Welcome to part two – there will also be a part three this time, because I’ve been busy over Christmas. I’ve posted one of these weird Town Car stiff-wagons before (it’s a “first call” hearse, designed to move bodies to a funeral home), but this was a closer encounter. And as it took place in the late afternoon twilight, on a cold and cloudy day, quite an eerie one… A fitting end to a morbid year.
This month was under the sign of the GMT 600, somehow. There are always a few of these about, but December was thick with these big boys. Most were Chevrolets, but this GMC-branded and Transformers-badged one was too comical to pass up.
By contrast, some of the bowtie-badged ones were a bit worse for wear…
That includes this uncommon campervan conversion…
And this less than stellar Astro van (which is not a GMT 600 derivative, I realize.)
Continuing with the Chevy truck vibe: a curiously orange C/K (a..k.a GMT 400).
The second HHR I’ve seen here – in very good nick, too. It’s at least a decade old, but looks like it just left the showroom. “Rat Fink Fever” indeed…
I get that, for most of you, these big Fords are the definition of mundane, but it’s the first one I’ve seen in the metal. I haven’t been in the US in over a decade, do I haven’t been exposed to these. And boy are they ugly. So ugly I couldn’t even take a decently-focused photo of it.
Compare and contrast, if you will, with this classic Dodge Tradesman. I’ve caught this one on the go before, but happened upon its lair, where it was possible to photograph it more closely.
That interior is something else! Never seen an octagonal steering wheel before…
Keeping it in the Mopar family with this rather nice shot (If I may say so myself) of a Chrysler 300C wagon next to a Toyota Crown S170 and a Daihatsu Gino. In some ways, this is the most Japanese photograph you’ll see in this post.
To close the American section, here’s another mystery car. The license plate never lies. What are we thinking – Cadillac Eldorado? T-Bird? Continental?
Let’s move on to ze German stuff, ja? In a small alley, saw this Opel and went: “Huh… that’s just a 25-year-old Vectra.” Then I did a double take and thought: “Wait… A 25-year-old Vectra in a small Tokyo alleyway?” Opel, Vauxhall and Holden are definitely not the most commonly-seen GM marques over here.
Three noteworthy Benzes this month, starting with this late model R107 in US-spec. It’s crazy how the quads and the botox bumpers change this car’s character.
I’m starting to warm up to the R129. They’re not exactly rare yet, but have a definite 20th Century charm to them.
There are far fewer Brabus Benzes than AMGs (which are almost common in Tokyo); if genuine, this W124 wagon would be a rare bird even in Stuttgart.
I caught this one before, but it was at night. Then I saw it coming towards me one Sunday morning. Lovely sight either way, but the daytime photos were a lot easier to do.
Beetle-wise, I have encountered a few Mexican bugs of late. This white one was particularly nice; I like the lack of turn signals on the front wings. Makes for a neater front end, in my view.
But a Wolfsburg-made ’66 in green will always take the cake. Positively scrumptious.
Not sure why, but there were a lot of interesting Volvo 240 wagons about in late 2020 Tokyo. This one had an unusual gaze, which I had not seen before.
Another pristine blue beauty, but this time with chrome mirrors and the uber-cool JDM tiny-logo parking pole…
Finally, a later model in riveting red. The condition was so mint fresh I almost froze solid looking at it.
Again with the Citroën C6? Sabrebleu! (As no French person exclaimed since the Great War.) What’s the deal? I’m seeing more of these here than I ever did back in Europe.
For some reason, I caught most of the last decade’s Aston Martin line up this month. Starting with this Vantage convertible – a lovely red on red…
The rare Virage coupé, produced for only 18 months in 2011-12…
And the Rapide saloon – this is the second one I’ve caught, but this time, it wasn’t in motion. Awfully nice cars, those Astons. More subtle than Rollers, sexier than Jags and better looking than Bentleys.
In the realm of supercars though, few can rival the McLaren mystique. Not necessarily my cuppa, but you have to admit these are impressive machines.
Enough carbon fiber, LEDs and electronics – this is Curbside Classics, for crying out loud! According to the license plate, we have a 1966 BMC Mini Traveller before us, with actual bits of wood on the outside, if you please.
There’s probably just as much timber inside one of these old Rollers…
Or inside this absolutely immaculate Jaguar XJ40. Can’t remember the last time I saw one this nice.
Hello there, Miss Lotus. We’ve met before, haven’t we… Nice to see you out and about!
Some Italian dolce to finish on a sweet note? These Alfa GTV coupés may not be as charismatic as their RWD predecessors, but they still have that Alfa mystique. Only skin-deep? Yes, but it’s quite a skin.
