I really would love to see a Hakosuka "in the flesh". Please Alan, let us know next time yours (or your Fairlady 240ZG for that matter!) gets an airing at a show as I would certainly be interested in having a look.
Hi Richie,
Don't have any fixed plans for this year just yet. The KPGC10 is a bit difficult as it was rebuilt as a dedicated track day / historic race car, and needs to be trailered around. At this point I don't feel very motivated to road-legalise it ( although that would not be difficult ) as that would water it down somewhat and it is great fun as it is. It has a
very antisocial works-style side exit exhaust with no silencing, and whilst this has been fun for two or three special events without noise regs, it would not pass a noise test
anywhere and I'd need to put the full custom twin pipe stainless system back on it - which is a shame. It's nice to demonstrate it at 'full noise'......
If it gets invited anywhere I'll let you know. It's a little pointless just seeing it on static display, as you need to see and hear it running to get a full impression of what they were about.
richiep said:
I've been following that JNC thread from quite early on - most insightful to get a detailed English language look at such a car. Interesting also to see the observations on some Japanese restorations - would you agree with his views Alan that a proportion are a little bit too skin deep, even on some exhibited as well known show cars? (although that thorough shell restoration in some of his photos is superb). I noticed in another thread on there that someone (edit: the same guy!) made similar observations about certain vehicles from big name tuner garages at the Tokyo Nostalgic Car Show (Rocky Auto to be precise).
Can I both agree and disagree at the same time?
Thing is, people who buy these old cars from Japan will always have that mindset of looking at the lower or mid-sector of price range ( for obvious reasons ). I do the same thing myself - so I'm not immune. The problem is that such cars - often being sold by dealers - are not going to be the cream of the crop or anything like it. They will often have been owned by young men with more enthusiasm than money, who - when they do have money to spend - would rather spend it on dress-up items like wheels, and go-faster equipment than on the basic running gear and structure of the car. If they have a paint job it will often be just a mask-up and blow-over. That's good enough for them, and it looks good from 10 metres away and in pictures. However, they are not the ideal cars to buy for export.....
But there
are many many absolutely
stunning old cars in Japan. Some of the restoration shops there are absolute masters at their art ( jaw-droppingly so, in my personal experience ) but their customers are most often well-to-do middle agers or particularly wealthy younger men with a very specific idea of what they want. The cars that come out of such restorations are not sold at the kinds of prices that people like 'us' can afford, and in fact they are very unlikely to be offered for sale at the kind of dealers that this thread highlights. Very often they will change hands without being advertised.
It's common that a car bought at mid to lower level prices will be considered a 'project' for the new owner and his chosen garage to collaborate on. Some of the dealers expect their customers to buy the car and then embark on a course of refurbishment and improvement with them, and to 'personalise' the car to their taste - and this will include re-testing the car and all the formalities of re-plating it etc etc. When the cars are sold for export it bypasses this stage and they are effectively sold-as-seen, so a buyer should
expect the car to need work. It seems that hopes and expectations don't always match up. If I always sound sceptical and doom-laden about cars like the ones in this thread it's only because I'd rather not encourage false hopes and unrealistic expectations. I think the natural mindset with an emotive purchase like this is to kid yourself that the car will be as good as you hope, or even better. I don't think that's realistic.
Cars like those that Rocky Auto sell ( and not even all of
them ) were often chosen for RB and SR transplants because they were not economocally viable resto projects in the first place. These days its actually cheaper to modify a ratty car than it is to do a full-on standard restoration or a period-sympathetic resto-mod. You don't need to buy all that expensive bright trim and soft furnishing if you are going for bare floors and racing buckets. So such modified cars are something of a law unto themselves anyway.
My feeling is that you have to be realistic, but also to view each car on a case-by-case basis. Each car will have a different tale to tell, and in my opinion some of the
best stuff to buy is from personal sellers rather than dealers. The problem with that is that Japan is a fairly big territory to cover in person and transporting the car inside Japan can cost quite a lot, let alone the difficulties in dealing person-to-person for a private export sale. The average Joe in Japan would be very unlikely to help you with this, and the paperwork and hassle might well put him off the iwhole dea of selling to you. Employ a middle man to do some of this for you and it is more cost on top of the car, and most middle men in the Kanto or Kansai regions will be unlikely to jump on a plane to Kyushu or Hokkaido to view a car in person for you. They will more than likely simply trawl the 'usual suspect' dealers just like everyone else.
Now's really
not the time to be buying, but if anyone was
really serious about buying a good car from Japan my honest advice would be for them to take a trip to Japan and have a look around at some of these dealers in person. At the very least this would give you a feel of what was available and at what kind of prices. It would also give a feel for the cars in their own environment, and - you never know - you might even change your mind!
Hope all that helps, rather than confuses........
once they find that they need to spend > £5k for a decent example
