Any street scene is interesting to look at after many years have passed and that is even more true for street scenes from faraway lands. Our Yohai Rodin uploaded this interesting street scene from Nairobi, Kenya in 1986. The only car I can immediately recognize and confidently declare is that early 1980s Datsun Bluebird located at the left. What can you recognize?
Peugeot 404 third car from the bottom on the right. And two behind that (with the open door), is that a Toyota Crown? I think I see that very distinctive hoodline. Shame the picture won’t click/open to be larger though.
Click on the picture and then on the tiny picture you see, you get a larger one after that. At least here, I must add.
Ah, so a “real” double click, thanks! In that case the last car on the right is the same as the second to last, still thinking Toyota Crown.
And all the cars on the right are taxis, that yellowish stripe must be the common livery.
Those two sedans are the Toyota Crown from the early ’70s.
I fixed it; it now pops up on the first click.
Peugeot 403 second car from the bottom on the right.
I think the buses might be Tata? The van looks like a Toyota Hiace, the station wagon far away looks like a Toyota (or Datsun?) and the white car, I don’t know, Peugeot 304? Alfa?
The green van I would say Toyota, but the white one looks like a Nissan to me. I’d go with Corolla wagons, and I’m not confident on the other – not used to Peugeot 204/304s.
Thanks for sharing the story behind the photos too Yohai.
I see a total of four Toyota Crowns in the picture – the front two (bracketing the Peugeots) are late-60’s versions and the two in the back are from the early 1970s.
Peugeot 404, classic Farina style.
Background Peugeot 304 or 204 and Datsun 120Y saloon
In the taxi rank, a Peugeot 403 and 404, a Toyota Crown S50 and 2 Toyota Crown S70. I think the first might be a Crown S50 as well
Toyota Hiace minibus in green. TATA or Ashok Leyland buses fromn India?
And Woolworths!
Nice pic ! .
I loved Pops ’59 (?) Peugeot 403 , sadly it rusted away in Boston . that black one looks very clean indeed .
The 404 was also a great Pug.
-Nate
Crown, 403Pug 404Pug Crown, Crown ,Crown, MK4 Cortina on the left
So I’ve made it into one of Mr. Stopford’s Outtakes. Nice!
A quick background to this photo; in 1986 my Dad wanted to go on this Safari trip in Kenya (I think these were just starting to catch on, it was certainly considered novelty at the time), and basically “asked” my to go with him.
I was fifteen at the time, and really didn’t want to go. If you recall your teens, this is just when you LEAST want to be near your parents. Also, this chasing-wildlife-across-the-savanna business didn’t attract me at all, but for some reason I felt I should travel with Dad, since he really wanted to go and wouldn’t do so if I refused to come with him.
So off we went. Dad enjoyed this very much. Me? well… I must say, to this day I prefer a good cup of coffee & cake in “classic” western Europe somewhere to driving endless hours in search of some elephant, accompanied by sand and dust.
Nevertheless, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and thirty years down the line (God, how time flies), I’m very glad Dad persuaded me to go- he past away about two years ago, and it turns out I have this memory of something we shared together. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ll never return to Kenya again so it’s good to have seen some truly amazing stuff there,
Anyway, I’ll leave you all with another image taken from the same hotel window, of the street that opened to the left of the Photo that William published in this post (I shot it because of the buses, of course). All these photos were taken early in the morning, around 6:00. Dad was probably still asleep…:
I spy a Citroen GS in that photo. Can’t really see anything else well enough to ID (other than the buses on which I’m clueless).
Those Safari Rally wins by Peugeot really paid off at the African continent, the ‘Pigot’403 was already vastly popular in the ex-French colonies but the wins of men like Bert Shankland and Nick Nowicki made the 404’s indestructable reputation until the Japanese came !
It must be said that that 403 Taxi must be rock-solid-strong, it is already of very old age in the picture it must be at least 7 or 8 years old !
The same thing actually happened to DAF trucks who had a couple of successfull wins in Paris Dakar years later, it put them on the map in Africa !
DAF had the super-duty (and super-simple) ATE 2400 DK for very harsh (as in African) conditions. It soldiered on way into the seventies, after all other models wery already replaced by the tilt-cab generation. Its successor was the N2800-series conventional truck (Paris-Dakar heavy truck category win in 1982).
Interesting how our age and origin or location determine what we recognize. The 403 and 404 were instantly recognizable to me, even in an iPhone screen thumbnail. On further perusal, the blue Crown was obvious. The other stuff, mostly generic Japanese stuff that was either not sold in the US, or has quietly rusted away.
The Bluebird, Crowns, and Peugeots were quickly recognizable to me as well, though before our recent Toyota Week I might have missed the Crown S50 (the S70 and its unusual styling I’ve known of for some time). The cars in the background are more difficult–the white one does seem to be either a Peugeot 304 or an Alfa Giulia, and I’ve no idea what the blue 2-door wagon might be.