Where: Hamamatsu, Japan

We discovered Takeey’s Auto Shop recently and have been constantly amazed by the variety of great old cars they have. Conditions vary from car to car and prices are high, but here are some highlights:

1972 Datsun Bluebird 1.6 Station Wagon

This era of Bluebird 510 is much in demand by collectors worldwide, even the station wagon. Hot Wheels make a racing version of this car, so it must be cool, right? This one is a 1.6litre from 1972. Looks like it was originally orange from the under bonnet shot and is unfortunately an automatic. Still cool though! POA.

1973 Datsun Fairlady Z 240ZG

Awesome looking and genuine ZG with Solex carb set-up and only 45,000km on the clock. Now 240Z 432s are making mega money, will these be the next to attract serious collectors? POA.

1968 Datsun Sunny 1.0L DX Coupe

We have to confess to not knowing that this sharp suited little car even existed. Those lines look Pininfarina inspired (or even styled by, as the great styling house worked with Nissan in the late 60s and early 70s). It reminds us a little of a 1965 Peugeot 204 Coupe (also Pinin styled), which proceeded the 1968 Sunny coupe by 3 years. These cars were only ever sold in Japan and Australia which explains our lack of knowledge. Not much is known about this one apart from what we can see in the pictures, and we like it a lot! £7000

1969 Nissan Skyline GTR 4-door

Great looking GTR 4 door is again a POA, so price is unknown. This is a great looking car inside and out and the engine looks super sweet. The translation of the ad does not reveal much, but we can see enough here to get us enthused!

1969 Toyota Crown Coupe

This elegant old beast is a very rare sight outside of Japan. We’d love to see one in the UK. This one has done 75,000km and has only had one owner! Price seems good, too. £8100

1977 Mercury Cougar Villager

This one interests PistonJuice for a selfish reason – we had a green Matchbox toy of this car as a kid and this is the first time we have ever seen one in 1:1 scale! And what a beast it is – this white 6.6litre monster has done 43,000km and is priced at £10,150. US wagons from the 60s to the 80s are capturing the imagination of collectors as they reek of nostalgia for everyone that sat backwards on the rear seats growing up.

1982 Mercedes 560SEL Wagon

One again another car we had no knowledge of, this Merc wagon looks well thought out and nicely finished. Its still in great condition, including the eye-watering bright red interior and it’s the top-of-the-range 560SEL. If anyone has anymore info on who built this, please let us know! Price POA.

Footnote:

Interestingly some of these cars are marked ‘domestic only’ by Takeey’s as there are still fears that some of the cars near to the Fukushima nuclear disaster are radioactive. Seems like just a precaution to us but we guess those cars marked will be quite difficult to export. You have been warned!