T87 Singles Collection, Winter 2026 Edition – Part 2: Foreign Cars (American, French & British)

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– Posted on April 2, 2026

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Let’s go ahead and set the bar up high for this second part and kick things off with a 1958 Chevy convertible. I do hope I’ll get to see this one out of the street someday, once it’s fixed up. Of all the ’58 GM cars, the Chevrolet is easily the best-looking, in my opinion.

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Since we’re donning the bowtie, let’s carry on in the same vein with a Nova coupe (1968-70, I believe?) that’s had a bit of work done, but not too much.

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Probably a ’67-68 Camaro, or at least it used to be.

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Not sure why, but this Corvette was just as modded as the Camaro, yet it bothered my a lot less.

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Low rider 1981 Monte Carlo in a very fetching shade of brown. Malaise forever!

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No idea what this “Royal Knight” decal is all about, but hey, there are enough late-model El Caminos in this country to warrant a bit of personalization.

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The sole Buick I caught this winter was this whale of a wagon – a ’95, if that license plate is to be believed. But we’ve already seen this one before…

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This Japanese market Cadillac Brougham d’Elégance was getting dropped off at the same garage where I snapped the title pic.

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Who can positively ID this? I’m thinking mid-‘60s Pontiac (obviously), but that’s all I’m willing to speculate on the matter.

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The star of the GM firmament was of the Pontiac brand, too. I guess I could have turned this 1970-71 Trans Am into a stand-alone post, but it’s just not my type of Detroiter. I wouldn’t have much to say about it.

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Even so, it’s still one heck of a muscle car. And that interior is simply magnificent.

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I wonder how many De Loreans have made it to these shores. I must have seen a good dozen over the years, though it’s obviously not always easy to tell them apart.

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The very same car, caught a couple weeks later (through time travelling? That flux capacitor looked functional) in Ginza. Not going to reach 88mph in this traffic, for sure.

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Not a single Mopar to report (well, there were, but they’re deserving of their own stand-alone posts), so we’ll skip to the Ford family and this well-kept Lincoln Town Car.

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I don’t see many of this generation Mustang over here, certainly compared to their successor or the ‘60s originals – the two Mustangs that are really popular in Japan. This early noughties GT has the same 4.6 litre V8 as the Town Car, I believe, albeit tuned up to 260hp (239hp for the Lincoln).

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Caught this very pretty (but not 100% original) 1965 F-100 up in the mountains near Nagano.

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Very difficult to capture this International school bus in its full glory. These look so alien outside of their native continent.

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I think this chopper is a Harley, but I know nothing about bikes, so I’ll park it here and defer to the CCommentariat. Just thought this one looked… interesting.

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This one does say “Harley-Davidson,” but it looks older and a lot scarier. No front brake? Yikes!

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Moving on to the French contingent, which was unusually large this season. I’ve rarely seen Alpine A110 Berlinettes in white. Suits it pretty well, actually.

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I’ve already written up a Renault 8 Gordini, which I logically found in France. Didn’t expect to see one in Tokyo, but here we are.

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There are literally a handful of these in the country, and this is the one that has been here the longest. According to the guy who was driving it, this in a 1968 car that was imported by the main Renault dealer in 1970 as a publicity / showroom car. These were never sold new in Japan.

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If this really is a late-model Renault 4 GTL (1991, accoding to the license plate), there are a number of details that look off – the chrome bumpers, the taillights, the mirrors… It looks better this way, actually.

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Here’s a more original example. The sticker on the driver’s door says “Take the wheel” in French, by the way.

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I had forgotten about these. The 2000-03 Scénic RX4 was a crossover variant of the highly successful Scénic (1996-2003) with a 4WD drivetrain courtesy of Steyr-Daimler-Puch. It sold decently well in its home market for a couple years, but dismally everywhere else. They don’t age very well, apparently (especially the transmission), so there aren’t many left on the road, even in France. Fewer than 500 were sold new in Japan, so it’s a genuine rarity.

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Wahey! My first Panhard sighting in the wild in Asia! This is a PL-17, the French marque’s best-selling model by far. I make this a MY 1963, the last facelift of this long-lived Dyna Z / PL-17 body (1954-65), with a bit less polished aluminium trim, new taillights, front turn signals and a (purely esthetic) built-in visor on the rear windscreen. This is all motivated by an 850cc air-cooled flat-twin good for 50hp.

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No Peugeots to report, but quite a few Citroëns. Still a number of C6s about, always a pleasure…

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I hadn’t seen a Series 2 (1985-89) CX saloon in this country yet, but look what wafted by last February! It’s a Japanese market car – bit of a hodge-podge: Prestige wheels, GTI badging and Pallas everything else.

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I do prefer Series 1 (1974-84) CXs, of course. And there was a very, very nice one to be seen.

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Did not expect to see leather in that car – far more durable than the cloth seats, but not usually favoured by the locals. Unlike the 3-speed automatic.

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The ultimate hydro Citroën made an appearance, too. All hail the mighty SM.

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Caught it on two separate occasions, too. Some of the best photos I’ve ever made of this amazing car, I reckon.

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A couple of 2CVs for dessert, starting with this extremely blue one. Interesting because it features a bunch of aftermarket fender guards. Those were very popular on 2CVs and other cars in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but look a little out of place on an ‘80s model like this cutey.