The Fiat 500 is certainly no shrinking violet in the charisma department. I caught another one that had the double benefit of standing still and being a much rarer variant – I hope to be able to write that up as soon as.
See you tomorrow for part three – my New Year’s present to you.
Nice xj40 – i prefer the square headlamps, but the round poverty specs seems to get more love online…
Not that the xj40 gets all that much love anyway, but its time will come, i guarantee, just you wait, the love of square is spreading, any day now, you’ll see, it’ll get its dues, prices will go through the roof, heard it here first, you can trust me, i know these things, just you wait, the era of XJ40 is just around the corner, better start hoarding!
The Time of The Square of the 40 is indeed just around the corner, though I have always thought it a pity that that corner was modelled upon the curvature of the earth.
Still, following your sage advice, I have boxed my left rear indicator from a ’92 for the glory of my future descendants to claim when those days come.
Say, I prefer the square lights too, as the roundies only looked a vain attempt to make of the whole that which the X300 finally did – which was, ofcourse, still a considerably lesser thing than the shape set out in 1968.
I’m sure your descendants will weep tears of pure joy when they unbox that indicator one day.
The x300 is very spec dependant when it comes to looks, and the European spec x306 XJR with the blacked out chrome is right up there with the original IMO… which is why i own one in BRG!
still prefer the xj40 to the regular spec chrome-laden x300 though 😉
I’m going with Lincoln Continental, possibly Mark IV under the tarp, it’s got that extra level squareness to it that isn’t really in Cadillacs.
Love that “era” of Aston design, sporty, subdued, retro and modern all at once, only 10 years ago and I now realize I took them for granted, unfortunately they’re starting to look more and more plasticy boy racer in the McLaren sense of late(I don’t care how great it is to drive, it’s ugly), specifically the current vantage
Also agree, the econoline is ugly. I think the nose was elongated to fit one of the newer diesel engines as I recall and in the process the stylists came up with some weird blocky 2010s era F series like concoction that didn’t at all match the unchanged soapbar 90s body behind. They seem to be getting less and less common sights as work vans though, or maybe they’re just becoming more and more invisible
I know that it might be too complicated to go into deep detail, but could you share a bit about how the license plates work there? Obviously, there are more than 9999 plates in the country, so I know the other letters and number figure into it, but the plate is so basic looking that any differences would be erased by distance. Also, how is it that basically every classic car somehow has its year as a part of the plate number? I know that color figures into it as well and maybe GVWR?
Some basics are that Kei cars have yellow plates as compared to the regular car white plates which are about the size of a US plate. Trucks have plates that look like the car ones but are much larger (although the scale of the trucks makes this not really noticeable in pictures, but in real life they are almost twice as large).
The small numbers on top have to do with the prefecture that the car lives in, then the main four numbers are distinct. So a combination of the two gives enough total combinations. I believe you can request a combination of numbers (and perhaps pay extra? there may be a market for these as in other countries such as the UK).
Japan DOES in fact have dozens of different plate styles, there are lots of different background options (just like states have multiple designs). These are available at extra cost and many are quite attractive, there are various Olympics related designs but all manner of others including rainbows, patterns, ones commemorating various things etc. However they are very rarely seen in the wild, perhaps they are expensive, I don’t know.
These are the Olympic Special Edition Plates available for the 2020 games, not sure if they are doing new ones now…
There are the special Rugby championship plates for the events going on while I was there…
There are the plates currently in use. The largest at the top are truck ones, then car, and then kei cars (yellow). The smaller ones are motorcycles etc I believe.
According to the representative in the booth at the Tokyo Motor Show, these are the optional designs available…There are tons but I can’t recall seeing many (or barely any) on the streets. They had a wonderful booth with a bunch of historic license plate displays as well as current example plates from various countries around the world (incl USA).
All of the above info was pieced together between me and my nonexistent Japanese language skills and the booth people and their far better English than my Japanese skills – however there was still a communication gap, so the above info should not be taken as gospel, just how I understood it all…
Thanks for this plate display photo! I’m surprised that Japan has optional graphic license plates because 1) the plain white plates have been around for so long, and 2) I haven’t noticed any of them in T87’s posts.
What’s interesting to me about this display is that it seems (and not knowing Japanese is a bit of a hindrance here) that each of these plates represents a different prefecture or municipality. So it looks to me that there may be only one optional graphic plate per jurisdiction. For example, it may work so that if you live in Tokyo you can’t order a Dinosaur plate, because those are only optional for cars registered in Fukui. But maybe I’m misunderstanding what I’m seeing here… I’d love to find out more about this.
