"K" cup, What's a K car ?

[Biased turkey]

I can guess that K cars are subcompact cars, but are they labeled as "K" because of their size or power ?
In real racing is there such a K class ?
tia

 

[daan]

[off the top of my head]
K stands for Kei. The cars are short, narrow & light but are usually tall to make up for the shortness. They are limited to engines of 649cc.
[/off the top of my head]

The regulations restrict a car's dimensions, power and engine capacity - originally only two-stroke 360cc engines were allowed, now the maximum is 660cc - in order to try and control the appalling congestion, parking problems and pollution in Japanese cities.

From here.

 

[Stinky Chicken]

I thought K meant something to do with Kei. Kei cars are awesome.

Though why the cars are limited to motorcycle engines (that's what I call 'em) is beyond me - even the Holden Barina has a 1.1-litre, 1100cc engine and that doesn't even make it up hills without losing speed. It'd bust at 100km/h.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Chicken, the K does stand for Kei...Gran Turismo goofed I think when they called it the K-Cup. The reason why their engines are limited to 660 ccs is because Japan is way overcrowded and it makes sense to have these little cars. We have this image of Japan being a quaint society that makes and invents all these gadgets and cars but a lot of it is poor. I know a guy who went there and said some people sleep in little compartments that are stacked like drawers and this is considered 'normal'.

Also, gas prices are astronomical in Japan and Europe. I know in Italy, for instance, that gas costs like $5.50 a gallon or something. Last summer in Japan, the price of gas averaged 110¥ per liter or $3.79 a gallon. Here in my town (in America) we're paying about $1.75...it was up to $2.15 last summer.

 

[Stinky Chicken]

Chicken, the K does stand for Kei...Gran Turismo goofed i think when they called it the K-Cup. The reason why their engines are limited to 660 cc's is because Japan is way overcrowded and it makes sense to have these little cars. We have this image of Japan being a quaint society that makes and invents all these gadjets and cars but a lot of it is poor. I know a guy who went there and said some people sleep in little compartments that are stacked like drawers and this is considered 'normal'.

Yep, Japan's an overstuffed place alright. Did you know Tokyo's got 12 million people? That's more than half my country's population. (Australia)

Also, gas prices are astronomical in Japan and Europe. I know in Italy, for instance, that gas costs like $5.50 a gallon or something. Here in my town (in America) we're paying about $1.75.

Ha, what's astronomical is the gas (fuel) prices here in the country... country hicks like me are paying AU$1.15 for a litre. That rounds out to what, 85c over there, taking in the exchange rate (don't quote me, I'm crap with exchange rates...). That's 80 US cents per litre.

 

[Firebird]

These are K-cars:

 

[Stinky Chicken]

No, these are "kei" cars...

Note the name. It's actually called a "Kei".

Ha, this Kei car rules.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Ha! I remember the K-cars!! The Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant..something like that. That was Lee Iacocca's attempt to revive Chrysler...a far cry from the Viper, Hemi-powered trucks, and Magnums we're seeing nowadays. I would gladly pay twice the amount for gasoline like the rest of the world does if we could end our stupid, idiotic war, by the way. I get around on my bike, mostly.

Yeah, and I'm glad there's other Kei-car fans here. The Suzuki Cappucino ROCKS, you can take cars with twice the power because that thing zips around corners so fast. The Mazda AZ-1 and Mitsubishi Pajero are both personal faves, too.

 

[Emohawk]

Ha! I remember the K-cars!! The Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant..something like that. That was Lee Iacocca's attempt to revive Chrysler...a far cry from the Viper, Hemi-powered trucks, and Magnums we're seeing nowadays.

Actually, the majority of Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler products in the 80's were based on the K platform. There's a list here: http://www.eekcars.com/

Kei cars now:
-As daan mentioned, they are short and narrow. The length and width are actually precisely regulated by the Kei car spec. The hight is not technically regulated, but none are made too tall to use Tokyo's tower parking garages. That would just be silly.
-They can produce no more then 63hp (IIRC), torque is not limited.
-Kei spec cars also get major discounts in car insurance.
That's all I can remember right now.

 

[flamingwonky]

Ha! I remember the K-cars!! The Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant..something like that. That was Lee Iacocca's attempt to revive Chrysler...a far cry from the Viper, Hemi-powered trucks, and Magnums we're seeing nowadays. I would gladly pay twice the amount for gasoline like the rest of the world does if we could end our stupid, idiotic war, by the way. I get around on my bike, mostly.

Yeah, and I'm glad there's other Kei-car fans here. The Suzuki Cappucino ROCKS, you can take cars with twice the power cuz that thing zips around corners so fast. The Mazda AZ-1 and Mitsubishi Pajero are both personal faves, too.

The Capuccino is kinda weird imo. It feels like a shrunken Miata, but fairly quick nonetheless. The AZ-1 is alright, but the Beat! (shrunken NSX) takes the cake - it sucks!
On K cars: They're alright. The Scion xB here in the states looks a lot like one, but it's somewhat larger, with more displacement. Kei cars don't make it here because they can't meet safety standards, for obvious reasons.
On gas prices: Folks around here are constantly complaining about them rising, but gasoline isn't really very expensive here when compared to the rest of the globe. What are the rates like in the Middle East?

