There was a good number of classic cars on the periphery of the major oldtimer truck show I visited recently. Old cars from all corners of the world, with Dutch plates. Here’s just a short walk down automotive memory lane.
1969 Datsun 2000 Wagon Six, the Cedric 130-series Mk4. Under its hood a 2 liter 6-cylinder engine, the car’s name says it all.
The window sticker says there was a Moto-Side-Car Cross on August 12, 1979 in Lacapelle-Marival, France.
A bit rough around the edges, this Ford LTD Brougham. It looks like the kind of car that Henry and/or Otis would drive. A feast for the eyes, an Old – it’s coming after us ! – Beast like this. Opinions may vary.
Registered in November 1973, so I assume model year 1974.
You either love the species, or you hate it.
Super clean first generation 1976 Toyota Carina 1600 De Luxe. The Carina was introduced in 1970, originally it was built on the same platform as the Celica. The one above is 40 years old now, which means it has become a road tax free car.
Well, well, well…a true survivor, this 1969 Renault 6. It must have been decades since I was standing next to an R6.
The Renault 6 was introduced in 1968, and can be best described as an R4+.
“Powered” by an 845 cc engine. That’s 0.845 liter. And equipped with a dash-mounted gear shifter.
A partly civilianized 1975 DAF YA 66, the military edition of the DAF 66. The YA 66, powered by a 1.1 liter Renault engine, must be the smallest military DAF truck in history. Needless to say, it has a Variomatic transmission.
Peugeot Fest leftover, a 1968 Peugeot 404.
That’s all folks. No juice left in the camera’s battery.
That Datsun Wagon is plenty juice enough. Gimme.
The red wheels, raised white letter tires, and stickers on the fender of that LTD give it a vaguely NASCAR-y vibe, which is an odd combination with the Broughamy features. And yet, somehow, I like the beast.
We never got the Carina in the USA–I presume it was larger than the Corolla but smaller than the Corona?
Actually the Carina was exported to the U.S. but only for a couple of years and they didn’t sell very well. I have not seen one in a very long time.
http://www.toyotareference.com/carina
1972 and ’73 2-door sedans only. Apparently Toyota felt there was a model gap for a two-door car that was bigger than a Corolla and not a hardtop coupe.
It is a Corona in other markets, as usual New Zealand has both right thru into the late 90s the Carinas mostly ex JDM, while Coronas were assembled here and modified for our roads.
Dave Skinner found one and wrote it up at CC here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/curbside-classic-1973-toyota-carina-my-cc-holy-grail/
In Europe the Carina evolved into Toyota’s midsize- / D-segment car. The last generation, before it was replaced by the Avensis in 1997, was called the Carina E. The letter E (part of the model name, also on the trunk lid) stood for Europe.
Change the grille and those are Coronas here and the JDM Caldina wagon, good cars actually I liked my 93 sedan with Chris Amon suspension tune it was a blast to drive.
Yes, the Carina E was the 1992 Corona model. The liftback and sedan were built in the UK. The wagon and 2.0 GTi came from Japan.
A Toyota D-segment car with a GTi badge, unimaginable these days.
That LTD is very much how I remember the ones that were left in the 80s — chalky paint, peeling vinyl roof, missing hubcaps.
The only thing missing is scads of rust!
That LTD exudes evil and danger looking like that – I have this mental image of DAF’s and Renault 4’s diving off the road left and right when this thing comes rotted-muffler-roaring up in the rear view mirror. Sort of like what would happen when a grizzled, tattooed, whiskey-breathed longshoreman comes staggering uninvited into a ladies garden party and reaches for a biscuit.
The perfect urban battle cruiser, and effectively damage proof because you’d have to inflict some almighty dents to affect anything important under the skin.
I thought that Nissan wagon was a Toyota Crown at first glance, amazing how similar they look.
As Inspector Gadget noted, the Carina was imported to the U.S. for about 2 years. It seemed to be a bit of an “odd duck” since it used the concurrent Corolla’s 1600 engine, was bigger, yet only came as a 2 door sedan (the U.S. never got the later models or their 4 door sedans and wagons). I never understood why it was brought to this market….it just seemed to be a very tiny market niche that it filled.
Maybe they were thinking in terms of a direct competitor to the Datsun 510 2-door?
I’m curious why the driver’s side cargo area window on the Datsun station wagon is bisected. Does the small window section flip out or slide down? There is what looks like a keyhole on the bottom right side of the driver’s side cargo window. The cargo area window on the passenger side does not appear to have the vertical bar.
Good questions; no answers (from me, anyway).
The rear side window over the cargo compartment can be wound down. Or rather, there’s an electric motor sliding it down. The bisection is there to clear the window over the rear wheelwell. If you look to the right, there’s a small keyhole. Turn the key, and the entire window (except for that small bisection) slides down. Because they’re driving on the left side of the road, the left side of the car is usually curbside when parked. Easy access to the cargo even when the car is so tightly parked the rear hatch can not be opened or at least conveniently accessed. It’s a neat little trick that I’ve only seen on some Japanese cars from that time period.