I think that the small numbers on top of the plate (like 313 on the McLaren) have to do with a general classification of vehicles, based on engine and vehicle size. The Japanese characters represent the prefectures, as far as I know.
So for example, larger European or American imports typically have a number there starting with “3” which is for large passenger cars with 2.0-liter engines. The Beetle and Fiat 500 here have “500-series codes” which are for passenger cars with engines under 2L, but over kei size.
Just to add to Jim’s answer, there is also a hiragana (Japanese alphabet) character next to the big numbers. That multiplies your 9999 number by 46. Add the top line, which has kanji (Chinese characters) denoting the car’s geographical origin (one of 106 municipalities) and two or three numbers denoting the car’s class — too complex to explain, but that also adds possibilities.
All in all, that means that if you own a 1965 Toyota, it’s not impossible to finagle a plate where the big numbers read 19 – 65, especially since there aren’t too many very old cars around. But there are other possibilities, depending on the car. Just look at the Fiat 500 in this post.
Mystery car can’t be an Eldorado: windshield too flat and upright, not enough overhang, license plate not in center bracket, dished wheelcover looks RWD. Looks too small for a Lincoln. Shadow at top of windshield suggests convertible.
I hope you’re going to tell us.
You found a Citroën C6 6,000 miles from Paris, and still managed to photograph it with a French flag in the background. Very impressive feat!
I’m continually amazed at the prevalence of big US conversion vans in Tokyo. I’d love to figure out just how folks use (and enjoy) them.
The Astro camper van is a Provan Tiger XL – I think that company carved out a niche for itself with those Astro campers, which were a nice size for family campers. Provan still exists, but I think they’ve changed their specialty to adventure 4×4 campers.
Could be a Mark III with added hood ornament. Mark IV had ginormous front overhang.
The license plate says 1976, so should be a Mark IV…
Not a chance. Maybe a Marquis.
Great pictures, I like the quirky but in a good way looks of the Citroën C6. The van on jack stands suggests that there is no HOA in Japan?
As a Certified Volvo Nut™, I’m absolutely fascinated with the car with the late sheetmetal and the quad-round lights. The US-spec cars that had this front end wore headlights that were abysmal when new and eroded to opaque within a few years. The only answer then was expensive OEM E-code lights or some moderately okay clones that were made in (I think) Brazil.
I would love to know the source for this quad-round version, and then take a time machine back to 1999 or so.
Aren’t those 70’s US lights retrofitted to a later 245. That’s what it looks like to me.
Curiously, the subsequent 245 is an older model (indicated by the mirrors) with a retrofitted later front end.
As much as I love these 245’s, though, the Brabus W124 is the star of this post.
Nope, those are not the ’70s US quad rounds. The bezels are completely different, the lamps are more deeply recessed, etc.
I dont think I’ve ever seen a black XJ40. Either here in the US or in the UK. Looks sweet, and a bit sinister.
Love these posts, Tatra87. Worked in Tokyo the summer of 2000, and these take me back.
I’d almost put money that the Jag is actually very deep green, but then, you wouldn’t send me out to buy the curtains, so to speak.
It’s also got a leaper masot and Jag grille, but Daimler wheels and too-basic four-lamp lights, not to mention some other badge on the guards like some special edition, so it’s all a bit mixed up.
A Daimlag? A Jaimler? The ultra-rare Laimdaguar?
It shall remain like Japan itself, an enigma wrapped in a mystery ensconced in a riddle and covered by a chauffer-driven British Leyland offshoot in a 2020 Tokyo traffic jam.
yep, looks like BRG paint on the jag – its pretty dark with no direct sunlight.
I hesitate to breathe mention of the Mexican bug after my last experience hereabouts of so doing, but I can’t help asking what on the Japanese earth is the be-snipped rear window louvre doing right above the bootlid vents designed to let air OUT of the engine house?
Not only is it a significant uglifier of the Khyber of the Kafer – or the bum of the Bug, if you prefer – but it is likely to be a fence against the fumes (or a flap against the fug) and thus, in general, is not only unable to justify its wartish aesthetic despoilment by virtue of some mechanical uplift but instead harm the overall Vee of the Wee itself.
In other news, the green of the ’66 VW really does move it into edibility (“scrumptuous”, you see, Dr T). It’s really just a plain old bag of Nazi-derived low-line transport already well out of its time in ’66, but painted thus (and chromed) in a way a modern simply cannot be lifts the thing up where it (here) belongs, into rightful exaltation. It’s a pretty and quite desirable object. A modern can’t sensibly be green like that, and legally, largely, can’t be chromed, and anyway, either of those languages from the past just don’t work on them, so it is gladdening to see it giving Tokyo Grey a lift in spirit.
