The golden days: traffic jams with classic Japanese tin

9 July, 2017

There’s so much classic Japanese tin slammed by traffic in this one we can’t even name them all. Cedrics, Celicas, Soarers, Corollas, Crowns, Citys, and everything else we’ve missed — all in pristine condition. Yep, this footage is pure bliss. But why are the roads so rammed? Well, it took place during Golden Week — one of the biggest tourism holidays in Japan — back in 1985, where crowds were flooding to the newly opened Tokyo Disneyland.

Surely there is some kind of irony that almost 35 years later we’re sitting here pining over what would have otherwise been everyday family haulers whisking mum, dad and the kids off to the theme park. If the same were to occur today, we can’t say we’d even make it inside Disneyland as we’d be too busy lurking the parking lot …

Super affordable supercar

The owner of this 1978 GTV, Stephen Perry, with only a skerrick of wishful thinking, says through half-closed eyes, “It is not dissimilar to the Maserati Khamsin”.
The nose is particularly trim and elegant from all angles, featuring cut-outs for the headlights echoing Alfa’s own exotic Montreal. The body is unfussy, lean with lots of glass, and the roofline shows a faint family resemblance — although on a much more angular car — to the curved waistline of the earlier 105s. The slightly hunched rear means there’s much more space in the rear seats than in the cramped rear of 105s — very much a 2+2 — and a generous boot. These more severe lines are not quite as endearing as the 105’s but they are still classy and clearly European.