Welcome to part two! This month will be under the sign of the V12, hence the Series III E-type. You might consider this a teaser – hopefully, I will be able to finalize what I have in store for you, post-wise. Also, I hope I’ll manage to get my stupid smartphone camera to work properly again. So apologies for the uneven picture quality and on with the imports, starting with the British stuff.
Just re-emphasizing the V12 theme – that, and Daimler Double Sixes rule.
These last-gasp Rovers have a Mitsuoka air about them, or is it me? Rarely seen in sky blue, too. The covered car behind it is some kind of 30-odd-year-old Rolls or Bentley. I would have preferred documenting that, but you take what you can get.
I spied this XJ40 from a couple blocks away and thought it warranted further inspection. For one thing, it was an XJ40, but for another, it was awkwardly parked on the wrong side of the street and in front of a garage.
And lo and behold, the Jag was hiding a very nice early ’70s MG B roadster, which looked like it was having a new fabric top fitted.
Quite of few of these Lotus Seven/Caterham-like things are seen buzzing about on weekends. Not my cuppa and not worth a detour, but I was just waiting to cross the street when this one pulled up, so why the heck not.
Don’t know what to do with your old Landies? Stack ‘em up!
Finally, a pretty rare Rolls-Royce – certainly one I had never seen before. This appears to be a 1997-99 Silver Spur Park Ward limousine, one of 49 made, of which 10 were sold to Japanese clients, according to what I’ve read online. Not expecting to see too many more of those, then.
Let’s cross the Channel, shall we? There were a number of cool small Renaults over the past couple months. I know, sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but hear me out, starting with this late ‘80s Super 5 GTL. Good luck finding one of these in that condition in France.
My mother had a base model first-gen Clio. Not exactly like this, then, as this looks like a 16 S, probably an early ‘90s one. That means the 1.8 litre DOHC 4-cyl. has 140hp on offer to spin that 975kg hatchback’s front wheels, enabling it to reach 100kph in 8.2 seconds, which is pretty decent for a mere Clio, though the 2-litre Williams did even better. By the way, these were sold new in Japan at some point, but badged as “Lutecia” – the name Clio was then owned by Honda.
This is an early model second generation (1998-2012) Clio Sport (“early” as in pre-2001, so pretty ancient as these things go), obviously imported straight from France, too. This hatch was a little hotter than its predecessor, with the 2-litre engine now providing 172hp. Only the ultra-rare rear-engined V6 model was more powerful.
Aha! A late ‘70s Citroën CX Pallas with unadorned flanks and period-correct yellow headlights? Well, played, Tokyo. Well played.
Peugeot-wise, the only newsworthy item was this pre-MY 1991 205 CTI. The CTI was the PininFarina cabriolet version of the GTI, launched in 1986. Pretty damn desirable, both back then and nowadays…
Let’s move to the Italian stuff. I’m finding old Fiat Pandas all over the place in this town. It’s weird and it’s starting to get old. I think I’ll forego documenting these for a while.
Quattroporte Vs, however, are one of those cars I can’t get enough of. The more the merrier, I say.
Another Lancia Delta Integrale – this time an Evo 2 in limoncello yellow. I caught a relatively similar car (albeit in a different nick) a couple weeks ago, so if you like these, you’re in luck: I’ll try and write up a Delta post as soon as.
As per usual though, the real stars of the dolce vita were the Alfas.
That vita hasn’t been so dolce for all of them, though. I hadn’t seen a 145 in ages. These used to be everywhere, a couple of decades ago. Looks like they don’t age too well.
This 155 was in far better health. Almost rude, in fact. All dolled up in Ferrari rosso, torque-steering its boxy Twin Spark behind around the street. Have you no shame?
But the biscione of the bi-month was, without contest, this delectable early model Alfetta. I don’t think I had ever seen such an old one in this condition. Definitely never seen one in this blue. Jaw-dropping.
Let’s see what Detroit’s finest have in store for us this time round. For whatever reason, there were a lot of Cadillacs about.
This classic Brougham, with its continental kit, was driven by a Japanese guy in a cowboy hat and bolo tie. Yup. Pity I messed up the front shot.
Not all were as interesting as that, though. Some Cadillac owners here obviously aren’t too bothered with how their cars look…
Others want to prevent passersby from laying their dirty eyes and smartphones on their pride and joy.
And then, there are those who are just trolls in red baseball caps. At least, I hope that’s all that is.
Not sure what happened here, but it’s slightly unsettling. However, if it were applied to anything other than a Hummer, it would be extremely unsettling.
More Buick “Regals” Estates were sighted – in other colours, too. A lovely shade of dark red…
And a yellowish cream, with woodgrain. Truly Regaliscious, though a bit predictable. The more exotic GM stuff wore a bow-tie, this time.
