Happy new year! Well, we can only hope, eh? Let’s kick things off by mopping up the remnants of the last quarter of 2025, just to be done with it. There were a few noteworthy brief encounters that I reckon might appeal, like this cute little Honda S800, all decked out in fall colours.
There was also a coupé version on that glorious November day. It might have been worth its own post, but I already have a few of these in store and there were just too many autumn-leaves-tourists around to shoot this one properly.
The (huge) side marker lights make this a 1968-70 model.
That’s a classy-looking bike! It’s a Dream 50, marketed between 1997 and 2000 as a retro-styled 50cc machine. It was expensive for what it was, so sales were rather muted.
The legendary toaster on wheels that can fit in the back of a 1983 Honda City! Amazing machines.
A couple of Yamahas, while we’re looking into two-wheelers. Can’t ID this one, but it looks well-worn.
Same with this one. Looks like a ‘70s job, but that’s just my gut feeling.
Earlier in 2025, I had reported about the Snake motorcycle, a Japanese specialist marque that makes a 50cc or a 125cc model. I think we have two of the former and one of the latter here.
Back in the four-wheeler realm in style with the legendary Autozam AZ-1.
And we’ll keep the weird setting at 11 by following it with a 2007-14 Mitsuoka Orochi.
Only 150 Rock Stars were made between 2018 and 2022. So seeing one is always a bit of an event.
Just as a reminder, these were based off the Mazda Roadster – a rare case of Mitsuoka improving things over the original design.
Not sure if this Nissan March-based curio is a Copel Bonito or a Mooku Tokio “Princess.” The 19-73 license plate is a case of trying a bit too hard, though.
Might as well get onto the Nissan portion of the tour, starting with this S13 Silvia that’s had a number of rather interesting mods. WTF is that sticking out of the tailpipes?
I’m not overly fond of this generation Fairlady Z. The rear end styling is fine, but those half-opened popup lights always looked strange to me.
Lots of R32 Skylines are still around, but the trick is to find one (preferably in 4-door form) that is not grey or sliver.
Want your R34 saloon to stand out from the crowd a bit more? Slap an Infiniti badge on that thing, why don’t you!
Why did Nissan never attempt to sell the Y33 Cedric (1995-99) in places like the US or Europe? As a bargain priced wannabe W140, it sure looked pretty convincing, especially in this über-conservative Brougham trim.
The obligatory Y30 Cedric/Gloria wagon is here, of course. This one has seen better days.
I don’t think we’ve had on of these at CC yet. We’ve seen the 1st gen Avenir, but this is its successor, made from 1998 to 2005. The kickup in the beltline is rather fetching, in my opinion.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a little Pao. Let’s address that right now.
Hands down, this late model 3rd gen (1977-80) Laurel hardtop sedan was the Nissan of the Season.
Rare beasts, those Subaru Vivio T-tops – only 3000 made. Even rarer when fitted with a Bistro front end and taillights.
Finding one Hino Contessa coupé is quite an event. Seeing two together is like winning the lottery while being struck by lightning. The lighter blue car, we’ve seen before; the darker one was new to me.
Sure is a pity about those wheels, because everything else on that Contessa looks perfect.
The only Mitsubishi worth snapping up over the past trimester, believe it or not, was this Lancer Evo.
Only one Suzuki too, but it’s a whopper – 360cc of straight up kei car legend. I wrote up a very similar one a couple years back; this one is even better, colour-wise.
Two very nice Isuzus to report, starting with this pristine piece of Piazza.
The interior in that thing is just beige-statically stunning. Really starting to warm up to these, though the front end still looks a little odd to me. At least it has character.
Without a doubt, this was the Isuzu find of the year: a 1981 Gemini ZZ/R Coupé. I’m 99% sure it’s the very same featured in this Japanese article. RWD Geminis are fairly rare now, but this two-door high-performance version is just plain unobtainium.
Plenty of Toyotas, as per usual. A good ol’ AE86 Levin to get us started…
I have a soft spot for gen 1 Celica Liftbacks, but why does this one have the horrid 5mph bumpers-on-bumpers?
Caught the same car again, too. It’s not the only JDM model I’ve seen with US-style bumpers, either. Guess some folks thought it was worth the expense.
Such a quirky design, the Sera. This one has seen better days, but it wouldn’t take much to get it back into shape. A rounded shape, obviously.
In the “WTF” section of this post, we discover one of the more extremely modded MR-2s I’ve ever seen. Took me a minute to recognize what it once was.
I was wondering about including this Supra or not… I can’t say I like the wheels (which can barely be seen anyway) or the fart-can tailpipe, but the rest isn’t too bad, I must admit.
This one took a bit of online sleuthing to positively identify. It’s clearly a Probox wagon, but it’s had a lot of work done. Said work was undertaken by Hakobanya, a Fukuoka-based specialist shop who created this extensive “70 Destroyer” body kit to turn the humble Probox into the Land Cruiser 70’s little cousin.
Years of exposure have taken their toll on this 1995-97 Sprinter Carib’s paint, but everything else seems to be in fine fettle.
Body-on-frame, straight-6, live axle, bench seat, column shifter, chrome on the nose – the S130 Crown wagon is the most American of all Japanese cars.
Too bad they quit making long-roof Crowns in the mid-naughties. From that point on, the only Crown wagons were of a decidedly stiff disposition.
