After the good way the Archer was received, Sanda decided to produce a new car, specially targeted to premium buyers that wanted a coupé, with a little extra power than the Archer.
The admiral was slightly smaller than the archer, but it was equipped with a brand new L4 SOHC engine pushing extra hp to the front wheels. The car although was basically a 2 door version of the Archer Lxi received pretty good critiques, and it made some of other car makers turn the head around to the Sanda M. Corporation, such as the mexican company ADM that was thinking in actually take some of the japanese models and re-brand them for the american market.
The economy was growing and so were the cities and the roads. By '73, the old archer was considered too slow (even the GT trim) so in the next iteration, with a new facelift, Sanda gave the cars a better and brand new engine.
Made of iron, the A1 was the biggest engine offered at the time, ranging from 1.4 to 1.6L. The valvetrain was a simple direct acting overhead cam instead of the complex 3 valve per cylinder used in the '70 Admiral.
It looks unassuming, but the Archer is shaping up to be a great entry-level compact car from what I’ve seen so far. It finally has the engine it deserves!
Thank you Now that my company is in the mid 70s I’m finally reaching a more fun era for the Japanese domestic market Good things to come!
(in the meantime I need to make sure this company’s models don’t compete with each other).
Sanda announces new engine family series for '75 models
After a quiet time, Sanda has an announced a new line-up of engines for upcoming models, the K series
The K series is comprised of 2 families, the K3 and the K8. Both have block and heads made of steel iron, 3 valves per cylinder and to compensate for their small size, both use 1 or 2 turbochargers.
The K3 is designed for FWD use for kei cars, with a displacement of 549cc, 3cylinders feeded by a single barrel carburetor and a single turbocharger. It generates 40 hp and 41 ft-lb.
The K8 on the other hand, is derived from the original engine of the 1968 Proton, a small V8 designed for longitudinal RWD. It displaces 1702 cc, plus it has a flat crankshaft, 2 turbochargers and 2 single barrel carburators.
After 4 years in development, the fruit of Sanda’s engineers was the 1975 Ridge. Based in the concept of the '68 Proton, the concept was fairly simple, light weight car with a tiny V8 (thanks to its small size, it avoided the 2 liter tax) conceived as future flagship of the company for years to come.
Designwise, it had pop-lights and some details that are in line with the '75 Majime. The engine was the k8, a small 1.7L turbo V8 pushing 130hp at 6100 rpm, while weighting less than a ton (133.33 hp per ton for the curious), giving a nimble and dyanamic driving…
…while being in the power range. One major flaw of the design was the lack of power below 3,000 rpm, making it’s driving in town quite tedious. Even so, Sanda engineers firmly belive the future of the company and future cars is linked to turbocharging.
The Archer, now in its 3rd generation, received a new treatment, with a new design from scratch.
The Archer is a model that sits between the smaller Majime and the larger (and more expensive) Admiral, while still having nimble driving characteristics.
Background
The previous Archer model was slipted into 4 trims, ranging from cheap sedan or coupe and sportier sedan or coupe. This time, the Archer came in 3 trims. Hatchback, 2 Door and 4 Door.
They all use the brand new Series B engine. This new family of engines had a brand new all aluminum design, as well as new designed heads with 2 valves per cylinder, and 2 single barrel eco carburetors.
Unfortunately, 1978 new emissions standards in Japan forced all new models to be equiped with Catalytic converters, effectively chugging some of the power of the engine.
For those wanting something bigger and more comfortable than the bare bonesArcher or the small Majime, Sanda developed the Admiral. The previous generation was very similar to the Archer, making it hard to future buyers to diffentiate them. With that in mind, this generation departed from the original design, to something bigger and with more refined lines.
Background
The new Admiral came in 2 trims, sedan and coupé. Instead of the traditional sedan shape, the designers opted for a fastback design. It also served to separate it more from the other models.
The B series was the only engine available, this time bored up to 1.8L, paired with a 4 barrel carburator and a 5 speed manual gearbox.