Shame this third gen (1947-54) “Advance Design” Suburban was restomodded to the nth degree, but seeing that plump snout slathered in chrome still elicited an audible “Woah!” from yours truly.
Actually, the same thing happened when I caught this 1970 El Camino SS 396. It’s a great pity that the average Tokyo house’s car garage is much better suited to kei cars and European econoboxes than the typical American car.
There were several flavours of Lincoln on display, too. From the white limo for weddings…
…To the funeral coach. But what about a happy medium, you ask?
How about this? With a Gloria Y30 wagon for a stablemate, too. This might be what Jim Brophy’s dream garage would look like…
The sun was dead set against my taking a photos of that ’67 Country Squire, or rather the remains thereof, so this picture (the only one I managed to take that showed anything recognizable) is all I can do for now. I’ll have to go back there sometime and try harder. It’s worth a post.
No Mopars were caught, sorry to say, so we’ll leave the US steel and return to Old Europe. And there’s nothing more European than a Saab 900 Turbo. This is the second one I’ve spotted in town – the first was the object of a post earlier this year.
I’m laying off the Volvo 240s (unless I uncover something truly exceptional, like a Bertone coupe), but Amazons are definitely not to be avoided. This one was part of a very shambolic street display, the full significance of which escaped me, as often happened in Tokyo. It’s Suntory time.
We’ll polish off the tour on a few gins and Teutonic. Opels are uncommon here. This Astra G station wagon was an unexpected find. Not exciting, not rare, not outstanding – just plain unexpected.
The BMW contingent was much more interesting, almost by definition. I found this race-ified 2002ti had a pretty nice rear end. The front, which was impossible to photograph properly, did not have a bumper. correct me if I’m wrong, but the whole M thing seems tacked on and not period-correct. Nice colour though.
Now that’s more like it! It was very nice of this 2002 Turbo to do a U-turn right in front of me.
Of course, this could also be a standard-issue mid-‘70s BMW 2002 with a body kit and decals. Sure seemed on the loud and sprightly side, though. I’m guessing this is the real McCoy.
Not easy to photograph this E28, but it could not be ignored. After all, these are not W123s (i.e. everywhere). And they’re quite a few degrees cooler.
This also looks like a genuine M – the original M3, in fact. Quite a sight, but I understand that the sound is even better.
I recently caught a Mk1 Golf that I’d been seeing around my neighbourhood and will write it up (it’s worth it). Series 2 Golfs though, to be honest, are still so numerous here that I’m thinking of leaving them be after this edition. Nice GTI, though.
True classic Volkswagens have to have a rear engine, so the Vanagon qualifies. That’s just common sense. OK, I’ll allow a couple exceptions, such as the aforementioned Golf 1 / Scirocco and the K70. Possibly a very old Passat. But that’s it.
Vanagons are in then, but a T2 Transporter will always be preferred. Especially a well-decorated one!
Doesn’t mean they have to be old, necessarily. Mexican Beetles are pretty plentiful around here, and those can be under 20 years of age – spring chickens, for Type 1s, but still part of the continuum. Some have been turned into cabrios and given misleading license plates, which I’m less cool with.
That looks more like a genuine 1978 cabrio. But I wouldn’t like to bet on it.
Genuine old-timers are more my style. That’s quite a powerful colour choice, though. Someone likes to stand out in a crowd.
This month’s Karmann-Ghia – a very nice example, as per usual. Also looks like an earlier one, but I’m not well qualified to make that call.
This is the second Type 3 combi (or Squareback, for you folks on the other side of the Pacific) I’ve caught and posted, but this one was absolutely mint.
We’ll end the episode on a Mercedes note, just to tie it back to the V12 thing this post kicked off with. Not that we’ll be too exclusive about it, but I just happened to catch a few really big Benzes, such as this AMG S 65. Those cost around US$250,000 when new, apparently. Just looks like yesteryear’s S-Class in the midst of vertiginous depreciation now.
There are a number of new Maybach S-Class saloons around, too. I understand that M-B’s 6-litre 12-cyl. engine is going out of production soon, so perhaps this will be the last of the breed.
Ditto for this S 650 limousine, which I found parked in front of a very ritzy hotel (hint, hint). These are incredibly massive and luxurious conveyances, but we’re worlds away from the “Grosser” 600s and the “Adenauer” 300s of the ‘50s-‘60s. Still, I had no idea Mercedes still had a factory limo in their range, but they do, for now.
Twentieth Century M-Bs are more interesting, aren’t they? This W124 sports four Daimler stars on its front end. Must be some kind of status symbol record.
These W126s are really growing on me, now that they’re getting somewhat scarce…
In the last couple of weeks, spring has started in earnest, so convertibles have started to reinvest the streets. This is a rare pre-facelift car, too. Mercedes only built about 33,000 W124 convertibles – most of them post ’93 facelift, as the car was only introduced in MY 1992.
