As always, a lot of American, British and Italian classics were seen about Tokyo. This edition will also include a lot more Frenchies than usual, as I spent a lot of my time there. But the largest contingent (by a mile) was the German stuff. Let’s start with the Englanders, something suitably aestival… Like an Austin-Healey Sprite.
Mind you, an MG TD would also make for ideal summer transport. Keeping the top up to protect from the sun might be the way to go.
Half a world away, a similar scene. This flawless French-registered MG B was caught in Brittany.
This very well restored early Spitfire was sold new in Japan. Pity about the wheels.
Ah, the GT6… take a Spitfire, add a roof, stick a 2-litre 6-cyl. under the bonnet and sit back and watch as people flock towards the MG dealership instead.
Lots of Morgans populate the informal Sunday meets at the Meiji Jingu avenue, so one cannot look at them all. It gets a wee bit boring, frankly. But an older four-seater? That’s out of the ordinary.
We’re in France again, and it looks like a pair of British tourists are doing some summer motoring in some sort of 1986-94 Ford V6-powered TVR S-series. Can’t narrow it down to a precise model or date, but if you can, please do let the rest of us know!
Not often seen, the Riley Elf. But somehow, I have already found another one out in the open not too long ago, so this one is surplus to requirements.
They’re absolutely Lotus-mad in this country. So one cannot avoid snapping up a few, like this Europa.
I usually prefer my Esprits in fully sharpened ‘80s wedge garb. But this later smoother one was impressively clean.
Whoever thought that the words “Lotus” and “SUV” should be used in the same sentence?
Interesting piece of street art, isn’t it? This is a large parking garage in central Bordeaux. French humour is an acquired taste.
The venerable FX-4 – probably one of the toughest cars Britain ever produced, especially if it has a Nissan Diesel under the hood. Could use a tarp…
Mind you, the Defender is also on the tougher side. The faux wood decals are somewhat unconvincing on this one, but the artfully rusted bumper looks nice.
Found a dusty Humber Sceptre out in the boonies, just north of Mount Fuji.
I wrote one of these up this year, so this one (welcome find though it was) is not really useful for CC purposes. It was, under the dust, in pristine condition.
Considering it was only sold in the UK, we’ll consider this Talbot Express campervan to be a Brit. Plus, it was registered there, clearly. This is the very last vehicle bearing the Talbot brand, from 1982 to 1994. Never thought I’d see one, let alone in southern France.
I’m out of my depth here, but it looks like a late ‘30s Velocette MSS 500. Amazing machine.
Onwards to the German cars, starting with VW. I found this 30ish-year-old B4 Passat wagon in France. Looking quite weathered, to be honest.
Same location, same marque, also quite weathered, but a bit older. DIY bumpers are a nice touch.
Flawless black paint, not a fiber out of line on the fabric top, religiously parked within the lines – yep, we’re definitely back in Tokyo for this Golf Cabriolet.
There were a LOT of rear-engined Transporters about, this summer. Like a swarm.
These were found in Tokyo, but one cannot escape the immortal T3 by just fleeing to Europe.
There you go – and this Swiss example is (Alpine) air-cooled, too.
Big wow! Never seen a campervan that looked like this. Both the colour scheme and the bodywork were eye-popping.
Absolutely picture-perfect Type 3 notchback (a ’66, if that license plate is any clue).
Quite a few mods on this K-G, but check out that engine bay. Yikes, this is cleaner than my kitchen.
Somebody please help me pin down the model year for this Beetle…
Because if this one is a ’67 (as is clearly claimed), then I’m really confused about the other one.
There are too many Porsche 356s and 911s to keep track. Have we seen this resplendent red coupé before? Maybe. Would it hurt to see it again? Hope not.
This one I’m sure has been on CC before, but only the front end. These cars almost look better without bumpers.
Can’t remember if this one has made it to the Singles Collection before, so might as well put it in this post. That blue really pops.
As stated earlier, there are many 911s around, too. Orange ones? That’s more of a niche thing.
The Porsche of the summer, as far as I’m concerned, was this 911T.
Not sure what you’d call this colour, sort of between a dark blue and a forest green – just superb. And the car, both inside and out, looks like it came out of Stuttgart last week.
Someone gave this 914/6 a bunch of vitamins and a few steroids as well. It made for a rather noisy result, I can tell you.
A Porsche 944 so red hot it caught my eye. And I don’t really care for 944s.
Not many BMWs to report, but this apparently original mid-‘80s M5 was worth a quick investigation.
I would contend that the 3rd gen 7 Series, a.k.a the 1994-2001 BMW E38, was the last big Bimmer that looked really good.
I’m sure the Mercedes W140 was a better car in most respects, but looks-wise, this Bavarian beauty could really turn heads.
Can’t get tired of the E9 coupé. Chin spoilers are not a good idea at the best of times, but on such a beautiful machine, it’s borderline criminal.
Plenty of action on the Benz front. The three-pointed-star of the season has to be the W124 cabriolet.
