Vintage Japanese Cars Starting to Get Respect

Its nice to finally see some interesting early Japanese imports start to get some respect among car hobbyists. I did shoot this neat Toyota Starlet last year, and now 3 more.

My buddy Rob used to own one of these and I know from experience they are loud, crude and worse at truck stuff then the Volkswagen Rabbit Pick Up I had at the time.

They rotary has no torque, and the truck is actually heavy for a mini truck of this era. Rob’s had some sort of nearly open exhaust the previous owner had installed, including a USED turbo muffler. Who buys a used muffler? On top of the the exhaust terminated right in front of the rear Gabriel Hi-jacker air shock, rendering it useless in about 10 miles. They are rare, if I recall less than 10,000 were ever made. There were 2 very nice ones at the Pomona Swap Meet, both for sale.

I failed to note exactly what this car was, a Toyota I think. I’m really digging this as a kind of back in the day Japanese surfer by day, street race by night look.

Now this thing is sweet. Back in the day look and accessories, lowered with more modern sized tires, but not something stupid like 18″. I look for ward to seeing more of these in the future.