Project Cars
Shift / The black sheep, in white
The ST205 Celica, enthusiast talk for the sixth-gen Toyota Celica had big shoes to fill. Its processor, the ST185 had a plethora of WRC titles under its belt. The bug-eyed Celica and TTE- Toyota Team Europe had their work cut out for them, and they delivered.
Moderately mild to hot: EP82 Starlets
With the world acquiring a knack for anything and everything retro, we turn back the clock to 1995, with Johnny Shah’s EP82 starlet GT.
Shift / A love letter to the Honda s2000
Honda seemed to have missed the memo of the directive by the Japanese government in 1955 for a "people's car" and debuted the Honda S360 almost a decade later, follow in succession by the s500 and s800. Turns out, a drop-dead 360cc chain-driven roadster was exactly the genesis Honda looked-for.
Shift / Unbreakable: 2005 Toyota Hilux resto rebuild
The red TRD pro-esque 2005 Hilux came to be an adventitious decision by Fahmid Ishtiaque Ahmed, as he wanted to fish for something unique in a sea of numerous Defender and Patrol builds. This sweet 4x4 is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. I am sure Marty McFly would be proud.
Shift / The Urban Outlaw: 1982 Toyota Corolla GL
Tokyo Hippari nights in Dhaka feat. a lowered, flared old Corolla
Spirited away in a 2012 Mazda RX8 Spirit R S2
I remember my brief (and first) encounter with a rx8 and recall being bewildered by its suicide doors.
Project Cars / Factory style tuning: Supercharged Toyota GT86
If you have seen our feature on the Tesla Model S P100D a couple of weeks ago, you’d know what an insanely capable zero-fuel-drinking, no noise
DAILY DRIVER PERFECTION
Few things motivate me to wake up at 7 AM on a Friday. It only happens if there is an early morning photoshoot or the once a year family picnic that mother makes everyone go to. This Friday was slightly special though, so much so that I hadn’t slept the previous night because I feared I wouldn’t be able to wake up on time.
SILVER SURFER: 1989 Toyota Supra A70
There was a time, a long time back, when Toyota was an adventurous sort of manufacturer. The Japanese were riding the high of a technological boom in the 80s—everything from tape decks to calculators to washing machines carried the “Made in Japan” tag, and were valued for it.
Automophiles Bangladesh Meet
This meet was arranged by Automophiles Bangladesh, which was formed by Senett Rahman, Mushfique Elahi, Samir Sakir, Al Shahriar
The art of restomod: 1959 Ford Zephyr Mark II
The Ford Zephyr was a British Ford product that spanned the onward and upward decade of the global auto industry in-between 1950
Budget Daily: 1991 Toyota X81 Cressida
The Toyota Mark II has a long and storied past. Initially introduced as a mid-size sedan to cater to the emerging class of business owners and company executives in Japan—slotting neatly below the larger, more luxurious flagship model that is the Crown.
Integration theory: 1991 Honda Integra DA
When Honda Motor Company expanded to North America as American Honda Motor Co. Inc. in Los Angeles in 1959, they made history
Butter smooth performance: 1991 Toyota Mark II X81
It’s a rare moment when a locally built project car leaves everyone on the Shift team in utter awe—having seen countless hack jobs and botched builds over six years of sourcing Bangladeshi enthusiast builds, we’ve pretty much seen the entire spectrum of what is possible with the unique constraints placed on project car owners in the country. This is one of those moments.
FWD Tofu run: Toyota AE91 Trueno
On May 1983, the world got the latest version of one of the most iconic sports cars from Toyota’s stable—a plucky, lightweight, chuck-able (albeit underpowered) two door coupe based on their best-selling sedan, the Corolla/Sprinter.
Riders on the storm – AR Underground
Braving a cyclone to attend a car meet is no small feat. Yet, dedicated auto enthsuasists of the country showed up to Jamuna Future Park to attend Auto Rebellion Underground, a car meet featuring the cream of the crop of the car scene despite Cyclone Fani bearing down on them.
American style, Japanese power - 1988 Toyota Mark II X71
In a way, the Mark II is a best-of-both-worlds vehicle, combining the grace and style of America’s large sedans with the efficiency, reliability and handling afforded by Japan’s engineering ingenuity. Ziyaad Rahman’s restored Toyota X71 Mark II has a long history behind it—from family road trips to countless years of family bonding with the Mark II as a suitably large family sedan.
Toyota's M5 killer – Aristo V300 Vertex
The idea of a super-sedan is not new. The idea of a luxurious, smooth, four-door sedan being blisteringly fast was tinkered with by manufacturers such as Jaguar in the late 50s and 60s—resulting in cars like the Mark 2, which effectively took Jaguar away from pure sports cars and into the luxury-sports car market, where they've stayed to date. With time, the Germans came to the forefront—cars like the Benz 300 SEL 6.3 and first-gen BMW M5 cemented Germany's reputation for building fast, luxurious sports sedans.