 

[Parnelli Bone]

The Capuccino is kinda weird imo. It feels like a shrunken Miata, but fairly quick nonetheless. The AZ-1 is alright, but the Beat! (shrunken NSX) takes the cake - it sucks!
On K cars: They're alright. The Scion xB here in the states looks a lot like one, but it's somewhat larger, with more displacement. Kei cars don't make it here because they can't meet safety standards, for obvious reasons.
On gas prices: Folks around here are constantly complaining about them rising, but gasoline isn't really very expensive here when compared to the rest of the globe. What are the rates like in the Middle East?

Yeah, the Beat is horrible. At least with an AZ-1 you can compete in more than 4 events. With the Beat, you're stuck with the Kei races, the Sunday Cup at Tahiti, and the GT B-license race @ Midfield. And it handles terribly, too. I think I remember needing medium grade slick tires just to control it and it's only got just over 100 hp or something.

I don't know what gas prices are in the middle east. I tried typing Saudi gas prices in the search engine and all I got were sites that say how much they sell it for, not how much they pay at the pump.

 

[liam2maps]

I live in Australia but I hate the Holden Barina. I also hate the Daihatsu Charade. -_-

 

[Danny]

Just for the record, the Suzuki Wagon R+ is the best Kei car ever.

 

[Biased turkey]

Thanks to all the people who took some oftheir time to reply.
Now I know exactly what a Key car is.
I wasn't expecting so much posts from such an underpowered, non drifting oriented topic

 

[daan]

Just for the record, the Suzuki Wagon R+ is the best Kei car ever.

Eh?

 

[Sharky.]

Looks like a pint-sized Postman Pat van.

 

[Parnelli Bone]

Thanks to all the people who took some oftheir time to reply.
Now I know exactly what a Key car is.
I wasn't expecting so much posts from such an underpowered, non drifting oriented topic

Lots of folks think the Kei cars are useless, but I think they definitely have their place in the game. A month ago I took my Playstation to a friend's house. He loves watching Gran Turismo but sucks at it so I was always waiting for him to catch up to me. We had been racing 'fast' cars. Then he got behind the wheel of a Daihatsu Move CX and I got into a Suzuki Wagon and guess what? The race was evenly matched! We raced Midfield...a fairly easy track if you drive it slow. We did another race and I drove a Ford Ka and he drove a Storia....same deal..the race was even. Suddenly I was trying to keep up with HIM.

 

[flamingwonky]

Lots of folks think the Kei cars are useless, but i think they definitely have their place in the game. A month ago i took my Playstation to a friend's house. He loves watching Gran Turismo but sucks at it so i was always waiting for him to catch up to me. We had been racing 'fast' cars. Then he got behind the wheel of a Daihatsu Move CX and I got into a Suzuki WAgon and guess what? The race was evenly matched! We raced Midfield...a fairly easy track if you drive it slow. We did another race and I drove a Ford Ka and he drove a Storia....same deal..the race was even. Suddenly I was trying to keep up with HIM.

That's great, sucky cars breed competition? But really, the faster the car the farther the time difference between ideal and n00b seems to be. I raced my friend with twin tuned Midgets not too long ago, and the race was fairly even, although I'm the mainstream GT player of us. It doesn't take much to hurl a Midget through a corner, with all its 53 mph top speed... As the vehicles get faster and thus tougher to control, newbies tend to lose control and get frustrated. It's no wonder most evolution-based racing games (like Parnelli's Ford racing) have the player acquainted with the crappies cars at first. Well... I guess there's another reason - Ford has about two "good" cars!!

 

[Revheadnz]

The Scion xB here in the states looks a lot like one, but it's somewhat larger, with more displacement. Kei cars don't make it here because they can't meet safety standards, for obvious reasons.

I think the reason no-one sells Kei cars in the U.S is the huge number of SUVs and 4WDs around would utterly destroy one of them. I'm just joking but my point is that with so many 4WDs on the roads (in any country) very small cars are quite dangerous. Off topic/ My parents own a 2000 Daihatsu Mira (very tiny and slow) and after learning to drive in it I drive it as little as possible after a few too many close calls with SUVs being driven by little asian women who can't see over the dashboard. It is like driving a rollerskate.

 

[Danny]

Eh?

That's like taking pictures of a supermodel first thing in the morning!
Compared to the Daihatsu Move, it's beautiful.
Perfect for hat wearers too.

 

[Stinky Chicken]

You be dissin' on the Daihatsu Move, boy?

 

[vette_7t9]

hehe k-car.....can i enter my neon in those races? its a replacement for the k-car right?? OH you mean kei........

 

[Danny]

You be dissin' on the Daihatsu Move, boy?

Yes. I be.

 

[Stinky Chicken]

Oh, come ON! It's obviously Kei at its very best!

I'm cool, yo. Now you just have to admit it.

 

[Danny]

That car's expression says "I just robbed someone".

Now, the Suzuki...

 

[Stinky Chicken]

It's a Chevrolet, you idiot. Look at the emblem.

Now the Vauxhall, that car pwns.

 

[Danny]

 

[Stinky Chicken]

Okay what the hell is that?

 

[Danny]

It was a Nissan Micra.

How could you say no to that face?
(The car, not the woman painted on the side)

 

[Stinky Chicken]

That's a Nissan Micra?

Hah, Pink Wagon R. That owns.