That's My Car

THE ASIAN CLASSICS

I wish I had been at the annual “Toyotafest” held in the shadow of the Queen Mary. Every kind of model that Toyota produced since the 1960s was on hand -- Toyota Crowns, Land Cruisers, Celicas, MR2s, Supras, you name it. Toyota is unique in that it produced versions of almost all automotive categories, from sports cars and compacts to luxury vehicles.

Stuart Resor of San Diego was there proudly displaying his 1967 Toyota Corona, still going strong at 400,000 miles on the original drive train. He bought it from a man who was going to donate it to a local high school to tear apart in auto shop classes. “I offered him $150, and he accepted $125,” he recalls. Now he owns ten Toyotas. What’s so special about them? “Their uniqueness lies in their quality. That and the fact that the company has kept its distribution network going. You can still get parts for a ’67 Toyota.”

I used to own a Toyota S800 sports car that I drove around Japan in the late 1960s. It was a snarling little red two-seater that, in truth, had a lot more bark than bite. (Not that you needed a lot of power under the hood to get around Japan during that time.) I tooled around the countryside on my honeymoon. When I left Japan I gave it to my brother-in-law. Aiiiyaaa. How was I supposed to know it would become a classic?

Back in the 1960s, it took considerable imagination – not to say a copious amount of sheer faith – to believe that any Japanese or Asian automobile had the potential to become a classic. Even now some find the notion hard to accept. “The Asian classic car? It’s a stretch I must say,” says Dave Brownell, one of America’s leading authorities on collectable cars.

Nevertheless, enthusiasts on both sides of the Pacific are beginning to rediscover the pleasures of owning a car made in the 1960s and 1970s. It was a time when Japanese automobiles were first beginning to show up in large numbers in foreign showrooms. It was also a time when Japanese cars began to display the styling and performance characteristics that would soon make them into world leaders they are today.

In a small way even my own Toyota S800 was something of a pacesetter. It featured a removable roof panel, beating Porsche to the idea by about a year. If it been powered by more than its 790 cc engine, the sporty little car might have made a bigger impact outside of Japan as an alternative to, say, the Spitfire. In fact, only about 3,000 were ever made.

Of course, there are purists, who will insist that the term “classic car” hardly applies to Japanese or any other Asian makes. Strictly speaking, in the U.S. the term refers to cars made between 1925 and 1948, such as Packards, Dusenbergs and Austin 7s. Post-war cars considered to be of “near” or “almost” classic status include such legends as the Ford Mustang, the MGB, the Triumph, and, of course, the ubiquitous Volkswagen Beetle.

“It’s time the Toyota joined the ranks of the collectables,” said Resor, who founded the Toyota Owners and Restorers Club with this idea in mind ten years ago. He notes that while Japanese cars may not seem ancient in comparison with, say a 1926 Bugati, they have the basic attributes of collectability -- rarity and value. “It doesn’t have to be as old as your grandfather for you to love it.”

The Japanese Classics

1964-69 Toyota S800
1965-70 Datsun Fairlady
1965-70 Honda S800
1965-70 Toyota 2000GT
1969-75 Datsun 240Z
l971-75 Toyota Crown Coupe
1970-77 Toyota Celica Twin-cam
1970-74 Honda Z600
1971-80 Suzuki Whizzkid
1968-72 Nissan Skyline GT-R


For example, take the Toyota 2000GT (1965-1970). Only 337 copies of this elegant sports coupe were built, and only 11 Americans ever bought one. Three were exported to the United Kingdom – two to be used in the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice and the third one bought by Twiggy. Today collectors jostle to buy these cars, despite a price tag over $100,000.

Even Dave Brownell concedes that the Toyota 2000GT has a certain amount of, well, class. “It’s very collectable. I wish I had one.”

Of course, Toyotas are not the only vintage cars made in Japan. There are plenty of Nissan enthusiasts, and dealers are buying up and restoring as many of the original Datsun 240Z sports models as they can lay their hands on. And since more than 150,000 of the models were made, they are many more available than some of the other sports cars.

American dealers are hoping that that sales of reconditioned “Z classics” and “Z-vintages” will help boost the sports car market, which Nissan abandoned a few years back with the last of the famous series, the 300ZX. The Z was the first Japanese sports car to compete on equal terms with European models and helped Nissan break into the US market.

Are any other Asian cars destined to become classics? India makes the Ambassador, modeled externally on the British Morris Oxford. The original dies are used, in effect providing the buyer with a 1950s-looking car with more modern technology. As for Korean models, Brownell says he has never seen cars that get old so fast.

I’m not sure one can write such cars off so glibly. After all, who can say there isn’t at this moment some young person settling behind the wheel of his or her first Hyundai or Proton Saga or Chinese make who might not in the middle of life experience an epiphany similar to mine. It may be a spruced-up model at an automobile show, a picture in a magazine or even the sight of a rotting old hulk in a junkyard that stirs him to whisper, “that’s my car.”

This post first appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal