Sakura Picnic - Bundoora Park yesterday.

Instead of old 'Murrican, Aussie cars or hot rods, yesterday Paul and I zipped over to Bundoora for the Sakura Picnic or first combined Japanese car and bike clubs show at Bundoora Park. The event was very well organised mainly by the Toyota and Nissan Clubs (can you imagine a Ford and Holden Club working hand in hand to create a great event? or a Hot Rod and Street Machine Clubs?). Everybody, no matter what type or style of car or motorcycle they arrived with, was made to feel welcome and I don't think I've seen a friendlier bunch of car boys and girls anywhere else in the recent past, so eager to talk our favourite subject and show you what they've done to theirs. They even gave me one of the primo parking spaces just because we arrived in the baddest sounding Japanese V8 powered ride in the park and it seemed the only one that obviously had so many pistons. I did notice a couple of Toyotas, Lexus and Nissans that might have had 8 slugs, but the hoods were closed and it was impossible to know for sure without searching out the owners. Of course this is not to suggest the four bangers and sixes of most cars present would be easy beats in a driving contest, I know better than that.



The following pictures I think might illustrate the variety on hand and offer something of interest, or something to pick on, because it's not quite what we all think of as cool when we think cars. And just to confuse you all we’ll start with a muddersickle to get us on the way quickly.



The Datsun 1600 was an awesome little car in its day, this one is pretty awesome today.







This is a Mitsubishi Galant GTO, unfortunately it was never originally offered in Oz, maybe they'd have found a few more buyers if they did.



Early Hilux had a pretty neat interior.



Outside was OK too.



Like the vintage cars at Kalorama, the Japanese machinery provides many opportunities for artistic licence with the image recorder.







So too some of the owner's sense of humour.



Most of the engines may be a couple or more pistons short, but they don't lack anything in the way of energy or visual appeal, like this early Nissan Z Car OHC sicks..



And speaking of Skylines, the first cars to wear that moniker were Nissan's Prince Skyline, from a time when Nissan and Datsun were still separate companies, and the Prince skyline GT was a savage beast!



Here's why…..



Yup, this was factory issue for the '64 Prince Skyline GT and it had an all synchro four speed,



Here's the '64 and '65 models.



Some more muddersickles.



Race bred Honda 50cc, yeah like the posties used to ride.



Its big brother, with 125cc capacity per piston.



Here's a few more Skylines, these later cars from Nissan not Prince.



The badass version of Nissan Skyline is nowadays known simply as GTR.



Nissan's answer to the pommy sporty car was this, which was known by most owners as a fair bitch,



……….but has matured into a bit of a sweetheart.



One of the first Nissan GTR spec Skylines to race here.



An original low mileage Celica twin cam GT.



Another one that was never issued for Australia, this time from my mob.



Has turbo six and all wheel drive.



How about Mazda's first Rotary powered machine, Cosmo.



Beneath those shiny EFI Trumpets there's a two hole engine that can whip most V8s into submission.



The little 13B rotisery not only packs a punch, it looks pretty neat with a little spit and polish.

The most luxurious of Toyota Crown models is called Majesta (Royal is the regular model, Athlete the sporty one), they make great VIP style rides and with factory air springs, can be made to sit nice and low.



Cedric is Nissan's luxury model, which looks positively agricultureal by comparison.



This appears to be a Toyota 4A-G Twin Cam from the late '70s.



This one is from the mid '70s.



This one much more recent, it's a TRD Aurion with a screw type supercharger from TRD and few more modifications, pushing almost 400hp thru the front wheels.  





Not sure what this one is, think it may be another Nissan Z car six.



This is a big block Nissan Turbo Twin Cammer making around 250bhp…..



It's fitted to this Mazda 1000 yoot and packs a serious wallop (owner told me it's the biggest engine can be legally installed without requiring street rod style engineering paperwork.



This one has been dressed up to look like some kind of movie star.



Toyota's Corolla, you can't kill 'em with a stick!



But you can race 'em or do whetever else you can think of for a bit of fun.



Another Toyota that can't be killed, no matter how big the stick you use.



This one was looking a lot better than it did even when it was brand new.



A couple of hi performance Tojos.



A High performance Honda.



Apparently it likes a few revs.



So does this little bugger, weighs in around 550kgs and runs a mid-mounted 200+hp Hyabusa, they tell me it's wickedly quick.



Not much bigger than a shoe really.



Toyota's first sporty car used the Colin Chapman principle of smaller and lighter.  Believe it or not, one of these won the Japan Grand Prix and a couple of Sports Car Championships back in the early sixties.



Just like todays Toyota 86 sports car it was powered by a tiny boxer engine, although this one only needs 2 spark plugs.



And it  does provide another opportunity for arty-farty-fotos.



Sometimes even a four banger can be a tight fit.



Mazda RX2 was not a performance focussed rotary model, but this one I'm informed do skoot along nicely (it has a bridge ported 13B).



It also provides lunch if you get hungry.



I loved this old ToyoAce truck, it's a late '50s model.



And this blown early Corolla.



People say Toyota styling is bland, yet this Crown when parked beside it's local contemporaries like the HR Holden and XP Falcon, makes them look pretty plain and ordinary.



The fastback styling has a hint of early Mustang in it.



Quite a few yoots turned out on the day.







And some stuff that is sorta kinda different.



Is it time for more arty-farty?







Dunno if this Honda S200 qualifies as arty-farty, but it looks kinda tough.







Hatchi Roku looks pretty cool in race trim…….



……and in RocketBunny guise, it looks downright…well you can call it what you will, some say tough, others nasty and others think this style is just plain bithchin!



Even the Honda folks seem to like the style.



Not sure about the cops.



And so for fear of boring you too much, we come to the end of another Carpics show from left field.

Those are some sweet machines.  Thanks for sharing the photos.

Thanks Carps, you don't see this stuff often here and some it deserves a good look, tech and engineering make some of these pocket rockets very formidable!
Cheer mate

Thanks Carps some nice machines there

WOW some very cool pocket rockets there, Thanks for sharing them

Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!! A nice change of weaponry ..

thanks a heap Carps , some nice and different cars

Awesome turn out , I grew up in Arthur st , Bundoora park was my backyard ,, memories

Has Chrissy come early?!? Carps Adventures woo! There's some swisho lookin' carz there, the coppers musta been drooling and ready to sting just about all of em with 'too low' defects at the exit gate. How the heck did they manage to get a Rocket Bunny equipped 86 registered?!? Or is that license plate just fer' showin and not much goin'?

Contrary to popular belief, Victoria ain't no nanny state when you see what cruises the streets here. The black Rocket Bunny lives in the next suburb and I see it out quite often.

Cheers Guys (Carps & Paul) ... thoroughly enjoyed the pics!...Awesome machinery out there without doubt.