My Fairlady:

A Vintage Fairlady at Bungo Takada Classic Car Show

by Dustin Mankin

That MG Midget looking thing? Not an MG Midget at all, but actually a SR311 or SRL311 Fairlady. It's definitely 1968 or later, dude to the addition of a rearview mirror, which was required after 1968. Under the hood it should have a U20 2 Liter engine and a 5 speed manual.

Engine specs could be a little different depending on if it came with the sports package or not. Without the sports package, it was producing 135 HP, while the sports package added some tuning, a camshaft, and dual solex/mikuni carbs. In this trim, it would hum to the tune of 150hp.

This one has some nice ivory paint and some Watanabes, which I mean, come on.... shouldn't all cars from this era been sitting on a pair? They are the Welds of the Japanese classics' world.

I looked high an low for the difference between SR311 and SRL311. I asked Daniel from Wasabi Cars, and he said he wasn't for sure, but he thought maybe the L was for left hand drive models. AKA Datsun 1600 and Datsun 2000.

Box Car:

Hakosuka at Bungo Takada Car Show

by Dustin Mankin

"Box Car? That's dumb. This isn't a Scion xB or Nissan Cube..." I can here you saying now. I'll share something that I just learned 2-weeks ago from my Japanese teacher, while asking him a question about the RPM Manga (did I mention it will be back in two weeks?). He was laughing and asked if I knew why this generation of Skyline was called Hakosuka.

Hako = box + ka- = car. Quite literally, it means boxcar, due to the iconic roof shape. I already knew what both of those words meant alone.... I just never thought to put them together within the word "Hakosuka."

This one is a pretty standard Hakosuka, complete with the standard wheel arches, as seen below. I'm a little disappointed that the car has a "500" number plate. If you don't know what that means, don't worry, I'll go over it in a few weeks, after the coverage of the car show is over. I found a real gem, based on number plate alone, last week.

Lookit dem meats on those classic Watanabe's, son!

And what's the MG Midget looking thing in the background? That's tomorrow my fair readers. For now, just remember.... sometimes "box car" can mean more than a riced out xB....