1 Million Yen Golden Oldie of the Day 20/08/08 - Kei Edition

Vital Statistics

Make & Model: Honda Vamos
Price: 650,000円
Year:1971年 (produced from 1971-1973)
On the odometer: 85,000km
Transmission: Manual
Extras: You must be joking. This is stripped to the bone utilitarian chic.

With an aesthetic that's somewhere between Fisher Price toddler's beach buggy and Lilliputian Army-issue missile launcher, this 1971 Honda Vamos is perhaps an unorthodox choice for anyone's dream JDM garage. Granted, as a proponent and former regular driver of kei cars, I'm aware that there are many more desirable specimens out there in the historical kei car parc, but surely none with as much visual impact and sheer eccentricity for your Yen.

The Vamos, not to be confused with the far more pedestrian 2nd generation Vamos van of the'90s and '00s, was introduced in November 1970 during something of a quirky car boom in Japan, with leisure oriented vehicles such as the Daihatsu Fellow Buggy, Isuzu Unicab, and Suzuki Jimny doing a roaring trade. Seemingly too much the funky oddball even for the outlandish Japan of the '70s, the Vamos, unlike its competitors, failed to make hay while the sun was shining and was unequivocally a sales flop. Downtrodden and outcast, the diminutive Honda bowed out at the end of its production run in 1973 with only 2,500 examples having been brought into existence, while the Jimny was to go on racking up the sales seemingly indefinitely.


While the car's lack of four-wheel-drive and stunted 10-inch wheels may have prevented the Vamos from attaining popularity in its youth, it makes a far more interesting proposition today. Indeed, the plucky little Honda has the perfect racing car inspired powertrain configuration, being mid-engined with drive channeled through the rear wheels. Forget for a moment that the aforementioned mid-mounted engine is in fact a 30ps air-cooled unit displacing a mere 360cc(the last air-cooled engine to feature in one of Honda's cars). The car's svelte 520kg curb weight should ensure a respectable power-to-weight ratio, while a distinct lack of doors should at least provide the impression of speed, even if not quantifiably present.

Any talk of performance is perhaps irrelevant however, for the Vamos' merits lie in its idiosyncrasies, and it is duly its singular nature that finds it with a place in the Automobilia Japonica fantasy garage.

See link below for a video of the diminutive Honda's hood in action.

1 Million Yen Golden Oldie of the Day 19/08/08

With the new car market stagnating, and a self-enforced paucity of notable new JDM metal hitting the shelves, Automobilia Japonica is forced to resort to newfangled tactics to bring you all that is good, wholesome and authentically automotive from the land of the rising sun. 'Newfangled' may in fact be something of a misnomer, as this new feature is so far removed from the contemporary as to be positively old. But that's old as a highly rated bottle of red wine is old - mellow, mature, full-bodied, mellifluous with a hint of toasted cinnamon and undercurrents of juniper berries. Classic in fact. Anyway, without further ado may I introduce the new daily feature - 1 Million Yen Golden Oldie of the Day. The premise is simple: a budget of 1 Million Yen per day in the hypothetical wallet, access to used car classifieds courtesy of Yahoo Japan, an abundance of good taste, and an eye for gently decaying Japanese steel. It has all the hallmarks of becoming the JDM fantasy bargain garage of choice.



Vital Statistics

Make & Model: Subaru Alcyone 1.8 VS Turbo
Price: 920,000円
Year:1986年 (produced from 1985-1991)
On the odometer: 104,000km
Transmission: Manual
Extras: A/C, Satnav, TV, CD Player and Minidisc



The Alcyone (or XT to use the Subaru's North American moniker), with its form harking back to the halcyon days of the 80s and the predilection of the era's automotive design fraternity for the 'wedge' aesthetic, made its world debut as Subaru's halo product at the Detroit Motor Show in January 1985. Subaru had high expectations for its fledgling protégé, as reflected in the vehicle's naming policy; Alcyone being the the brightest star in the Pleiades cluster from which Subaru takes its name. Quite where this naming policy leaves the rest of the vehicles in the Subaru range is another matter - surely by deduction they must all pale in comparison? Indeed, Subaru envisaged the Alcyone as the flagship spearheading the company's growth in overseas markets and ensuring that the brand appealed to a wider more contemporary audience as opposed to its vehicles being the sole preserve of frugal agricultural types who valued their rugged steeds for their ability to cart vast quantities of hay, manure and animal feed steadfastly over any rural idyll thrown their way.

The Alcyone was however far from agrarian, nor was it merely a rustic in a sharp City suit. In fact, the rakish Subaru had oodles of substance to back up its exterior style, even to the extent that the car's style itself bristled with substance. Not only did the Alcyone boast a seriously slippery drag coefficient of just 0.29, but the manner in which the car flouts the ill-effects of wind resistance is in itself a masterclass in applied aerodynamics. From a flat undertray and rear under spoiler to enable smooth airflow under the vehicle, through to a concealed single blade wiper, body flush door handles and side air flaps to prevent turbulence in the vicinity of the wheel arches, the Alcyone employed every trick in the aerodynamicist's rule book, short of morphing into a teardrop, to triumph in its dispute with the air.



The angular little Subaru was also replete with many of the technical advances normally found on significantly pricier supercars of the day, with the 2.7VX and VR Turbo models furnished with electro-pneumatic auto self-levelling suspension, with users able to select from either a high or a low suspension setting. Furthermore, when reaching speeds in excess of 80km/h in the high suspension setting, the car would automatically adjust itself to the lower of the two settings. The top of the range 2.7VX also featured a state of the art ABS system and the ACT-4 all-wheel drive system, complete with a torque distributor control system capable of apportioning the drive between the front and rear wheels. The Alcyone, particularly in 2.7VX form, was clearly the spiritual forerunner to the current generation of rally-bred, technology-laden Subarus.



Today's 1 Million Yen machine is regrettably not the range topping, high-tech AWD 2.7VX but is instead an early FWD VS Turbo powered by a 1.8 Litre 4-cylinder boxer engine producing 120ps. On the plus side however today's car has the advantage of a manual transmission which was never available on the 2.7VX. The 6-cylinder, 150ps VX was only made available with a four-speed auto on its introduction in 1987. Also, although white might not show the Alcyone's styling off to best effect, I have to admit to preferring the styling of this early car to that of the facelifted post-87 cars. Beggars cannot however be choosers, and with only an estimated 8000 of a complete production run of 98,918 cars finding homes in their native Japan, it would be foolish to quibble excessively over the colour and specification. A 2.7VX may however make the perfect addition to the fleet in the coming weeks, should Yahoo Japan's classifieds deliver.

Free Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X

Yes, you read that correctly. Courtesy of Mitsubishi Motors Japan, Automobilia Japonica is providing all its readers with a free Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. Just think of it as an お年玉 or New Year's gift.

Just follow the link below for more performance than you can shake a stick at:

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.co.jp/special/papercraft/pdf/color/evo.pdf

Caveat: some self-assembly may be required.