‘Tis the season to check on random cars in Tokyo, as per our usual bi-monthly arrangement. Lots to get through in this edition, but given the time of year and all, I thought Rudolph the Red-Nosed Honda here would be the most appropriate opener. Shot this slab of metal venison on Xmas day, too – which is just a normal December day here. It just happened to be a nice Sunday as well this year, so many CCs were caught.
Don’t get me wrong: Japanese folks adore the whole Christmas pageantry, including the lights, the trees, the bloody awful music and all that, but it’s not a holiday. The one that really matters is New Year’s Day: the country is basically closed for three days, starting yesterday. Speaking (tenuously) of which, that’s a fine-looking 1994-98 Honda Today F Pro.
Contrasting a red NSX with the greenery of central Tokyo. Not what you figured the middle of a metropolis of 30 million inhabitants to look like? The hill in the background is part of the Imperial Palace complex, so it’s about as central as it gets.
You don’t see too many of these early Insights (1999-2006) any more. I caught one a while back but never wrote it up. Then, at the end of 2022, this one was glimpsed and another one, in a very fetching shade of blue, showed up. So looks like there’ll be an Insight CC sometime in 2023…
We’ve seen a couple of these 660 Neo Classic before — it’s an elaborate kit made for the mid-engined 660 kei roadster. Must remember to do a fuller CC post about this oddity at some point.
Last Honda of the year. I really like the look of these early ‘90s Legend coupés. Pity the ones I’ve seen up to now are always in motion.
Finally found a “normal” (i.e. locally-made, RHD, with right-sized tyres) Mazda Proceed Marvie!
The only other Mazda of this post will be this late ‘90s Millenia, which we’ve seen before. But there was another Mazda-adjacent car this time – there usually is, with all the brands they created out of thin air back in the ‘90s…
Only this one was branded as a Ford. As many of you will know, the Festiva was designed by Mazda and sold as a Ford in Japan from 1986 to 1992. North American models were built by Kia, but still wore Ford badges. Additionally, these things were assembled in China, Egypt, Iran, the Philippines, Taiwan and Venezuela. A true global mutt.
Onward to the Toyota chapter – always a chunky one, this. Question: given that the name Toyota and the emblem are conspicuously absent from these weirdo WiLLs, should we consider them Toyotas? Anyway, I caught a few of these and of their slightly less odd Cypha successors. I just need to find a WiLL VS to complete the trifecta and do a proper CC on all three.
Not super keen on modded cars generally, but somehow this mid-‘70s Celica GT was so clean (and had a decent stance) that made the whole look much better than the sum of its aftermarket parts. The superb black paint helps a lot, too.
The one thing I really don’t like is the front air dam, but hey, nobody’s perfect. I’ve been seeing these modern-but-classic-looking eight-spoke wheels quite often, of late. They seem to be popular for owners of sportier ‘60s and ‘70s models.
On the other end of the neatness spectrum, we find this Celica GT-Four RC – the most powerful version of the 1989-93 Celica T180 – looking quite forlorn.
Woah! Is that Didier Auriol or Carlos Sainz in that T200?
Fine little first-gen MR2. Still plenty of these about; the folks who own them don’t seem shy about using them.
The great majority of second-generation MR2s I’ve seen have been red. Happening upon this lovely blue example was refreshing – and very attractive. Why didn’t more people go for this colour?
Did you know that Zagato designed a body kit for the 3rd-gen MR2 and Toyota sold just 100 of these oddities back in 2001? Because I sure didn’t, until I caught this one. Good thing it had a prominent chrome “Z” emblem, because identifying it without that would have been a much harder task.
Corona Coupé, anyone? Not often seen, but they sure look cool. Very typical ‘80s Toyota face.
I mean, look at this (horrendously customized) 1988-92 Cresta X80 saloon: same face as that Corona. Toyota have done this family resemblance thing pretty consistently since that era, though there are always some models that don’t follow suit.
The 2nd-gen (1986-91) Soarer, which is often featured in these compilations, certainly has the same general look, nose-wise.
So perhaps this is what most Toyotas are going to look like in the later ‘20s? This is the brand new gen-16 Crown, soon to appear on a road near you, now that this ancient nameplate is set to re-conquer its pride of place within the global range.
More and more G50 Century taxis are appearing. It’d be worth it to pay for a ride, if only to take a peek at the interior of these beasts. The economics of a 5-litre V12 for a taxi are somewhat dubious, though.
What an absolute stunner of a 1976-80 Mark II Grande (or Cressida, to overseas markets) this was. Best Toyota saloon of the bunch.
But the all-round show-stopper, saved as usual for last, has to be the S800. I think we’ve seen this gray one with its original plates a couple times before, but I’m not tired of it yet. Are you?
But one S800 can always be topped by another, even shinier (and easier to photograph) S800! Sure, a 2000GT is more impressive, but they just don’t exist in real life; these S800s do.
The loud motorcycle-like buzz emitted by this glorious piece of ‘60s aerodynamic design was spellbinding for a Panhard aficionado such as yours truly. Glorious.
