Our friend Ralph Constantino has a terrific collection of classic Japanese cars: a TE27 Sprinter, a couple of AE86s, and MR2 and some pre-Evo Mitsubishi Lancers. Basically, all the cars that many Filipinos grew up with back in the home country. He prides himself on keeping his car true to their original spec or with only period-correct mods. We actually photographed his fleet, but before we could share them with you the camera and laptop, along with the photos, were stolen. Luckily, Ralph’s story can still be heard thanks to filmmaker Landin Williams. Watch the video, appropriately titled “Japanese Nostalgia,” below
Great link Ben! You, Ralph and Landin just made my morning!
I agree – my day just got better by watching this video.
small, small world. I worked with Ralph back in the day to get him parts for these cars in his fleet. This was before I moved to Japan and to this day, he is the only person I trusted to give my wiring diagram for a digital gauge cluster. Ralph is as humble in real life as in the video. I wish him the best of luck with his collection.
That just made my day too. It looks like he lives in the area of Seattle that I grew up in. Brings back memories of the 70’s & 80’s for me too just seeing that. Very cool
Very cool clip. That’s what it is all about!!
i met ralph a while back through another friend on the forums. i found out ralph was selling some ae86 parts on c4ag (at the time i didn’t recognize him by his sn) but since he was local, i asked if i could just come pick up the parts instead of shipping. i had the privilege to visit the garage in the video in person and let me tell you, this is your dream garage. when i pulled up to his driveway, at first i thought, man, your neighbor is super close to your house…wait a second! that’s no moon! that’s a space station…oops, i meant house and garage respectively. he opened it up and showed me around. i swear to god, i could have spent all day there even AFTER i paid him for the parts! hahaha. it’s like time stops when you’re talking about nostalgics and he had so many little things that would catch your attention. it appears his collection has gotten even bigger since. now i’ll never catch up! haha.
-ivan
I KNOW RALPH! He has an amazing and awesome car collection.
Will this be part of a longer film? the guy has some fantastic cars, it’d be great to continue this and look over them all properly, talk about sourcing the rare period parts etc.
So jealous!! Wish I had a collection like that!
Inspirational.
Maybe we’d all be better off if we’d come from as-humble beginnings – he’s obviously done alright for himself, and has remained grounded, as he’s not into “this car will be worth $100K in a year;” they’re the ones he LIKES. A GENUINE appreciation.
I seriously could not drive them just “once or twice a year,” though.
Totally agree! That’s one of the bonuses I love about JNCs. For the most part these are cars we JNCers love and maybe have personal connections to, not because they’d appraise for ludicrous concours-like sums. That’s not to say they aren’t historically important. They are, and it’s slowly becoming more and more recognized among the general public here in the US.
Around my area, in the past 5 years, I’ve seen exactly ONE ’70-something Civic (light blue metallic; looked mint), one Chevy Sprint (gold; decent), one Sapporo (black; very nice), and one guy had a Brat (red, IIRC), but I think he moved. That’s IT. No Stanzas, no Sube DL/GLs, and the only Coronas around here are in bottles.
Oh my boxtype, could totally relate to Ralph. can’t wait to drive my “Filipino dream car”
So, what IS your “Filipino dream car?”
1979-1987 Lancer GSR “boxtype” as they called it. Already in the works just trying to find a mikuni or weber side draft for it then body and paint work.
Ahhhhh — just looked it up (thanks for the year breakdown!). Looks like it would be a great sleeper.
I don’t think they sold them in the States. If they did, I honestly don’t remember them.
Loved everything about this story… Cant wait to drive my Sprinter
Ben, thanks for sharing this touching video! I too are very passionate about my old school J-tins, particularly the Toyota TE27. I have had the privilege of owning over 25 of these cars in the past 30 years. The 2 Levin’s and 2 Trueno Sprinters in my current stable will stay with me till I can no longer drive.
What you see other people drive when you were growing up definitely influences what you desire when you grow up . I’m glad I was able to own my dream cars. Thanks again for posting.
Big Mike Muniz