The Toyota Automobile Museum – Part 2: Classics And Streamliners (1925-1945)

OK, now we’re really getting this tour of the Toyota Museum into high gear! The spindly horseless carriages and baroque brass era cars are nice, but a bit too alien and lacking in styling. This is when the automotive world reached peak creativity. It’s also when the Japanese started manufacturing cars, so we’re going to see a few of those from now on, too.

This is a 1927 Pierce-Arrow Series 36 with what they called an “enclosed drive limousine” factory body. The Series 30-36 was basically the flagship Pierce chassis from 1920 to 1928, featuring the 100hp “Dual-valve Six” engine – a huge 6.8 litre motor with two of everything: twin spark plugs, coils, points and 24 valves. American luxury, ‘20s style.

Alongside the likes of Rolls-Royce, Maybach and Isotta Fraschini, the highest reaches of European luxury could be attained by Hispano-Suiza. These were made in both Spain and France, though the latter became the more important car chassis production centre by the early ‘20s.

This is a 1928 H6B – the chassis that made Hispano’s reputation, pioneering servo-assisted braking on all four wheels and featuring an all-alloy 6.6 litre OHC straight-6 good for 135hp – a lot of car for the time. The body and its extravagant crocodile interior was executed by carrosserie Snutsel of Brussels.

Ah, the familiar and humble Model A. But what’s with the RHD? It’s actually the way it was made back in 1929, for this is a Japanese-built Ford. The American company had started assembling Model Ts in Yokohama in 1925, switching over to the Model A in 1927. These became the most common taxi in Tokyo in the ‘30s.

Great Gatsby’s garters, what a Duesie! No car collection worth its salt should be without a Duesenberg, an icon of the age and probably the fastest luxury car of the period. Le Baron’s dual cowl phaeton coachwork on this 1929 Model J is absolutely perfect, though the colour scheme is just beyond caricature.

The stats speak for themselves: DOHC straight-8, 6882cc, 265hp, top speed 115mph – nothing could top that in 1929. But the arms race was just getting started, even as the bottom was falling out of the economy…

And there we go, shots fired. In 1930, GM brought out the big guns in the shape of an even bigger Cadillac with a double straight-8 – also knows as a V16. Sure, it was nowhere near the Duesenberg power-wise (165hp) or in terms of sophistication, though it did at least have overhead valves, but it was a 7.4 litre V16.

I’m again not too enamoured with the colour scheme here, but the styling on this 1931 Fleetwood limo is as classic as a classic can be.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, GM were busy making Chevies at their assembly plant in Osaka…

… While in Yokohama, Datsun started the ball rolling with this little 722cc machine, the Model 11. Heavily inspired by the Austin Seven, but not enough to warrant the Royal Navy’s involvement.

Back to Chevy with a 1932 Confederate. Curious name aside, GM did strive to make their cheaper car look like a small Cadillac. And succeeded.

Here come ol’ flat-top! The 1934 Ford Model 40 is such an attractive design, isn’t it? The early years of streamlining were quite hit and miss, but this was a definite beauty. And with a V8, to boot.

See, the GM designers weren’t as successful in this endeavour. This is the Ford’s immediate rival, the 1934 Chevrolet Master. Not ugly per se, but it just cannot compete with the Model 40’s flowing lines. The Dubonnet front suspension was more sophisticated than Ford’s beam axle. Perhaps too sophisticated…

The second Hispano-Suiza in the collection is this fascinating 1935 coupé on a K6 chassis (5.2 litre 6-cyl.). This was the marque’s smaller model — the other was the J12, which had a 12-cyl. displacing a mere 9424cc. Production ran until 1938 in France for both chassis.

What makes this one even more special is the fact that it was imported as a chassis in Japan back in 1935 and bodied locally. The owner, a Japanese nobleman, apparently designed it himself. Not bad for an amateur effort – professional designers and coachbuilders sometimes did far worse.