Just one solitary Mitsuoka this time, with a series 1 Galue that, judging by the license plate, must be from about 2000-01. The whitewalls are a very nice touch!
A retro kit of a retro Pike? This is a late naughties Suzuki Alto with a Modest body kit, made to look like a Nissan Pao. Guess there are just too few Paos to go around, so this makes some sense. Meta-retro.
Moving on to the Mitsubishi side of the matter, starting with a very fine-looking Jeep.
This pre-1997 facelift FTO (1994-2000), on the other hand, is starting to look a little worse for wear. Still quite a machine, though. Intended for JDM use only, it was voted Japanese COTY in 1994.
Not 100% sure, but this dekotora insanity looks like was once a Mitsubishi Fuso. But don’t quote me on that.
Slight digression: November is when the Meiji Jingu Gaien, a parkway in central Tokyo that I have been frequenting regularly of late where folks with fancy cars like to hang out on Sundays, becomes flooded with people, as opposed to cool cars. This is due to the gingko trees donning their splendid fall colours – quite a stunning sight. So you may see this backdrop in a number of photos included in this and tomorrow’s post.
Case in point: this late model 2nd generation Isuzu Gemini (1985-90) went completely under the radar for most of the people present. Everyone was busy looking at the leaves and photographing each other strolling on the bright yellow pavement. Only one weirdo was out looking at the cars.
Two Bellett GTs were sighted: this one, which we’ve seen before, was being worked on…
…and this older-looking one was hiding behind a face-tarp. Put both of these together, and you get a complete two-door Bellett.
Gorgeous 117 Coupé looks even more stunning in blue. This is a 1979-80 2-litre model XG, available with 5-speed manual only.
Well, well, well. Looks like we’ve wandered Datsun / Nissan territory. And with a heavily modded ’70s Fairlady Z, no less.
There’s those aftermarket wheels again. Looking good on these Sunny B120 pickups, too.
I don’t stop and capture every single Figaro I come across. This one caught my eye because of its unusual colour. Fine nick, too.
On the other end of the ’90s Nissan scale, size-wise: our old friend the white President Royal Limousine is out for a stretch.
The final iteration of the President (2003-10), closely related to the Cima and the Infiniti Q45, completely failed to measure up to the Toyota Century. There aren’t many about.
This is going to cause some grief to our distinguished CColleague Scott McPherson–, but here’s a C33 Laurel that’s had quite a hard life. Or you could call it blatant abuse.
It used to be a classy Medalist twin cam hardtop, once upon a time in a bygone century. But now, it’s looking like the scrapyard beckons.
Let us console ourselves with some lovely Skylines. It seems all C10 GT-Rs are this dull silver colour. Why?
It’s odd how the only Skyline C110s (1972-77) I ever see are of the two-door variety.
See what I mean? Not my favourite generation – they fell victim to the Nissan ‘70s weirdo styling malady that affected almost the entire range in those days. It’s not the worst, especially in this condition. But compare this to the black Celica near the start of the post – no contest, the Toyota wins.
An early model 4th gen Homy (1986-2001), pre-1990 facelift. Looks like it had a nice lick of two-tone paint, but also got rear-ended… Sad…
Fifty years seem to have had no effect on this late model A30 Gloria Super Deluxe. I’m really keen to find one of these standing still someday. It needs a dedicated post.
Six generations and 20 years later, we find the Y32 Gloria Gran Turismo. Not quite the same. But then, you did get a juicy 3-litre V6, compared to the A30’s somewhat lethargic 2-litre inline-6.
The final Nissan of the post, chosen solely from an esthetic point of view, is this 1979-80 yellow Sunny California B310 wagon playing chameleon among the gingko leaves.
I caught this one a while back and wrote it up: it’s a CQ Q-Car – the cutest single-seater EV you’ve ever seen. Better hope it doesn’t rain, though.
We’ll end this half of the late 2022 Singles Collection with a Subaru. We started this post on Rudolph, so let’s end it on Blitzen.
See you tomorrow for the foreign stuff!
Much goodness here. That Honda Today is so simple and uncluttered, it makes the Ford Festiva look flamboyant and wild. Speaking of which, we never got a 5door Festiva of that generation, I wonder why although the last one I saw looked like the rear seat had never been used.
The 80s Gemini sedan is a nice throwback to my ’86 iMark hatchback equivalent, a good car if underpowered (to my early 1990s sensibilities).
And the ST-220 RC under about a decade’s worth of dust but with inflated tires just makes one wonder what is going on…
Were you with me at Toyota Megaweb during the Tokyo Auto Show ’19 when there was another Toyota VM180 Zagato being painted on site? I still have no idea what the point was or what was being sold there…but just hoped it would wash off. Your pictured one is an amazing find in the wild though. As are most of the others as well or better said, as usual. Good show!
I did not know about that poor Zagato you saw at the auto show. How weird to do that on such a rare (and comparatively small) car. Surely a Land Cruiser would have provided a larger canvas.
Lots to digest here, but that Corona coupe caught me totally off-guard. Had no idea that it existed; at first glance from the rear I thought it was a customized Celica coupe.
