR system. I was impressed at the styling too. And we could drive Porsche with turbo over 200 km/hour when we accelerated in the approach at the highway.
Cerbo
Then I looked for a car similar to Porsche most in Japan. And I bought a car called Cerbo. This was a small car. One of the reasons I chose it was that I was a poor student. The specification was RR and 0.55 liter engine with three cylinders. The maximum horse power was 28 and the maximum torque was 5.3 kg-m. The weight was 550 kg. Suspension for front wheels was w-wishbone and for rear wheels was semi-trailing arm. I could enjoy driving while I run slower than 80 km/hour. It was exciting to feel the car sliding when I drove it on winding road using 2nd and 3rd gears. Actually it was wonderful to experience at 60 km/hour what happened with Porsche at more than 150 km/hour.
However, the maximum speed could be 110 km/hour even if the pedal was stuck to the floor. Engine sound was very noisy and it was probably different from that of Porsche. So finally I sold it to my younger brother.
Sprinter
I looked for a car with DOHC. But only some of the sporty type cars equipped DOHC engines at the moment. That is, those cars, even second hand cars, were expensive. In my home town, Kagoshima, I bought a normal 1500cc Sprinter that 1600cc DOHC was installed in at $3,000. Engine was very powerful but the mission was broken three days later. I thought it was no good to install high-powered engine to a normal car. So at the same shop I bought Sprinter that 1600 DOHC engine was originally installed. The price was $8,000. The color was red.
The car was made when the regulation was hard. Its horse-power was less than 100. Weight was heavy and it was powerless. When I was driving, sometimes fuel injection stopped, as EFI system became out of order. When I used air conditionar, the engine stopped while idling. So when I waited at the signal, I opened gas pedal a little bit or stopped the engine. I got married sometimes later. My wife, Youko was a new licensee and scraped the car along walls or crashed a little bit. The appearance of the car changed.
Actually I owned this car for less than two years.
Exa
When I tried to drive this car for the first time, I was upset about the handling feature. It was 1500cc SOHC engine with turbo and FF. Front part was much heavier. On the curved road, it run powerfully showing hard understair. But when closing gas pedal, a tuck-in occured. Then, opening gas pedal, it accelerated radically after the turbo-rag. I liked its weird driving taste and bought it. (A sales rep of Nissan who sat on assistant seat was paniced.)
The weight was about 900kg, probably, and horsepower was 105. It run comfortably. It was a first legal car with door-millors. It had manual sun-roof.
Two years later, it sometimes stopped especially after rainy days. (It started again without any trouble 10 to 20 minutes later.) Electricity system had some trouble. Due to Nissan's explanation, water penetrated into it (a device that generates high voltage and sends electricity to plugs.) and water became steam after heated. Then it had trouble in sending electricity. But after water became vapor perfectly, trouble would be gone. Even if I exchanged the part, it occured two or three months later. (When it stopped 10m ahead of the junction of Nakahara Gaido and Kan-Nana in the Morning rush hour, many cars sounded horns and some guy stopped the car, opened the window and shouted, "XXXX XXXX".)
And I remember well the fall of 1988. My wife and I went on a drive tour to Tohoku. Exa stopped in Tokyo Highway. (This time nobody ahouted.) But I felt bad hunch. We drove in Tohoku Highway, when rain got harder. There was puddle in long tracks. Exa suddenly slipped and crashed to the guard rail.
Fortunately, my wife and I had slight sour neck, but the engine of Exa had cracks. Exa became disused car. (Staffs in Nissan Shirakawa took care of us very much.) We stayed in Shirakawa and enjoyed hot spring. We came back transfering local trains, because we spent much for the traction of Exa.
Familia
Next car is Familia. It is 1986 made and 12 years old. I want to use it for ten years more. (Next car would be Porsche, probably.)
The specification is;
Engine : 1600cc, DOHC 16-valve 4 cylindered with intercooler turbo
140HP/6000rpm, 19kg-m/5000rpm
Weight/Size : 1020kg, Length 4195mm/Width 1645mm/Height 1390mm
It has sun-roof. (automatic, this time.) It is 4-door and the color is white.
The engine is quite powerful. It rotates to 5000 rpm with just a little step on gas pedal. The acceleration on second gear is quite violent. I can enjoy comfortable driving on the highway. Theoretically it could run at 220km/h on 6000rpm/fifth gear. My wife also likes this car. As the torque in low speed is big enough, she can drive easily when she goes shopping. The fuel consumption rate is 6 to 7 km per liter in town and around 10 in highway.
I hope I would use this car as long as possible.
Civic
Troubles were frequently occurring when Familia got into 13 years old. Electronic contact of plug cords became wrong, or window opened not smoothly. Gas was oozing from the engine cover. Engine oil was leaking and black oil strain was on the parking space. We decided to buy a new car before 14th annual automobile inspection.
We picked up several cars for candidates, checked information on car magazines and had test drives at car dealers. Our choice was Civic. My wife liked the head lights. I hoped that a new car would be 1800cc or 2000cc type. But my wife was against that, because she had problem to park a car at parking space if the size was much bigger than Familia. Civic is 1600cc type. I strongly requested the engine type should be VTEC.
| Type | Civic Ferio (GF-EK4) |
| Engine | 1600cc with water cooled, DOHC 4-valve, VTEC |
| Performance | 155 PS / 7300 rpm, 15.6 kg-m / 6500 rpm |
| Color | Grey |
| Size (mm) | 4450 (L) x 1695 (W) x 1390 (H) |
| Equipment | Sunroof, Anti-lock brakes, etc |
The transmission is automatic for the first time for us. It has four steps and I can enjoy driving changing it frequently. My concern is fuel consumption rate is 7 km/liter, I am not sure it is due to automatic transmission or VTEC though.
It is convenient in traffic jam due to automatic transmission. I had been heard its rumor. Actually it is easy to drive.
The engine is called VTEC. The sound is changed over 6000 rpm. It is like a vacuum cleaner. Acceleration is quite comfortable then. I sometimes tried using second gear on Tomei Highway. But it consumes gas much more. I am looking forward to long trip with Civic on this summer vacation.
Return
Return To Top of This Page