Know your Crowns: it looks remarkably close to the S130 wagon, but it’s actually an S150 formal saloon, made between 1995 and 2001. This particular one was ordered with old-style fender mirrors, making it look a lot like a Comfort taxi.
A nice couple of Z20 Soarers up next, starting with this early model (1986-88) 2-litre Twin Turbo.
The top-of-the-line model was the 3.0 GT Limited, available with air suspension and, as we can see in this one, leather upholstery.
I’ve seen a few of these metallic light blue G50 Centurys on occasion, but not too often. Suits the car pretty well.
Every time I find an Origin, it’s a good CC day.
They were built at the same factory that the Century was – Kanto Auto Works – and it’s just as well put together. Just a smidgen more exclusive and quite a bit smaller.
Not quite as small as the Takeoka Abbey, of course. This one was given a lot of extras, clearly. Excellent results!
This is probably one of my most significant JDM finds of the last six years, let alone 2025. What we have here are the remains of a 1936-40 Ohta OD truck. Founded in 1912, Ohta started off manufacturing parts, then their own engines and finally graduated to full cars by the early ‘30s. They were Datsun’s main rival at the time, fielding a pretty similar range of small 750cc cars and trucks. The marque survived until the late ‘50s. This is the first one I’ve ever seen – they were not made in very large quantities.
See you tomorrow for the first of two posts on the imports.
The 5-mph bumpers were optional on the 2-liter Celica, I think for the last two years of the A20/A30 generation. No idea how many people bought them (besides that one guy, obviously), but they were a regular production option.
What a variety!
The purple Yamaha is I believe an R5 350 circa ’70-72, great bike at the time. Fast but not as fast as my Kawasaki A7 Samurai 350 rotary valve.
The Dream 50 was a retro 50cc dohc single that looked like a twin with the 2 pipes, iirc made in the ’90s, but looking like a ’60s race bike. Honda did make a 125 twin racer.
Never heard of the Snake motorcycle, fascinating!
The Autozam pictured with a never-ending backdrop of mid-engine Ferraris is perfect placement!
But the Isuzu Piazza really takes the cake here, for me at least, a fairly pedestrian spec and color simply perfectly preserved and demonstrating how the design really was at least half a decade ahead of its time upon its 1981 debut.
The Nissan Laurel though is quite the find as well, I must admit, although perhaps nicer to look at here than to drive.
2026 seems to be off to a good start in the Tokyo automotive sense, a good show!
The things sticking out of the tailpipes of the S13 might be some sort of “enrichener” that sprays something flammable into the exhaust and ignites it, allowing one to shoot flames out the tailpipes. The original hot rodders just adjusted their carbs extra rich and ignited the resulting combustible exhaust using a spark plug threaded into the tailpipe as an igniter.
Never would have guessed that, but how you described it makes perfect sense. Thank you!
So many lovely cars here, I can’t decide on just one favorite .
-Nate
What a wonderful selection. Everything is lovely with the exception of that MR2 perhaps. I dearly want to visit Japan at some point. That Ohta OD truck is a new one to me
Those reflectors are a tragedy on that beautiful S600. Must have pained an engineer to add them! I love the blue paint on it.
I saw one of those Dream 50s here a few years ago. I was smitten but 50cc is just too small even for me.
Oh wonderful selection as always, and I’m loving the two Contessas with their rakish Michelotti looks.
You’ve set the bar high this time though: you found
meuh us a C230 Laurel! I seriously considered buying one about 12 years ago, it had just come into New Zealand via Singapore. It was flagged at the border for some minor rust issues and rectifying them would have put the total price out of my budget, so it wasn’t to be. Besides, my Ford Sierra had (and still has) more than enough rust for one person to enjoy.It was gold too and had the pre-facelift quad-round lights, which look tidier than the rectangle lights. The one I was looking at all those years ago is back on the market at the moment (see pic) for NZ$30k – only a lottery win away!
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In a momentous (for me, anyway) event in the history of CC, life has imitated art. Five years ago I built a blue R32 Skyline sedan – and blow me down, you seem to have found a real one in the same shade of blue!
I quite like the colour on that Century; it kind of crosses the borderline around the usual ‘nothing to see here’ Century and makes it something of a head-turner, not something you could ever say about a black one.
Nice to see a Sera. It seems odd to see such a special car (even if only for the doors) left in that state.
Never seen that model Avenir before, and I can’t say I felt deprived for not knowing about it. Weird.
Is that the most complete pictorial we’ve ever had on a Motocompo?
As always, lots of other great stuff too. Thanks!
Wow, it’s uncanny how similar your blue R32 was to the one I found! Sames wheels, rear spoiler and everything. It’s not the CC Effect, really — it’s the other way around. What can we call that? A Wilding Event?
Give that man a laurel. (Or, as the Japanese might say upon trying to pronounce it, “Give that man a leafy scarf”, but I am digressing). I have never seen this car before. I recognize the origins, but have never espied a four-door hardtop version, and damned if it’s not handsome. No doubt, as per Jim Klein’s comment above, it drives like a bag of velour steered by a wet prawn and suspended by a pair of elastic knickers – because all Japanese non-exotics from then did – but I’d still take this one for a smooth cruise, tickling the prawn for some directional control, so I could look as cool as it does for a few miles.
I love the full-width rear grill on that rear-engined Hino Contessa!
So much variety, so many great cars, but of course the game is to pick just one to take home. And my choice is the cute-as-a-button Suzuki. Perhaps not the most practical choice, but definitely one that would put a smile on my face every time I walked into the garage.