Jimny cricket! Look at this gaggle of off-roaders! This quick selection represents just a few of the sweet Jimnys for sale in Japan this week, and to be honest there were about 400 different ones to choose from. I picked some of my favourites…
Dedicated to my friends (and Samurai enthusiasts) @JeffreyNRoss, @SpeedSportLife, @auto123, @Matt_St_Pierre!
I love this truck. Not so much for the truck itself, but for the decals. Maybe it was used to haul cassette tapes across the factory floor, or was a production vehicle during filming of this old ad.
Old vehicles are so much better with a story, and this one probably has a Side A and Side B.
Now this, friends, is a van. It’s the best-looking forward control van (in my opinion), and finding one in this condition took me forever. What’s cooler than beige and brown paint that match the beach chairs my parents used to own?
A small windows in the front passenger door, folks. Now that’s sexy.
I like the Nissan Cedric’s front and rear ends. There, I said it.
Remember when Japan made fast cars? This is a sampling from 1995 or thereabouts (the GT-R V-Spec is from a year or so earlier), and shows that every single large Japanese automaker had a seriously fast car on offer.
Want a stripped out rally special? There were two. Want a world-beating circuit racer? Buy an NSX Type-R or GT-R. Prefer to cruise at high speed? Get a GTO or Fairlady.
Maybe these cars are legends because we look back on them with rose-tinted glasses. Maybe they all sucked. Right. Bullshit.
Something was in the water back then. But in retrospect it feels like an entire country was trying to punch above their weight, to show the world that they had arrived.
Mark my words: Korea is next. Too bad they only have two large automakers.
Three-wheeled trucks are wonderful. Trucks called “Midget” are better. Ones with a gated manual shifter are better still. I can imagine the old Daihatsu Midget was a hoot to drive at slow speeds, mostly because it already looks like a turtle and because onlookers instinctively know how precarious three wheels on a truck is.
“Oh my god, is he going to tip?!”
“I deliver tofu,” is really all I have to say about this one, right? Right?!
Who wants to be buried after a slow ride in a boring old hearse? In many parts of Asia, the funeral car is a wildly decorated machine, complete with intricate carvings, plenty of gold leaf, and a handful of fire-breathing dragons.
If I wasn’t worried about it fitting into a parking garage, I’d probably get one.
This 1975 Isuzu Florian is a vehicle I had no idea existed. After some not-that-exhaustive research, it turns out the Florian shares its platform with the ever-pretty 117 Coupe. It was also named after a “fictional Lipizzan white horse,” or so says Wikipedia.
The one above has some rust, but the interior is a time warp. Nice.
HOLY SHIT!! An AMG Mitsubishi! I knew the Debonair V Royal AMG existed, I just figured it was too much of a unicorn to actually appear in the auction listings—and with a good set of photos to boot.
This is an example of the much more attractive Debonair with black paint—you can tell it’s an AMG from the badge above the rear wheel arch, as well as the AMG-branded steering wheel.
If you’d like to read more about why this AMG-tuned Mitsubishi is amazing, 7tune has a great writeup. I’ve been looking for the more common AMG Mitsubishi Galant, and will let you know when I find one…
Reserve on this time capsule? 0. Nadda. Nothing. Almost makes me want to book a flight…