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This one might have already graced these pages, but it’s a particularly fine example. And as it buzzed by me, I noticed it was going to be photobombed by a Range Rover… Great transition to the British metal, what what?

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Here’s the Range up close. Not the find of the year, but still, it’s a higher-trim VandenPlas in decent nick.

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Same same, but more beige.

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Wrote this one up four years ago – seems to be doing well. Tough little things, those Minors.

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Now that’s a new one! In this country, nearly all the ADO16s that can be found are Princesses. For once, this is the Riley Kestrel – first one I think I’ve ever seen.

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These are more handsome than the Princess, in my view. Less cluttered front end, but still “special” in its own way…

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The Riley was in cahoots with this 1959 Austin A35. Both seemed to be owned by folks who are keen to extract every ounce of performance out of these little old cars by way of Recaro seats, no hubcaps, sports steering wheel…

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The Austin is the more sportified of the two. With all of 34hp, too. Both it and the blue Riley left soon after these photos were taken, in a cacophony of blue-grey smoke.

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How about a couple of real sports cars, in the shape of MGs? I think I have a TF in my files somewhere. Might unearth it and write it up. But 2026 is promising to be a busy year.

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Not usually my cuppa, but this MGB was rather attractive. Probably because it’s the fastback GT version, which it not often encountered compared to the roadster.

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But now, we’ll get into more serious sports cars. The Ginetta G15 certainly qualifies.

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As does any Lotus, but there are so many about that one must be quite picky. This Elan passed the smell test.

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As did this one, the much more uncommon Elan +2 Coupé (1967-75).

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This is what the latest Morgan looks like, folks. The Supersport, launched last year, is an all-aluminium construction roadster and features a 340hp 3-litre BMW straight-6 mated to a ZF 8-speed automatic. Must be on the quick side.

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Let’s get back to proper classics with a few E-Types. Take your pick: I found you a very nice Series 1…

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… or this Series 1 ½, with all the negative earth you can eat…

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…or a later model, with the V12. Sure, they don’t look as nice, but that pipe organ exhaust is pretty impressive.

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This has to be one of my finds of the year. It’s not the 12-cyl. version, but still – any XJ Coupé is noteworthy. Just over 10,000 were made between 1975 and 1978, including about 2000 Daimler-badged ones like this Sovereign.

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Finding an Aston Martin DBS out in the wild is very high on my bucket list. This one was in the process of being detailed, so the moment wasn’t ripe. Someday, someday…

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Late-model V8s just don’t have the DBS’s cachet, though they are closely related. It’s like they pumped it full of steroids.

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But hey, at least this one was willing to have its picture taken. And in profile, the design is still uncannily DBS-like.

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Back again by popular demand (ok, not popular, just my own demand), the 2010-13 Aston Martin Rapide. Best 21st Century means to transport four regulation-sized human beings at high speed without rails, in my estimation.

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Colour me smitten. And change the colour on that Rapide to something a little more interesting, please.

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This doesn’t do anything for me, on the other hand. But I hadn’t seen one before, so I took a few photos out of curiosity. Turns out it’s a GT12, a super-spicy version of the Vantage S with a bunch more spoilers, much less weight (over 100kg shaved off), race-spec suspension and a 5.9 litre V12 tuned to 593hp. Aston made 100 of these in 2015 and that was that.

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There aren’t many Rolls-Royce Spectres around. They’re on the expensive side, which is what you’d expect, but they’re also the marque’s first EV, so the traditional and traditionalist clientele is a bit apprehensive. Two examples were found nonetheless. I have an inkling they were not ordered by the same person.

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Now there’s someone who wants the world to notice their new electric Roller! Good on R-R for bringing back colour-matching wheels, by the way.

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The theme of the winter was Corniches, Corniches and more Corniches. Even in Bentley trim, which is pretty rare.

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I caught this Corniche II on two separate occasions: just outside the Meiji Jingu Gaien and, just a couple weeks ago, in Ginza as part of a procession of about a dozen Rolls and Bentleys.

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Another Corniche II, just in front of the beige one…

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And this was a Corniche III. I’m not sure what the deal was with all the Australian flags. Year of the Wombat celebration? Waltzing Matilda parade? Saint Adelaide’s Day? Second unit filming of the upcoming comedy Bogan In Sixty Seconds? Commemorating the late great Sir Les Patterson? Somebody will enlighten us, I’m sure. No worries.

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And here’s a 2000-02 Corniche V, one of only 384 made. Not the best-looking car Rolls ever made, but it was the final one to bear the Corniche name.

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There were a few other cars in there that I didn’t have time to photograph, as the cortege started off even as I discovered it. I’m not sure if this is the same S3 Continental Flying Spur I wrote up a while back. Same colour, same body style…

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Last vehicle of the post will be this very expertly-aged Triumph Twenty One. These were made between 1957 and 1966; this one looks like an early model, i.e. pre-1960. It has a 350cc (21ci) four-stroke twin, designed by Edward Turner. Lovely machine, even to my utterly untrained eyes.

 

See you tomorrow for the rest of the imports – the German, Italian and Swedish iron.

 

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