Admiral Sedan
Features
Click for more
Coupe
Transversal 1.8L L4 D.A.OHC Series B engine
98hp @ 6,100rpm & 92ft-lb @ 4.600rpm
5 speed manual FWD
165 km/h top speed
165/85R13 92R
230mm vented disc brakes front / 230mm drum brakes rear
4 seats
Premium interior (leather seats, front seat with electronic adjustments for front-rear and height.)
AM/FM radio with 4 speakers and 8 track player
Power steering
Sedan
Transversal 1.8L L4 D.A.OHC Series B engine
98hp @ 6,100rpm & 92ft-lb @ 4.600rpm
5 speed manual FWD
165 km/h top speed
165/85R13 92R
230mm vented disc brakes front / 230mm drum brakes rear
5 seats
Premium interior (leather seats, front seat with electronic adjustments for front-rear and height.)
Current president of Sanda Motors, Yun Tse Wu announced a new partnership with mexican car maker ADM.
In his own words:
This new partnership will allow us to enter the north american market through ADM. Since ADM has already a large infrastructure, it means we should spend less in building the factories and marketing. Since the first models will be rebadged versions of our current lineup, it will serve us to touch the waters and test what would work on that markets. Plus, we will share a factory were we could build some models instead of export them.
[…] we will also be able to co-op with ADM and penetrate the european market. Our engineers and lead designers are ready to meet with ADM’s people to start tackling this market, we already have some ideas in mind for our first collaboration […] For now, there is a 10 year plan and we are very confidant it will be succesful for both parties.
Although the Admiral have lower sales, it is largely due to the fact it was released in the last quarter of the year, sales for next year are expected to improve.
Given the unexpected popularity of the Archer, Sanda has announced as well that they will toy with a sportier version or even enter racing.
Engine series, from A to Z. A series is determined by a specific combination of block and head options. Example, K series uses iron head and block with 3 valves per cylinder. B series uses iron block and head with direct acting OHC
#
Number of cylinders
#
Generation or iteration. First Gen have no number
Example:
K8
K series, V8. First gen.
Variant name:
###XYZX(o)
Where:
##
Displacement in deciliters.
#XYZ
Fuel delivery system. First number represents number of carbs or intakes. Ka = Carburator, U = injection, Di = direct injection, T=turbo, TT=twin turbo
After the initial success of the 1975 Ridge, Sanda’s engineers didn’t know what to improve for the next facelift, so they focused on improving handling and adding more power.
Background
Conceived as a light fun car, with the smallest turbo carburated V8 flatplane in japan, the Ridge received a facelift in 1980, but the changes in the exterior were minimal, a new grill, new bumpers and a rear end more similar to the rest of the lineup. However, most of the updates were in the inner workings of the car.
To comply with new enviromental regulations, now all models were fitted with a catalytic converter, so naturally, Sanda engineers had to increase the output of the engine to avoid lose power from the cat. At the end, power passed from 130hp to 142hp. New and bigger brakes were added, as well as a re-design sporty suspension (as well as a new 8 track player radio). With all of this, the Ridge gained 50kg, but despise thew new weight, it was captable of reaching 100km/h from stop in around 8 seconds and had a top speed of 196km/h.
The gear ratios were also adjusted, to feel less the effect of the turbo lag. The K8 was still the engine of choice. Despise the odd engine configuration, the power plant had proven to be reliable enough.
Although the previous Majime generation was well received, many inside Sanda felt the car was subpar in comparison to the rest of the line-up, especially in the looks department. For 1981, the company started from a clean state, only taking a platform developed in colaboration with ADM and used in the compactChapeau.
The new Majime was still powered by the K3 engine series, this time swaping the small carburator for a new Throttle body injection system, also co-developed with ADM. The result was the small 550cc turbo L3 SOHC engine produced 32hp at 5,400rpm. Paired with a 4 speed manual transmission, and the result was this tiny 700kg car achieved 31.5mpg.
Handling wise, it was a pretty balanced car with enough power at city speeds, with the only downside its top speed of 112km/h and slow acceleration past 80 km/h.
Now that my company is in the mid 70s I’m finally reaching a more fun era for the Japanese domestic market 
Good things to come!
