EVENTS: Old Car Heaven, Part 02

077-R3a-823a_Nissan Caravan E20

While Part 01 of our Old Car Heaven coverage concluded with a mob of rare Mitsubishis, we begin this installment along the perimeter of the show and a bevy of box vans. The Nissan Caravans were part of the Nissan Commercial Car Club, as the event celebrated not just vintage cars, but trucks, buses, and 3-wheelers as well. 

048-R3a-824b_Nissan 240RS049-R3a-824c_Nissan 240RS 049a-R3a-824a_Nissan 240RS

As we transitioned from the NCCC to the Nissan Sports Club we passed what appeared to be passable replica of the works Nissan 240RS parked with an actual 240RS.

015-R3a-825b_Nissan Skyline KPGC110 kenmeri 016-R3a-825c_Nissan Skyline KPGC110 kenmeri 017-R3a-825d_Nissan Skyline KPGC110 kenmeri

The popped hoods of GT-Rs of two generations permitted a gaze at immaculate S20 motors.

052a-R3a-829d_Nissan Silvia CSP311052-R3a-825f1_Nissan Fairlady Z432050-R3a-825e_Nissan FairladyZ S30 Gnose051-R3a-825f2_Nissan Fairlady Z432

Next in line was the S20 Club, staffed with the both the popular Hakosuka GT-R and the equally famed but much rarer Z432 and Kemmeri GT-R, forcing regular and genuine G-nosed Fairladys and first-gen Silvia to fade into the background like Tokyo taxis.

053-R3a-828a_Nissan Cedric 430 wedding car 054-R3a-829a_Totoro

Moving onto the busses and trucks, we were surprised to see both an open roofed wedding car (to allow the bride’s headdress to remain chaste and unmolested) and Totoro-san’s official limousine that both he and Chibi Totori use when they venture from the forest to the big city (to cash their royalty checks we assume).

056-R3a-830a_bus 057-R3a-831a_bus

A period bus was used to ferry show patrons from the local train station to the car parking area. Its slow lumbering four wheel drive system a hang-over from its days plying country routes in the snow.

059-R3a-833a_Porsche 935 & Ferrari F40 060-R3a-834b_Lotus Europa 058-R3a-832a_parts

After a brief walk through the moderately priced spare parts and T-shirts (including pirated JNC goods), we breezed past a Porsche 934, a Ferrari F40, and various other Euro exotica. Pausing only briefly to enjoy the ground scraping antics of a shakotan Lotus club as they jockeyed for parking with a Le Mans Porsche 914/6 replica.

062-R3a-834d_Pontiac GTO Judge063-R3a-834e_KITT Initial D tofu delivery

Reminiscing with the owner of a 7.0-liter Pontiac Judge GTO — complete with original build list — about high speed runs on the open highways of North America, we both enjoyed the mash-up of pop-culture with KITT as the Initial D tofu delivery service car, complete with Takumi Fujiwara’s fake Japanese license plate sequence.

064-R3a-835b_Toyota MarkII X30 Grande HT068-R3a-837a_Toyota MarkII X30 Grande HT 065-R3a-835c_Toyota MarkII X30 Grande HT 067-R3a-836a_Toyota MarkII X30 Grande HT066-R3a-835a_Toyota MarkII X30 Grande HT

Foreign cars gave way though to a new range of domestics and a prime example of late 1970s excess – the crushed velour lined Toyota Mark II Grande coupe.

069-R3a-838a_Honda City Cabriolet 070-R3a-839a_Honda City Cabriolet

Carrying over into the 1980s, a Honda City Cabriolet — suitably equipped with what we assumed was a period Pepsi can — reminded us of the stylish and extent of the old days when Honda made interesting and fun cars.

071-R3a-839b_Subaru ff1

Stuck in no man’s land, as always, were the Subaru. Here a cluster of FF-1s.

104-R3a-853a_Toyota Crown S80 wagon

A Crown wagon evoking grand tours across the the outer prefectures shone beautifully in a bright metallic blue.

072-R3a-842a_Toyota Corona T40 wagon073-R3a-843a_Isuzu Piazza Giugiaro edition

A Corona wagon led us to a collection of Isuzu Piazza, the Giugiaro edition in yellow looking very tasty (I think that was what it was anyway, perhaps an Isuzu otaku can confirm).

076-R3a-812a_Nissan Skyline hakosuka 4door C10 PGC10074-R3a-844a_Nissan Sunny B10079-R3a-825a_Nissan Skyline hakosuka C10 080-R3a-825g_Nissan Skyline hakosuka 4door C10 & Fairlady Roadster 081-R3a-852a_Nissan Cedric 430 wagon 082-R3a-853b_Nissan Silvia S110083-R3a-858a_Nissan Gloria 330075-R3a-848a_Nissan Skyline R30 Seibu Keisatsu 084-R3a-858b_Nissan Cedric 130 police

More Sunny, Silvia, a Tsukuba-registered Seibu Keisatsu DR30 Skyline replica, and an ever increasing variety of old Nissan seemed to stretch on forever! Even as we watched, yet more were unloaded, including a Cedric 130 police car.

