Jump to content

Karol Shusbands 72 Skyline, Betty The Hakopotamus.


Recommended Posts

I spent the next few years learning all I could about Hakosuka's, finding as many dealers in Japan as I could using Google Translate, trying to work out the strange pricing that I found but more importantly saving up the pennies I would need. 

 

In about 2010 I felt I was ready to get one bought. My budget was up to 2,500,000 Yen at a push and there seemed to be cars available at that price.

I then started a two pronged assault.

 

In the UK I emailed and phoned all and any Importers I could find. The responses I got were varied but mostly gave me no confidence in their ability to actually find me a decent car. Saying things like " No problem" and "yeah, we can get one of them" was not going to make me part with my cash. One guy said "Why do you want one of them ? I can get you a nice R33 for that price and it will be faster" Thanks for that...

 

All the ads on their sites had pics with the heading "Cars like this available in Japan". I knew that already.

 

I've had old cars all my driving life, Rust, fatigue and wear are things you have to be aware of, most of the people I spoke to didn't have a clue.

 

Started feeling a bit pissed off. Still, there's always Japan !

 

I had got quite a collection of Japanese dealer websites so I emailed them all in English and Google-Japanese asking if they would be happy to deal with me and if they had more pics of cars on their sites.

 

Vintage, Takeeys, Bikoworks, etc all responded with complete silence. Happy days.

 

At this point I nearly gave up and bought a mid 60's Plymouth Big-Block.

 

JNC was about to come to my rescue...

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, there was this Texan on JNC called David. He lived in Nagoya and was well into his old cars, I had followed his threads and realised that he didn't live too far from the dealer 'Vintage' in Kawagoe-cho and he had visited them a couple of times.

 

http://www.japan-vintage.com/

 

At that time they had 2 cars for sale in my budget. Both were silver GTR-style coupes, one was very good nick but quite tame, the other was a bit scabby but had the triple mikunis and fat Watanabe's front and back. 2.2 mil and 2.5 mil Yen respectively. I asked David what he knew of Vintage and whether he'd fancy having a look at the cars for me.

 

He replied that while they had a big stock list, stuff didn't sell too fast (there's still one car on there that's been for sale since 2004 !) and they didn't really seem to into old cars. He then said that he was spending a lot of his tie at a family garage called Classic Car Nagoya and they might be able to source a car.

 

http://www.n-classiccar-jp.com/

 

They had a 4 door GT in stock but he asked if I'd like them to keep an eye out for a coupe ?

 

Er, yes please !

 

I sent David a list of my requirements and my budget and he said he'd get on the case. This was the point in time that Hako prices started going a bit mental, but I reckoned I was still on to get a half decent car. I sat back and waited for the emails to flood in.

 

(sound of thumbs twiddling)

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

DISC TWO. BONUS MATERIAL

 

MATER AND THE GHOST LIGHT.

 

Will, His Wife, Their Motorbikes and The Coupe.

 

OR How I nearly would have bought a Coupe. Possibly.

 

It's all about timing.

 

My mate Will. He's 4 days younger than me and we grew up next door to each other in London. His Dad was from Pongaroa so he has dual nationality and has lived in NZ and Australia. For 10 years he was living in Wollongong, not far from Sydney. One day in 2011 this car came up for sale nearby at a very good price.

 

HakoCruise056_zpsa3sefqcw.jpg

 

Will and I have worked on cars together for years, he knows his way round old cars. All he would have to do was go and give it a good look over and if it was ok I could send him the money and he could have arranged shipping.

 

Trouble was, he and his wife had decided to ride their motorbikes back to England, had left 3 weeks before and were somewhere up Malaysia. No use to me at all.

 

The moral of this story is don't trust your mates, especially ones with a wander lust.

 

That's it, I'm really done for the moment.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

THE WORST THREAD UPDATE EVER.

 

Just thought I'd say that before anyone got too excited.

 

My new rims are nearly here. Techno Phantoms at a good price. Having second thoughts tho.

 

Weather is supposed to be OK on Saturday (dry, 10 degrees Celstigrade).

 

Will get car out for a little blast through the lanes and a clean. I may even post a vid.

 

However, it may snow so I might not bother.

 

Thank you for 20 seconds of your life.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

SPRING  UPDATE ( Brace for disappointment ).

 

Hello Campers. Winter's nearly gone and while you lot have been getting sun burn, partying hard, hanging 10, flicking ollies  and moaning about the humidity; we've been freezing our knackers off.

 

Wheels never happened, not sure why, but whatever. May just go bigger Watanabe's or TOPY steels.  280Z distributor and Blaster coil on their way. Upgraded the 1/3 scale battery and leads to UK spec, spins and starts much better now. I also dumped the rear light trims for that ready-to-race look. This has now made me want to lose the bumpers, add a big single tailpipe, some headlight covers and a roll cage.

 

This aggressive look will be backed up with the stock as a rock L20, obviously...

 

Sun came out, took some pitchers.

 

Betty%20March%2016%20003_zpsgopsxblv.jpg

 

Betty%20March%2016%20005_zpsvx6zwrfw.jpg

 

Betty%20March%2016%20006_zpsnd3eryvu.jpg

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...