About those things about neon cars.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “autocarweekly” (ID: autocarweekly) By Dedee.
Someone said that this year’s Tokyo Motor Show – is the “Tokyo Motor Show.” European and American car dealers have absent, so that the entire exhibition is like a highly localized Japanese car exhibition.
In fact, since its birth in 1954, there has been a full 16 years, and the Tokyo Motor Show is the exclusive arena of neon cars in the early days.
After 1970, due to the advantages of the time and place, the Japanese car that was thick and thin, instantly became a mudslide in the global auto market, and the old European and American car companies were caught off guard.
The Tokyo Motor Show has gradually gained its name and place. It not only stands for the “Asia’s largest auto show”, but also becomes one of the vane of the world’s automobile trend.
But no matter how internationalized, the nature of the Tokyo Motor Show has never changed – rooted in neon to do the best.
Therefore, there are a variety of K-cars with different uses. They are not concept cars and they are better than concept cars, and they often make you look like you are.
Therefore, there have been super-segment models designed according to gender, age, cultural level, and so on. They look similar, even if the difference is only due to a certain design point.
The above shows the essence of the neon people’s delicate and perverted.
But Mr. Lu Xun really said in the “And Jieting Essays Collection”: “Only the nationality is the world.”
It’s precisely because neon cars think more and more, and they have achieved a unique Tokyo auto show, more achievementsA Japanese car with a small stroke.
Today, let’s talk about it – those years, especially in the second half of the 20th century, the Japanese legends who grew up at the Tokyo Motor Show.
1954-1960: Auto Show? I just don’t talk.
Since the neon people are no longer struggling on the food and clothing line, they are in desperate need of the three major needs of “black and white TV, refrigerators and washing machines” to enrich their increasingly decent lives.
Cars? Just think about it.
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The 1954 Tokyo Auto Show was born
Less than a decade after the end of World War II, the first Tokyo Motor Show opened at the doorstep of Emperor Hirohito’s home, and the famous Hibiya Park opened.
The Tokyo Motor Show at the time had a more grand name: the all-Japan auto show. It brings together 254 local companies and 267 cars, most of which are neon-style three-wheeled trucks and motorcycles.
The passenger car is definitely a vulnerable group, a total of 17 vehicles.
These three-wheeled trucks and two-wheeled motorcycles actually attracted 547,000 tourists to visit.
is limited to signing up.
However, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan can not think so. The forward spies they sent back, the visitors’ eyes were full of eagerness for the car.
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1955 Toyota Crown Release
The second Tokyo Motor Show, Toyota released the first generation of Toyota Crown, and is also the first neon car to export to the US.
The full name of the car at the time was Toyopet Crown.
Toyopet means “Toyota Baby”, which shows that Toyota has a lot of love for this car. It is said that the most painstaking thing is the youngest managing director of the company at the time, and now Toyota’s uncle, Toyota Yingji.
It was in his wall cracking proposal that Toyota decided to independently develop the car platform. Yingsang Sang not only directly participated in the development, but also volunteered to carefully open the first “crown” to the production line.
Neon’s famous car critic Yu Daji has always described the first generation crown:
“It’s easy to drive, the equipment is very luxurious, and it has good durability. It lays a solid foundation for the future reputation of Made in Japan.”
While the Toyota Crown has become the benchmark for the entire island country’s automobile manufacturing industry, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s wall cracking requires domestic automakers to quickly develop a civilian car that conforms to the local characteristics of the island country:
1, the maximum speed can exceed 100 kilometers
2, can take 4 people
3. When the speed is 60 km/h, the fuel consumption is 30 km/l
4, the price does not exceed 250,000 yen (at the time it was about 2,000 yuan, it is not cheap)
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1958 Subaru 360 Release
The 5th Tokyo Motor Show, Fuji Heavy Industries released a – in addition to the price, all other “national cars” that meet the requirements, Subaru 360.
Although at the time, the average neon’s monthly income had reached 40,000 yen, but it was quite difficult to buy a Subaru 360 with a price of about 425,000 yen (converted to RMB 3,300). .
However, this price still attracted a large number of middle-class families to buy and buy, and they even gave the car a nickname of fried chicken sweet: small ladybug (Volkswagen Beetle: 喵喵喵).
Since its launch in 1958, Subaru 360 has been the driving force of neon light-duty cars, with a cumulative sales volume of 390,000 units in ten years.
More importantly, it has created a brand new island-specific K-car. For more than 60 years, it has saved a lot of land for neon.
1961-1970: National car, private car, everyone has a car era
No for 10 years, “black and white TV, refrigerator and washing machine” has become the standard for neon homes. The neon people of the early 1960s began to pursue new decent: “cars, air conditioners and color TVs.”
In particular, the car, at the time, claimed to be “a $1,000 to buy a car.”