Thanks for the explanation Ingvar! That is certainly stepping things up a notch, but I can’t help think that a lift-up tailgate window (separate) would be more useful.
A handy little feature that many JDM Datsuns/Nissans used – the 1999 Gloria wagon still had it, not sure if anything else did after then.
Nice eclectic collection indeed. That LTD looks straight out of Eugene. Yes, the R6 seems to have become a very rare bird. Lovely 404!
I’ve never seen a picture of an R6 before. Most of it certainly fits between 4 and 12, but the front end looks wrong. Unrenaultish. More like a mid-60s US pickup truck, half Ford and half IH.
The Renault 6 was pretty common in Spain during my travels there in the 1980s. I think they were built there. I remember the Renault 6 in Spain having square headlights with a grey grille. The red Renault 6 in the photo has what looks like levers below the headlights to adjust the beam. These old cars had quirky, neat features!
Leave it to Renault to build what looks like a cheap knockoff of a Renault. I’m not familiar with the R6, but it sure looks like a Renault 16 inspired subcompact made by Geely.
The owner of the gas-guzzling LTD can take some comfort that according to the EIA, Holland is currently the 2nd-largest customer for US crude oil, after Curacao. They must have serious refining capacity, which wouldn’t surprise me given Holland’s history in the oil biz.
You’re correct about the refining (and storage) capacity. More specifically, the village of Pernis, nearby Rotterdam. Below Shell Pernis (photo courtesy of ANP).
The idea of “village” is hard to reconcile with that mass of outdoor plumbing☺, but sources claim the historic town has retained its character.
Refining is a messy, somewhat hazardous “NIMBY” activity, but given its importance, it probably gets a lot of corporate attention on these issues.
It is interesting that the Carina did not succeed in the USA. 20 years later Hyundai did much the same thing with a new offering half way between the Excel and the Sonata. The Elantra is one of their most successful offerings. It was given more time to gain traction.
What eclectic group. Johannes, we’re going to have to chip in and get you another battery. I was disappointed when the show abruptly ended, I really enjoyed this.
That LTD. I remember a guy at work bought a new ’76; he drove it for years and the car was always in nice shape. Then he gave it to his son, and after not very long the LTD looked just like this one. I was shocked, and only recognized it by the license plate. We’ve all “seen” this car at some time, haven’t we?
I was really looking forward to seeing that coupe parked just beyond the 404. What a time for the battery to run out!
That’s an Opel Kadett A.
The R6 is almost my holy grail… A schoolfriend’s parents had one- at the time it was a source of great amusement and derision for us “proper” car guys. Now I’ve come to appreciate the charm and beauty of a simple car, built for function just like that Renault. Obviously my schoolfriend’s parents were more enlightened than I gave them credit for.
…”the charm and beauty of a simple car, built for function”…well said !
Next month there’s a big (classic) Renault show in the south of the Netherlands. With cars, vans, trucks and farm tractors. I’ll be there if the weather is nice (enough). I think I buy an extra battery for my camera…just in case…
Look at the door reflectors on the R6. Those take me back. I completely forgot about their existence and that they used to be common.
I also had a school friend whose parents owned one in a long line of beaters. They also at one point owned a R14 and I can still remember being in the back seat of their DAF55 when his mother drove the car from the passenger seat courtesy of the variomatic transmission.
LOVE that Nissan wagon and the 404!
The R6 was never sold in North America, but briefly in 1980, I owned a privately imported ’73 R6-TL – the ‘upmarket’ 1100 cc version. A neighbor had somehow acquired the car for his son, but it developed a ‘head-gasket leak’, and the kid had absolutely no interest in it, so the father gave the car to me just to get it out of his yard.
Mine was that identical shade of red, but the grille was grey plastic, and it came with 5″ French amber headlights that had to be changed to American 7″ sealed beam light assemblies to pass safety inspection here. My R6 shared some mechanicals with the Le-Car, so I was able to get brake pads and a replacement for the noisy front axle-shaft. The ‘leaky head-gasket’ turned out to be a bad coolant hose concealed under the intake manifold.
It was a cheap, tinny little car, but it ran and functioned well, and the seats & ride were very comfortable, though it cornered like a double-decker bus. The funky R6 dashboard shifter also worked much better than the horrid, rubbery US-market floorshift the Le-Cars came with. I sold the R6 for a modest profit to a friend of a co-worker. Six months later, the new owner got drunk one night and finished it off by running it into a tree!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Thank you for sharing these unusual cars ! .
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I’m loving the Pug 404 and the Datsun Wagon Six .
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-Nate
The Datsun 2000 was offered new in NZ, but I’ve only seen the sedan version; that wagon is delicious! You’ve just made my day Johannes!