Car Park Scout #5

Continuing on from the last installment we have a lot more auction finds… and one or two oddities.

This first group of photos were taken at various used car auctions around Osaka and Kobe:

Very wide 993 Porsche with 12″x18″ (and what looked like minus offset) alloy wheels on the rear.

Nice old Fairlady Z which had an auction start price of 200,000 yen… it was in fair condition so I wasn’t sure if it could command such a high price.

Lots of carbon, Ikeya Formula shifter, roll cage and other circuit modifications… crashed and repaired obviously! Still, you don’t see that many cars with this level of modification at auction.

Ok it’s an ECR33 Skyline, but ‘Subaru Pleo’? One of the more weird badge placements.

I’m not even going to mention the starting price for this… ok it was 450,000 yen. About 250,000 yen too much. But it’s black and white with Watanabe wheels so…

Another fine S30 Fairlady Z. Looked worlds apart sitting next to one of Nissan’s current offerings:

A Nissan March, badged as a Micra with ’317′ on the back… not sure what model that is (if it is a legitimate model) but the massive Impul wing is genuine.

Don’t let the cars fool you, all of these are crashed and repaired with high kilometers and have been passed in by the seller week after week.

Nice car, pity about the condition.

Same goes with this one.

This early FD3S actually looked good on paper (bar the repairs) but on closer inspection was very worn as you would expect from a car with such modifications. Worth no more than $5,000.

Very nice, you don’t see many of them around.

The ultimate Suzuki Cappuccino? It was locked so I couldn’t get a photo of the engine bay.

This particular body kit does wonders for the Copen.

Yes they do exist! Grade 4.5 BNR32 GT-R. Worth about as much as an R33 GT-R this one…

You can learn alot sitting in traffic in Japan:

“It usually inhabits in the mountain but sometimes goes down to country side for food before and after hibernation. When you make a sound such as a bell, it runs away. Unless you don’t run into it, it will do no harm to you.”

Isuzu Mu: Monster Truck version. (*Step ladder not included)

This was somewhat of a rare find, to the point of being an automotive oddity in Japan (not sure about anywhere else), a 1972 Mazda Chantez with tiny old 10×5″ Enkei alloy wheels. I’m not sure which is more interesting, the car or the alloys. No matter how many times I tried, the phone camera just couldn’t focus properly in the low light.

Brand new Subaru Impreza S-GT.

A proper USDM imported Lexus GS in left hand drive.

Finally to finish off here is the view looking out from the 6th floor of the USS Kobe auction building, looking out at the ship building yards where two ‘Evergreen’ cargo ships are being constructed. I’ve been told these two aren’t that big…

Text: Justin Karow

Photos: Justin Karow