Take your decide of just about any Tokyo Motor Show, just a few many years in the past or extra, and also you’ll discover some absolute gems. I’m fairly keen on 1987’s, although 1989’s Tokyo Motor Show was good, too. 1991’s, in the meantime, introduced us the Jaguar XJ220, the Honda EP-X, and the Toyota AXV-IV, amongst many different vehicles. A theme of the present was gas effectivity, with rumors earlier than the occasion saying that Honda may need a 100 mpg automotive. That didn’t find yourself occurring, however everybody was nonetheless going small and light-weight.
That was maybe due to the present’s theme, which was “Discovering a New Relationship: People, Cars and the Earth as One,” although it may need additionally been as a result of in October 1991, Japan’s Bubble Era was over. Few predicted the Lost Decades that will come within the ‘90s and ‘00s, but in October 1991 there was more reason to be cautious than optimistic. The ground was shifting beneath everyone’s toes, and automakers figured the most effective course is likely to be to make themselves helpful. There had been a great deal of ideas, however few automakers (besides Jaguar, after all) had been attempting to be cool; lots of the ideas as an alternative had been meant to point out off technological innovation.
Here’s how Toyota described its choices again then, to take one instance:
In the passenger-vehicle part, the Toyota AXV-III will showcase superior applied sciences that present prime ranges of security and luxury, and are light on the atmosphere. Other idea fashions embrace Toyota’s AXV-IV, an ultra-lightweight, extremely environment friendly commuter automotive that realizes the lightest weight and smallest dimension doable with out sacrificing car efficiency and luxury; Toyota Avalon, Toyota’s problem to future automotive design; and the Toyota Estima (Previa) Limo that provides new prospects for tomorrow’s limousine. A complete of eight such autos can be displayed within the passenger-car space.
In the commercial-vehicle part, 5 special-exhibit fashions can be proven, together with the Toyota Ambulance, Toyota’s reply to the demand for ambulances outfitted with the most recent emergency medical gear; Toyota Fun Runner, a classy sports activities car for out of doors folks; and Toyota Hiace Limo, a chauffeur wagon for energetic executives.
Moreover, there can be numerous technical reveals such because the high-pressure fuel-injection diesel engine and soot-reducing particulate lure system, which have been developed with environmental safety in thoughts.
Elsewhere, Mazda was there with the third-gen RX-7; Mitsubishi was there with the pleasant duo Mr.1000 and Ms.1000; Subaru was there with the Amadeus; Isuzu was there with the Como, which is a batshit tremendous truck with a V12; and Honda with the EP-X and FS-X, each vehicles that had been just too good to be true. Nissan, in the meantime, was there with one thing known as the Cocoon, which blew a mist of water in your face to maintain you awake.
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One factor that didn’t occur on the 1991 Tokyo Motor Show was GM displaying up with Saturn, regardless of expectations that it would accomplish that, provided that GM meant for Saturn to compete with small Japanese vehicles. Instead, Saturns weren’t bought in Japan for one more 5 and a half years.
I invite you, subsequent, to soak up this contemporaraneous Australian evaluate of the present, which talks about a variety of themes — the earth is at risk and vehicles aren’t serving to a lot — which can be nonetheless with us right this moment:
Second, right here’s a house film of the proceedings; this can be a residence film of heaven.
The 1991 Tokyo Motor Show’s attendance was at its all-time peak, with over two million guests for the primary and solely time in its historical past, a quantity that it’ll most likely by no means surpass, seeing how automotive reveals are fairly out of style as of late. The Bubble Era was over, and one thing else was starting, and deep down most likely everybody knew it.
Source: jalopnik.com