Take this 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K, for instance. An outstanding chassis, with independent suspension all round and a supercharged 5-litre OHV straight-8 good for 160hp. And the front end design is flawless. But what the hell happened to that car’s rump? This unbalanced “Cabriolet C” design ruins the profile completely, yet it was carried over to the 540K with very few changes. Fortunately, there were other (and much better) cabriolet styles available, both from Sindelfingen and elsewhere.

The first Toyota (make that “Toyoda,” as they only changed the company name a year later), ladies and gentlemen. Well, it’s a replica, as none of the original 1400-unit run of AAs, made between 1936 and 1943, survived in Japan. The remains of one have been found in Siberia a few years ago.

The body and chassis were deeply influenced by the Chrysler Airflow, but the front end treatment is no improvement on the model. The 3.4 litre 6-cyl. engine was a straight-up copy of the contemporary Chevrolet unit, even employing some GM-sourced parts.

We’ve not encountered any Italian beauties yet in this vast collection, but here’s where they make their appearance, in the adorable shape of a 1936 Fiat 500 Topolino. But it gets better. Much, much better.

The title pic for this post is this drop-dead bellissima 1936 Lancia Astura cabriolet by Pininfarina. Everything about this car is sublime – the wheel covers, the blue paintwork, the delicate front bumper, the 3-litre V8, the ashtrays in the seatbacks…

Much as I was critical of the GM designs of 1934, I must admit they improved very quickly. Still not quite as sexy as what Ford were doing, but a close second with this ’37 Olds. According to the museum, this 3.8 litre 6-cyl. model was exported CKD and assembled at the GM plant in Osaka.

The Osaka Hatsudoki Seizo Co. (i.e. “Osaka motor manufacturer” – the “O” letter is named “dai” in the katakana alphabet) was founded in 1907, but only started making three-wheelers like this in the early ‘30s. This 1937 Daihatsu has a 7hp 667cc four-stroke 1-cyl. engine entirely designed and produced in-house.

On the other end of the spectrum (and of the world, pretty much), we have this Rolls-Royce Phantom III with a fine Freestone & Webb saloon body. Even R-R had to get in on the multicylinder race: this has a 7.3 litre V12. It was the last model of the marque supervised by Henry Royce himself.

The museum claims this very nice Citroën 11B Traction Avant is a 1937 car, but those wheels would make it a ’38 at the earliest. First front-driver of the visit.

Few pre-war cars were legends in their own time. The Bugatti 57, made between 1934 and 1939, was such a car – especially when clad in one of their more exceptional factory bodies, the Atalante. This 57C is allegedly a 1938 example, so its rear wheel should not be covered with spats.

Behind that distinctive horseshoe-shaped radiator lies a jewel of ‘30s technology: a 3257cc DOHC straight-8 fitted with a Roots supercharger, good for 160hp. But you could fork out a few more fistfuls of francs to get the 57S (175hp) or even the 57SC (200hp).

From one legend to another, eh? The museum claims (and I have no reason to doubt them) that this is a 1942 KdF-Wagen. They didn’t make very many of these pre-VW Beetles during the war – they were busier with military derivatives, like the Kübelwagen. This one was apparently made for use by the Deutsches Arbeitsfront, i.e. the organization in charge of manufacturing the Beetle, essentially.

Speaking of military vehicles… This Jeep came out of the Ford factory in 1943. Things were about to change in Japan, among other places.

We’ll close this post with a KC truck, made in 1945 by Toyota not too far from where it sits now. The engine is the same as used in the AA saloon (i.e. a reverse-engineered Chevy six), but most of the body here is timber, due to drastic steel shortages.

There are too many wonderful cars in this part of the museum to pick a clear winner for T87’s fantasy garage – plus quite a few that will only get their day on CC in due course, such as that Cord convertible you might have glimpsed behind the Beetle. Might have to go for that Bugatti, if pushed into choosing just one. Anything you’d fancy?

See you tomorrow for part 3 – the fantastic ‘50s.