When talking a car brand like Daihatsu in the 90s, we always like to talk about their Taft or Rocky, one of the pioneers of Japanese ‘jeep’ in Indonesia. Then, we will also remember about Charade, the small powerful hatchback. Now, there are only few selections of products like New Rocky, Myvi/Sirion, or Granmax that we can have fun with. But we can all agree that Daihatsu is one Japanese car brand that providing a cheap but fun car products in the past years.
Anyway, did you remember that Daihatsu also have a small-but-powerful sedan?
In the 80s or 90s we know that Toyota have the Corolla and Starlet line-ups. It’s up to you if you want to have fun with sedan or hatchback because Toyota has it.
But Daihatsu also have Charmant. A small but also powerful sedan that powered with Toyota 4A Engine. But little did I know, it also came up with AE86 gearbox. That I knew from a friend named Bagas. A jdm fanboy that now taking care of this shakotan-look Daihatsu Charmant.
I know Bagas from my Bintaro-Circle car enthusiast. The first time I met Bagas was from a night cruise with my fellow car-friends. He drove a lowered and loud white Daihatsu Charmant. It ran fast. Since it powered with 4A engine 1600cc 8 valve 5 speed, it’s also light weight. Bagas put an effort to install Bride Lowmax GIAS 1 for his seat.
Then, I watched the journey of Bagas building-restoring his old Daihatsu Charmant and makes me curious about why he decided to have this car. Long ago, I knew he drove a Corolla Twin-Cam. But then, he decided to sell it and buy this car. Why?
Anyway, this retro wheels is quite rare nowadays. It’s SSR Starshark R13x8-9 ET ? from Japan.
Almost 10 years I ran this website, I know that there are certain types of car that fellow enthusiast like to choose as their projects. We can see a lot of Toyota Starlet or Corolla’s running around Jakarta. On the other side, there are also Mitsubishi, Honda, Nissan, and now Subaru that becoming the favorites of Car Enthusiasts. Why? Because it’s proven to look good, and fun to drive.
Having a Daihatsu Charmant as a project car nowadays is really a tough choice. The existence of this car is already rare. Most of them are totaled or staying in the junkyards. So, seeing one with a good condition running around smoothly is a rare phenomenon.
So, to know about why Bagas choses this car, you can check out our video below!
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Cheers,
Wailan.