And finally, a few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about two cars, a W108 and a ‘60s Beetle, that I found parked together and sharing both the same black body colour and an identical license plate number (only the four-digit big number, that is). Well, here’s the same thing, just even more so.
The low-slung saloon hiding amongst all the SUVs was a black Maserati that also had 77-77 on its license plate. Maybe the guy won a poker tournament with four sevens and bought all those shiny black toys with the winnings.
Wow, lots of goodness here as well! The Rover 75 is more interesting than the Rolls or Bentley or whatever under the cover if only because we never got them here.
The Alfetta is marvelous in that blue, but of course the Jimmy-pick of the lot is the Lancia Delta Integrale, never mind that I don’t really fit into them. I’d have one and not care what the neighbors thought. I could park our Orange and Yellow and Blue cars next to each other and look out across the grayscale landscape that is my neighborhood.
And a 2002 turbo in the wild? Only in Tokyo I think.
Is the Mk2 Golf the W124 of VW’s? They still pop up, and still keep going. The other day in Len’s piece and now several here too… It’d be hard to pick between the silver W124 pictured and the red GTI here though, so different, yet so many similar qualities. The 205CTI does make a powerful spoiler though as far as desirability goes…those meddling French!
A very fine international collection as usual, T87, well done!
I think in a few years (or even now) a Rover 75 would be a prime candidate for an EV swap.
The 1.8 turbo K Series engines in many 75s are a complete disaster. They’re a candidate for a motor transplant yesterday.
You always amaze me with the assortment of Japanese-made vehicles that we never see in America and the collage of foreign cars that Japanese import. Great stuff. Thanks.
Amazing collection of finds.
When I first saw the RR limo, I thought it was a big Crown limo. It has a similar vibe.
I’m curious as to why you think those VW Cabrios are fake. They look perfectly original to me, and these were really quite common and not at all hard to come by.
I’ve never seen a 2002 Turbo in the flesh. Good question as to whether it’s original.
I’ll take the Alfetta, the Saab 900, the Karmann, and the Squareback. Maybe a 2002 but…
Deadheads in Japan? The Grateful Dead did have dedicated fans around the world. Knew a few when 16-20 but I never got into their music or understood what they saw.
I understand that M-B’s 6-litre 12-cyl. engine is going out of production soon, so perhaps this will be the last of the breed.
No, Mercedes-Benz V12 engine will continue as an exclusive engine for Mercedes-Maybach S 680 4MATIC (Z223). This Maybach will go on sale in May 2021 as 2022 model. It’s the first time that 4MATIC system has been fitted to V12 engine for the passenger car. Neither Mercedes-Benz nor Mercedes-AMG will have this engine, but that will not stop Brabus and other tuners from bagging the V12 engines with 4MATIC system for W223/V223 S-Class eventually…
That Citroën CX Pallas has non-period-correct wing mirrors. That CX in the photo is Series 1 while the mirrors come from Series 2.
Well, Tatra87, I thought Curbside Classic is supposed to be about the automobiles as well as the automotive politics, but apparently, you feel compelled to bring up the Trump supporters as “trolls in baseball caps”. I am sure more and more Democrat voters regret voting for Biden now…that’s all I can say here. I hope I will not have to see something like that here in Curbside Classic again.
Your last paragraph wasn’t particularly objectionable and merely inquisitive until towards the end.
“I am sure more and more Democrat voters regret voting for Biden now…that’s all I can say here”
Not seeing that myself. At all. But I don’t watch the Fox echo chamber. Walking outside I finally see vaccinations happening ahead of the originally ridiculed and supposedly overly ambitious timeline, actual jobs being created, infrastructure improvements being talked about and pressed for and likely to happen, the rest of the world no longer laughing and pointing and restarting constructive dialogue, and corporations being asked to pay their fair share. Perhaps some individuals as well. All of which helps every single person living here on either side of the aisle to make a better life for themselves and their families. I also see some corporations making astute moves like MLB’s today to call out things that are plain wrong while others somehow make the wrong ones such as a major automaker’s announcement today that seems to just want to gloss over what happened on 1/6. Sure they have shareholders to appease on one hand but customers, many of which have a social conscience, are the other leg of that stool.
Ha! “Don’t talk politics, T87! Bad boy!” followed by “people regret voting for Biden now.” Oliver gets his knickers (and his argument) in a Twist.
So let me explain something to you: in case you hadn’t picked up on it, that Cadillac with the Trump 2020 stickers front and back (and MAGA hat in the windshield) was photographed in Tokyo, Japan.
You might not realize this, but Trump was not the most popular US president around here. He made their PM look foolish. He reneged on the TPP (huge issue here). He was buddies with Kim Jong-un (even bigger issue here). He said Japan should pay tons more for having the pleasure of being under US military occupation. Losing face is a very, very hard thing to accept for people anywhere, but even more in Asia.