Nissan’s 70s fuselage style works better some of the time than others; that Skyline coupe works quite well for me. The relatively “clean” versions show the original design intent better than the ones that have lots of make up on.
Not sure if you’ve ever seen a Nissan C130 Laurel coupe, the Skyline’s brother, but it works even better on them.
Love that Celica GT. Hope it still has it’s 18R-G twin cam engine. And being a Isuzu fan, love the 117 Gemini too! Another great post.
Again it is amazing report from Tokyo, I guess Japan is a true car culture country, the variety of cars on the streets is just incredible. It is puzzling how those owners keep them running.
BTW, the new Toyota Crown looks very radical in comparison with the past Crowns. In the first look I thought you finally found KIA EV, a Korean car, in Japan.
At least in the JDM there would be parts available, We have those same cars with zero new parts back up.
Bryce, you can go to your local Toyota dealer and order any JDM part that you need. They won’t have any stock in-country at present, but as demand increases they’ll happily stock whatever turns.
I’ve not seen any Kias here – literally, zero. Must be the last place on the planet where that can be said. On the other hand, Hyundai Ioniq5s are starting to appear pretty regularly. The lack of home-grown EVs is catching up to the market, even here in the land of the hybrid.
Bit of a pity that fab A30 Nissan couldn’t’ve been posted just before Christmas; we could’ve had a rousing chorus of Gloria In Excelsis Deo.
As it stands here in my kitchen, there’s a great deal of turkey left over from new year’s eve supper, and I might’ve got a bit heavy-handed with the ingredients for this turkey salad I’m making, so I’ll have to contend with gloria in excessive mayo.
(…right, yes, good; I’ll just show myself out, then…)
“Gloria In Excelsis Deo”
Need to park it between two old Hyundais for that. 🙂
Ah, so much nice stuff to see here, and so much I was totally unaware of. Your sojourn in Tokyo is giving us quite an education, for which I’m very thankful. Dōmo arigatōgozaimasu, Tatra-san.
Love that Corona coupe, such a clean design.
That GT Four RC is just sad. Wonder how long it has sat there to accumulate that much dust? Guess there’s no children nearby, or surely that would be irresistible to little fingers.
That Zagato MR2 looks so much better than the original.
I find that lowered black X80 Cresta quite tasteful. Sure, we’d probably like stock better, but it could have looked so much worse…
The early Mark II is just in amazing condition.
Oh, those early GTRs – I get the impression there are more around now than Nissan made in the first place. Being a limited production item, it was probably easier for Nissan to do a batch all the same colour, and silver was reasonably different back in those days. I’ve seen a few on the net in white. Of course I had to be different!
Wow a Corona coupe its been a while since Ive seen one, actually even running 4 door Coronas that age are scarce now,
Those dekotora trucks are getting exported used I saw a very blingy sliding deck tow truck recently then another all front panels wrapped in chrome Im not sure if the growth on top is legal here yet but if its under 4.25m it should be,
That Nissan Sunny Californian would be prized here gawd knows why but the young guys love their RWD Jap cars,
Theres an ever growing fleet of Toyota Century’s here one overtook me on the southern motorway before xmas 04.30 am so likely somebody commuting @ $12 per gallon but what a nice ride to and fro.
You’re right T87, the state of the C33 had me worried for a moment, but then I saw the delicious C110 Skyline coupes and forgot all about the Laurel! I really like the C110 coupe; although they need to be the right colour and have the right wheels for the styling to really work.
Nice collection, as always, of cars that were once common here. Except for that Zagato MR2, never seen one of those before, and you know, my life was complete without seeing one too!
Got to be the black Celica Liftback GT for me – just stunning and always was.
Great selection!
Not much love for the Mitsubishi FTO? Mitsubishi during the nighties had won the Japan Car of the year multiple years. 3 out of 10 for the decade.
1987–1988 Mitsubishi Galant
1990–1991 Mitsubishi Diamante
1994–1995 Mitsubishi FTO
1996–1997 Mitsubishi Galant/Legnum
2022–2023 Nissan Sakura/Mitsubishi eK X EV
Plus all the special category wins too:
2021-2022 Mitsubishi Outlander (Technology)
2020–2021 Mitsubishi eK X Space/eK Space (K Car)
2019–2020 Mitsubishi eK X/eK Wagon (Small Mobility)
2013–2014 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (Innovation)
2009–2010 Mitsubishi i-MiEV (Most Advanced Technology)
2007–2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X (Most Fun)
2006–2007 Mitsubishi i (Most Advanced Technology)
1991–1992 Mitsubishi Pajero
The dark days will continue ahead for the car-making business, unfortunately. The possibility of the alliance’s plans will start to bear fruit soon with more competitive vehicles?
Fantastic photographs Tatra87. Keep ’em coming!
Happy new year!
Some great shots there, I especially love the KA-8 Honda Legend, I had one of these some 20 years ago. And Corona coupe, the brother to my first car, an ST-162 Celica, these are even more rare than the Celica these days, haven’t seen one in ages.
Love the oddities too, there’s always something I haven’t seen before in your collections!