The first opportunity was the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The island people also belonged to the Asian races that were both hospitable and good-faced. So, that year, it was a logical rush to buy a car frenzy – the annual sales reached 5 million units.
The car manufacturers have been rushing to make the most of their efforts to develop national cars of all sizes, grades and qualities.
The neon is gradually entering the automotive society.
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1962 Honda debut
has been focusing on motorcycles. Even in 1961, Honda, the top 5 of the TT250ml class race in the Isle of Man, actually took the two four-wheeled roadsters S360 and S500 to the 9th Tokyo Motor Show.
The DOHC inline four-cylinder engine of the two roadsters is actually derived from Honda’s first mass-produced four-wheeler T360, a small truck that looks like a human being and is harmless, with a sky-blue casing.
The two amazingly small sports cars directly caused the Tokyo Auto Show to break through the first million people. The road from Ginza to the venue has more than 10,000 cars waiting to enter the market every day. 睹 “The truck that doesn’t want to build a sports car is not a good motorcycle”.
The organizer had to temporarily change that road to a one-way street.
Honda Dafa is amazing.
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1963 Toyo Kogyo launches dual-rotor engine and new Cosmo
Toyo Kogyo is today’s Mazda.
In the early 1960s, due to a series of “unequal treaties” with NSU, Toyo Kogyo was under enormous economic and competitive pressure.
In 1963, the then president, Matsuda Hiroshi, decided to fight back, and asked Yamamoto Kenichi (the sixth president of Mazda in the future) to lead the company and set up the “Rotor Research Department” with 46 engineers to conduct research on the rotor engine. Improvement.
The 47 people are called “Rotor 47 Strongman”.
NS-X is also the first mass-produced sports car in the history of the car to use an all-aluminum body. Its aluminum body and aluminum alloy are suspended from the front and rear. Compared with the steel body, the weight is reduced by 200kg and 20kg respectively, which ensures the vehicle body is sufficiently lightweight.
It was also the first sports car equipped with a VTEC engine, and it was easy to win N JGTC champions (the predecessor of the Japanese GT Championship). VTEC is the abbreviation of “Variable Valve Timing and Valve Life Electronic Control System”, which is the world’s first valve control system that can control both valve opening and closing time and lift.
Honda also has advanced technologies such as 4 independent channel anti-lock braking system, titanium alloy connecting rod, EPS, VTEC and so on.
It’s no wonder that NS-X has long been hailed as a neon national treasure sports car by Honda Powder. In 1991, NS-X successfully entered North America and Hong Kong, China as the flagship car of Yingge.
1991-2000:New fuel, new energy, the new era of environmental protection is coming
Hydrogen powered vehicles, methanol powered vehicles, fuel cell vehicles and hybrid vehicles have appeared one after another – 30 years ago, “New Energy” has become a must-answer for the Tokyo Motor Show and continues to this day.
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1995 Toyota launches the Prius concept car
For the neon people, 1995 is truly unforgettable.
First, the Great Hanshin Earthquake, and later the Tokyo Metro Saline gas incident, as well as the economic recession that is extremely high – the 31st Tokyo Motor Show opened in such a bleak atmosphere.
However, the process and results of the auto show are not bleak.
Not only because of the Honda SSM, Mazda RX-01 and Toyota MRJ, but also a variety of seemingly exciting and fun little sports cars, but also because of a Toyota concept car called EMS.
In other words, the reason why it is familiar with EMS, which we are familiar with, is because the full name is called “Energy Management System”.
This two-color concept car, which looks like a funny two-color concept car, is precisely Toyota’s “revolutionary new car for the 21st century” – equipped with a hybrid hybrid system that not only makes the engine and generator available. Depending on driving conditions, they are driven together or separately. It can also automatically stop the engine when the vehicle is stopped, reducing energy waste, and basically “halving fuel consumption”.
Yes, EMS is the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car in 1997, and now the most familiar Toyota Prius.
Although its appearance has been unrelenting, it has become the most popular and best-selling new energy vehicle in the world due to its excellent and mature vehicle fuel consumption and exhaust emission skills.
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New Energy Vehicles Checked in 1999
In the last year of the 20th century, the theme of the 33rd Tokyo Motor Show was “Eye to the future. Changing vehicles for the earth”.
I don’t know whether it’s a heart, or a strong desire for survival. The five local brands, Toyota, Honda, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi and Mazda, have unveiled their own hydrogen fuel cell concept cars.
There are also five car companies that have launched a variety of hybrid concept cars – such as (still) Toyota’s hybrid facetsChartered HV-M4, Suzuki’s old age K-car PU-3 Commuter, etc…
Unfortunately, most of the new energy concept cars 20 years ago have been completely left behind.
The era of new energy vehicles has suddenly come to the forefront, and has become a hot spot for the next 20 years.