The Alfa GTV is such a chameleon, some days a haute couture stunner, others, an early Korean trier. It’s done that from the day of release, too. For driving purposes, you’re not at all wrong that the skin – nice today, as it happens – is tissue thin. In fact, from direct experience, it might even be made from paper, such were the groans and complaints from the brand-spanker I used to borrow back in ’99. Went well when utterly flogged, but felt like a creaky bag of ride-free plastic at any time other.
From today’s typically well-curated collection, I’ll take the Mini van, pausing only to hit some potholes to lose those unfortunate wire wheel covers.
I hesitate to breathe mention of the Mexican bug after my last experience hereabouts of so doing, but I can’t help asking what on the Japanese earth is the be-snipped rear window louvre doing right above the bootlid vents designed to let air OUT of the engine house?
“Let air OUT of the engine house?” Justy, the louvers on the back of a VW, or any air cooled car, are to let the air IN. Where else is the air for the cooler fan (and carb) supposed to come from?
The only way to keep a ducted fan air-cooled engine cool is to have a ducted system that keeps the cool and hot air traveling in their intended course, and not be allowed to mingle, which is the kiss of death. The VW engine sucks in cool air through those louvers and into the blower inlet, and is then forced through the carefully designed (and essentially air-tight) ducting through the fins of the heads and cylinders, and then exhausted through the duct outlets at the bottom rear of the engine. There is a rubber gasket that seals the duct work on the engine to the engine compartment “floor”; if that is missing or damaged, hot air can be sucked back into the cooler fan, and lead to overheating.
It’s a very carefully designed but brilliantly simple and effective system, as long as it’s kept intact.
As to that “window louvre”, these have been around for decades and used to be quite popular. I assume that its intended purpose is to keep the rain out of the air intake, as it does not restrict the intake, but just forces it to come in horizontally. It’s not at all necessary, as the good professor provided for rain, as it’s not exactly uncommon in the land of the Beetle’s birth.
Back to the deadly swing axles…
Now look here, young man!
I thought it was you – and if it wasn’t, I’m blaming you anyway – that said when the motor went up in size in the late ’60’s, VW decided to add vents on the bootlid for venting out, and they grew in number by the Superbug because of extra heat/work from pollution control stuff. I wasn’t talking about the vent thing under the window: due to a previous CC Educational Experience*tm here, I know that’s the cold-in bit. In fact, due to that same experience, I agree the original idea – lightweight, slightly pressurized, cheap to make – is quite brilliant, and it led me re-evaluate my thoughts on the cleverly-integrated functionality of the Beetle generally.
I’ve never seen the plastic louvre thingy before, only those sort-of upturned scoop jobs on the under-window fan intake, which were most common, and probably equally pointless (something about the low – or high – pressure air there from the car’s shape being just right to cram air in and therefore not assisted by the airflow getting dammed there?)
Anyway, none of the systems ever worked properly upside down. The swing axles, you see…..
It most certainly wasn’t me.
The cabrios had the louvers on the engine lids since..1938, as there was no room for them elsewhere. As the VW rear window got bigger, and the engines got bigger, the intake volume on the primary location got smaller. So they started using cabrio engine lids on the sedans in 1970. And the 1970 cabrio got four intakes. And that soon migrated to the sedans, in 1972, when the sedan got another increase in its rear window size.
A dealer tech told me that VW oriented the cooling air intake louvers backwards on some early restyled squarebacks and fastbacks; 1970? Before my time but he said that the cars overheated so techs had to cut the louvers out of the sides and turn them around such that the intake louvers faced forwards instead of backwards. I do remember seeing Type 3’s back then in Colorado with the louvers circled by weatherstripping indicating that they’d been removed and reinstalled. Maybe it was just a high-altitude issue.
In the text about the Citroën C6, I’m missing the joke: “Sabrebleu”? Huh?
It’s not the bumpers that spoil the Merc R107 but the third brake light., which unlike the wing top lights on the Beetle does not work for me.
Porsche Targa please!
Fascinating collection as always Tatra87! The C6 would be my pick – followed by the delicious XJ40.
I was looking at the rear of the Town Car hearse in the first pic and thinking it looked rather familia albeit a tad brawny…then the bongo drums in my memory bank went off and I remembered the 2001 Mazda E2000 van that I had 20 (is it really that long ago?!!) years ago, and realised the TC has been creatively fitted with the taillights and tailgate of a Mazda Bongo Brawny. Clever use of an existing part – even if they did remove the factory rear wiper.