Well, Hiro’s been stewing as he waits a whole month for his next race, obsessively thinking about Kayo-chan and Wayne…

But it's time to get back to the track.





: Hello :h:



Great, Arcade Gi.. Kayo-chan is here to see us off!


: Ah, Kayo-chan, it’s snowing. You came today too!



Snowing huh? Gee. I guess that lady in the background in a leotard and an umbrella must be feeling pretty cold right now.





: Oh! Mademoiselle, you came to cheer me on…






: Hey - stop messing around! Kayo-chan is cheering me on. You came, right Kayo-chan? :h:


Both of them tried their best to hit. :h:







No way… both of them…




Hiro, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to put all our hopes and dreams into this lady you met with at an arcade centre, who took pity on you when you were beaten up, and now apparently playing multiple prospective boyfriends against each other.


: If you understand, go over there!


: Damn it, I’ll go and check out the car…



Woah, don’t be a simp! Hiro! We need to do better than that!





Although… wow….

God dammit…

No way. ‘Wayne’ drives a GZ20 Toyota Soarer! That’s a seriously cool car.







I mean, look at the commercials!





Now we’re even more jealous. Wayne is some classy guy.

This generation Toyota Soarer was a luxury GT that shared a platform with the Toyota Supra of the era. It had lots of amazingly fancy features, such as a CRT Television and a microphone input for cassette tape recordings. So you know, you could record yourself singing along, I guess.

It even had a touch screen display! In the 1980s! Rare models even had a metal folding roof.





I think it’s a stunning looking car. One of my favourites of the era.


: Wow, those cute lace curtains even have chinchilla like graphics. But it looks like it’ll be pretty fast.



No, that’s not a translation error. This car had Lace Car seat covers that were etched with the Soarer emblem - a griffin.





This was some real fancy shit in 1991 let me tell you.

And to digress for a minute - since weird JDM car things are what I live for, let’s talk about LACE.

In Japan, at least in those days, Lace seat covers were a big thing. Elaborate patterns in the stitching was an ultimate sign of class.

Those who’ve visited may have noticed the cheap lace that’s all over taxis, but domestic models often had them too. These would protect your fabric and leather from the various hair products that are probably made of whale oil and petroleum.

And here’s a chance for me to shamelessly talk about my other, own personal Japanese import, no, not my SW20 MR2… No, not my AW11 MR2…. The other one.

My 2006 Toyota Century.





I bring this up, because the Century was, and is still Toyota’s ultimate luxury car, only available in Japan - and shared many features with the Soarer’s you see here. It had rear seat televisions, DVD players, reclining, heated cooling and massaging seats, auto closing doors, a V12 engine….





And some truly bizarre stuff, like a metre long ostrich feather used by your personal chauffeur to keep the car tidy whilst you’re off Comanenci’ing the maid.

And, which is why I brought this up - lots and lots and lots of LACE! - including automatic lace rear curtains.





Including…. AUTOMATIC LACE REAR CURTAINS!





…. Oh, I’m sorry.

Where were we?

Oh yeah, we were in the middle of losing our girlfriend…

…I don’t understand why.