085-R3a-886a_Honda Civic 1g 086-R3a-886b_Honda Z

A CVCC and an RS Civic, and a Life GS made nearly the entire Honda collection of cars present on the day. Not a single S-series was present, though there was a twin-cam equipped T800 truck.

087-R3a-887a_Daihatsu Midget & Mazda T1500 088-R3a-887b_Hope Star & Daihatsu Midget MP

Next though in our walk-around of the Daiba site were a series of three wheeled trucks. As well as the common-ish Daihatsu Midget — in both first-gen and MP-Series guises, a Mazda T1500, and an ultra-rare HopeStar SY were present.

090-R3a-892a2_Toyota 2000GT 091-R3a-894a_Toyota 2000GT089-R3a-892a1_Toyota 2000GT

From the utilitarian to the exotic, we move from the 3-wheelers to the Toyota 2000GT. Approaching a Shelby replica parked next to the Toyota forklifts, I asked the driver if this was where the Toyota Club was parking, and he politely laughed at my feeble joke. The pairing of the SCCA livery white MF10 and the gold MF12 was appreciated, as I always enjoy their svelte and unique lines.

092-R3a-894b_Toyota Celica A20

Nearby, an aircraft gauge equipped Celica made for an interesting interior, giving a new meaning to the term “full instrumentation”. We did wonder though if his EGT gauge was active and properly calibrated. This being Japan; quite possibly so.

093-R3a-897a_Nissan Sunny B210 GX 094-R3a-895a_Mazda Cosmo Sport

Leaving the 2015 Old Car Heaven coverage, we passed an unregistered Nissan Sunny GX, and a Cosmo Sports trying to hide under a ghastly vinyl roof.

095-R3a-902a_Prince Skyline S54 096-R3a-903a_Prince Skyline S54101-R3a-902c_Prince Skyline S54

The Prince paddock was now fully populated — with a 4-cylinder Skyline or two, as well as more Skyline GT-A and GT-Bs. While we had of course arrived in a GT-B, and have been lucky enough to pilot one around the Shuto-ko a few times, there’s nothing quite like seeing that triple set of big Weber when you open the hood.

098-R3a-910a_Prince Gloria R3a-912a099-R3a-911a_Prince Gloria102-R3a-914b_Prince Skyline Sport

After a strong collection of  similar six-cylinder equipped Gloria displaying acres of chrome, we spent time at the head of the line looking at two Skyline Sports, including the 1962 Tokyo Motor Show car.

100-R3a-902b_Prince Skyline S54097-R3a-915a_Prince Skyline S54

At a passerby’s request, we were asked to display another triple set of GT-B Weber and a little-known tweak applied by the Prince Skyline racing department for homologation — native Weber velocity stacks, usually hidden by the standard air-filter and housing. The glorious sound of six throats at full song is well known, and this GT-B does not disappoint. Especially in the many tunnels of the Shuto-ko that curiously always seemed to require a quick downshift, and a blip on the throttle for the journey home.

Skorj is co-founder of Filmwasters and you can find more of his work at Cars on Film and here on JNC

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18 Responses to EVENTS: Old Car Heaven, Part 02

  1. Scotty G says:

    I would have camped out in no man’s land where those sweet Subaru FF-1s were!
    I love the Corona wagon, too, as well as the Sunny FX; and what is that great looking pickup with the roof rack? Dumb question #3,849..

  2. Bart says:

    Man that’s an awesome collection of vehicles!!

  3. Censport says:

    Great coverage Skorj! That looks like my kind of event.

  4. Seiko The Neko says:

    Sheesh, what’s more rare? The Skyline Sports hardtop or convertible? Either way, that’s a beautiful collection of vehicles!

  5. Randy says:

    “. . . the crushed velour lined Toyota Mark II Grande coupe.”

    I’d be pimpin’ around in that!

  6. Alan T says:

    What you thought was the “S20 Club” was actually Club S30. And they don’t cater for anything other than S30-series Zs.

  7. Nakazoto says:

    Excellent photos! I need a Piazza in my life (but don’t tell my wife that yet – always better to ask forgiveness than permission, haha)!

  8. Nigel says:

    Too many cool machines !

    • May I simply say what a relief to find somebody who truly knows what they are talking about on the net. You actually realize how to bring a problem to light and make it important. A lot more people really need to check this out and understand this side of the story. I was surprised that you aren’t more popular since you certainly have the gift.

  9. ray pulis says:

    i wish i was there browsing by the parts im sure there was something for my corona mk11 mx22.and the cars were awsome. cheers raypul

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