Still encountering 500 Es, on occasion. I’d like to find one dressed in a different colour than the dark grey they all seem to wear, but no joy so far.
I was puzzled by this fine 560 SEL’s lack of registration. Are they throwing it away? I should have left a note on the windshield…
I see what you did there with that license plate.
Not that many Diesel-powered W123s in this part of the globe. This one was absolutely stunning.
That’s a clean lean green machine, if you know what I mean. Best Benz wagon I’ve ever seen.
Far from perfect, this W114, but clean enough. And an unexpected find in a French village.
Aw man, how in the world did you manage to tear the gear lever’s boot like that?
Whoever owns this beautiful Pagoda likes to take long road trips with it. It’s registered in the département of Cher, slap bang in the middle of France, and I found it in Savoy, 400km away.
That’s a go-go go-go kind of license plate right there! (the number 5 is pronounced “go” in Japanese)…
Last car of the post… Quite the enigma, isn’t it? No, I did not take the tarp off. I really wanted to, though. Because I took a closer look at that hubcap…
That’s the first DKW I’ve found in the wild here. It’s probably an F93 Cabriolet. Here’s hoping we get to see the rest of it someday!
Same time tomorrow for the final part of this edition of the T87 Singles Collection. TTFN!
The VW that you were unsure of the year is a 72. At least in the US the engine hood has vents all the way across. I had a 71 beige super beetle.
The vent behind the rear side window was the giveaway for me. It looks to have been backdated with earlier fenders, lights and bumpers.
This collection tasted even better than my lunch (which was, semi-appropriately, sushi).
I love all the rear engined aircooled cars here, but I’ll take the blue 356 please. That 914 looks pretty butch – the 916 arches turn these from wimpy to tough. E9, Pagodas and 500E – yum, yum!
I’d like to give the sprite a hug and hear the Triumph straight six in the GT6 to bring back memories of my many Vitesses.
Thank you Tatra, for this wonderful selection!
I saw a Bugeye Sprite in traffic yesterday and had a brief red light chat with the owner. Lovely things. His had the optional wire wheels.
That red Spitfire with the Minilite style wheel does not really work. Probably because it mixes eras as those wheels look smart on a later one.
That Humber Sceptre looks fantastic. An owner who has aged out of driving perhaps?
It’s unusual to see 2 air-cooled rear-engined cheap cars, let alone VWs, with added AC. Both look great and the installations seem neat.
Does anybody know when MB reversed the automatic gearshift positions and why? I’ve never understood that, the gate looks exactly the same and very similar as to what it looked decades after, until the factory began to line the lever in leather and you could no longer see it, which happened probably upon the demise of the w210 in 2002, so perhaps 30 years.
On the early MB automatics, the shift quadrant was “normal” when there was a column shifter, with Park all the way left. But just like with the early Corvette, the early MB floor shifter was reversed, with Park all the way back. This was because the shifter was just simply an extension of the control rod that came out of the side of the transmission, and that was how the gears were arranged. But also like the Corvette, MB created a new floor shifter that reversed the pattern, to meet the increasingly standardized expectations to have Park be all the way forward.
Northern Ireland plate on the Talbot Express.
Quite the collection. The VW Type 3 notch back is exceptionally clean, as one might expect in Japanese hands.
As to the torn shift boot on the W114, that is not uncommon after decades of natural aging of the rubber, which makes it stiff and brittle. It happened to the Hurst shifter in my ’66 F100, after several decades. I replaced it and it tore within a year; obviously the new rubber compound they are using is garbage.
Mmmm, nice selection. Saw several of those Lotus Eletre SUVs in London last year; very eye catching. I guess if Porsche can offer several SUVs then it’s not too farfetched for Lotus to do so too – although the Eletre’s electric-only propulsion puts me off. That and the 2,600kg kerb weight – Lotus seems to have forgotten about Colin Chapman’s famous quote “Simplfy, then add more lightness”…
I’m love Humber Sceptres – even if they mount an excellent argument on how to be stodgy yet glorious at the same time!
The red T2 Kombi is seriously strange – the large square growth on the left side makes me wonder if it’s a mobile food van perhaps?
Looking at the interior shot of the W114 reminded me how clean, simple and airy interiors used to be – and not at the expense of a little style either.
VW Beetle is a mixture of models but they werent the same all over the world anyway but the main shell looks later than the lights, nice collection.
As a dyed in the wool BMW enthusiast the E9 of course caught my eye, and was probably the best drivers car for that era of those pictured. But it was that brown MB 280SL that had me grabbing for a napkin to catch drool. A gorgeous car and with all three pedals. Oh, if only…
Great collection overall though!
I do like the Sceptre, they werent sold in NZ as part of Rootes regular range but of course you could get one with difficulty and extra expense, they had the best dashboard of the Superminx series. they were designed to replace the Audax body Sunbeam Rapier, but that carried on until the Arrow range came along.