So having a car bearing Trump 2020 stickers where nobody likes Trump (and after he was voted out of office, btw) is 100% trolling. If I had photographed the same car in the US, that would have been nothing in particular. Context, my dear Oliver, is everything.
I hope you understand now.
So having a car bearing Trump 2020 stickers where nobody likes Trump (and after he was voted out of office, btw) is 100% trolling
Someone driving a Cadillac of that particular vintage may well be a genuine Trump supporter. Undoubtedly there are some in Japan. Few things, especially in politics, are 100%.
Update: 30 seconds of Googling shows that he does enjoy some enthusiastic support there; some 5% of Japanese had a favorable opinion of him. Not a very high percentage, but given the huge population, the numbers are not insignificant. His anti-China stance undoubtedly was popular with certain very conservative Japanese.
Here’s a news report about rally contesting the election:
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/12/a28ed47d5629-hundreds-of-japanese-still-contesting-donald-trumps-election-defeat.html
The stickers and strategically placed hat are surely “set dressing”.
I woulda got whitewalls for my Crown Vic but it was too problematic. I toyed with getting a Nixon/Agnew bumper sticker or a license plate frame that said “Civil War Veteran” but my wife didn’t want me to get shot.
She frequently feels the need to caution me against doing things she thinks might get me shot.
I’ve toyed with making this picture a “Curbside Outtake,” but I didn’t want it to devolve into a political discussion. I think it’ll fit here, and I hope it’s taken in fun. 🙂
Tatra87,
Well, I do understand how biased the mainstream and social media as well as Democrats/leftists/liberals can be toward President Trump. The sad truth is so many people actually believed many things that were said about him without verifying or doing more researches. What’s so equally sad is the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” that those people exhibited when hearing the different perspectives that aren’t part of their “official narratives” or don’t fit them. They refuse to respect the different opinions, and they attack them for not going with their “narratives”. Cognitive Dissonance, Confirmed Bias, Semmelweis Reflex, and such are the terms in this regard.
When I grew up in Texas in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was fortunate to have the wonderful American History and Civics teachers who taught us different perspectives of history and challenged us to think for ourselves. Ever since, I always take bigger picture and look at different perspectives before drawing my own conclusion. I took the debate class and learnt a great deal about being a successful debater and presenter. That involved studying both sides of coins and figuring out how they connect or contradict each other.
What’s so tragedy is how many people today in the United States don’t know much about the American history, civics, and politics as well as US Constitution. “Whoever doesn’t study history is doomed to repeat it” so says the tired old adage. Perhaps it’s time to stop consuming the extremely biased mainstream media and lopsided attention-seeking and self-absorbing social media and to start thinking for yourself and looking at different perspectives for a change.
I marvel at how much time and dedication you have researched and put together the excellent articles in the past such as dead marquees and vehicles taken on the streets in Thailand and Japan. I wish you would do the same for history and politics, too. That will help you be more insightful and understand more what is really going on around you.
I would prefer to end this discussion now since it doesn’t really fit Curbside Classic’s concept. CC is supposed to be a sanctuary from the political madness and such. So, I suggest keeping that out of CC unless it’s really related to the automobiles or unless you are willing to get earful from some of us. Thank you.
Yeah…
I’m sure this comment will magically vanish and I hope yours does too, and I have no interest in conducting a futile debate with anyone – but the fact that you can make a statement like “I’m sure more and more Democrat voters regret voting for Biden now” when that is entirely contradicted by the evidence, suggests that you need to start taking your own advice about trying to ascertain facts.
Your teachers might not have been so hot – isn’t Texas usually lurking near the bottom of education standards tables?
This needs to end here. Thanks.
Seeing an Alfetta out and about quite took my breath away. I don’t think I’ve seen one in 10, maybe 15 years. It’s also nice to see one in great condition. Here they all slid into a tatty state early in life, very sad.
The VW Squareback is a great find, and in a terrific colour.
Thanks for a great show as always!
I believe the MB-Star-on-a-stick is the parking garage version of curb feelers. My dad could have used several.
Roveroverover
Bonus cat in the red Regal wagon photo! Great shots all around.
The Beetles are definitely not Mexican – they are 1303s, with curved windshield, front struts etc.
A 1303 sedan is cheap, but to restore and convert one would surely be more expensive than buying a genuine Karmann.
These are in good shape with no signs of amateurish conversion
Great chronicle.
Jaguar XJ12 and Alfetta for me please.
The Rolls under the cover looks like a Silver Shadow to me.
And the Caterham could have a Suzuki engine
The Jag appears to have an Ecurie Ecosse symbol on the wing.
They shoulda got a blue one.