Home > Point&Shoot > POINT&SHOOT> Toyota MarkII on SSR MarkIII

POINT&SHOOT> Toyota MarkII on SSR MarkIII

[I received an email yesterday from an Australian guy named Ian Hancock. Ian is crazy about Japanese nostalgic cars, and is currently on vacation in Japan (or as he says it, he’s “on holiday”) to check out a bunch of his favorite cars. He sent in a photo of this MX32 Toyota MarkII (Toyota Cressida) that he carspotted in Japan, because he knew it would be just the type of thing that Motor Mavens readers are into! Well, he was absolutely right. Here’s what Ian had to say about the Mark II…]

The white Cressida belongs to Naoya Yamaguchi, who owns an old school Japanese wheel shop in Moiyra called Bellezza Auto Produce, about 15km from Tsukuba Circuit. I had been at Tsukuba for the day to watch drifting (and get taken for a ride!), and was going for a walk from my hotel to find some dinner when I came across the shop! I thought I was delirious – it was just too good to be true!

When I walked into his store, he was in the corner smoking, wheelchair bound because of a motorbike accident. Naoya “didn’t want to know me” until I started saying the names of the wheels in his shop, and I showed him pictures of my KB110 Sunny from Sydney. He couldn’t believe that an Aussie 20 year old would be interested in old J-tin. He couldn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak Japanese, so we talked for an hour and a half using a translator on the computer.

The Cressida wears huge SSR 15x9Js (-37 offset) on the back and 15x8J SSR Mark IIIs up front. From what I could gather, it is fairly stock mechanically aside from a healthy lowering, carbs and exhaust. A nice little front lip spoiler and rear spoiler finish it off, and although there are some fender gap issues, it has definately been built in the shakotan style! The body is straighter than straight, and some nice fender mirrors really set it off. I’m buying a set of 7.5J SSR Starsharks from him, and he has invited to take me out in his car next time I come over!

:: Ian Hancock

You may also like
A90 Supra, Toyota, GR Supra
Even A90 Haters Will Respect The GR Supra Heritage Edition
MSD, 6AL, ignition amp, anniversary edition
RANDOM DOPE> MSD Ignition Amp Retro Redux
Scion iM Concept
NEWSWORTHY> Scion iM Concept Car Revealed
COVERAGE> Japanese Classic Car Show in LBC

11 Responses

  1. Erick

    what a cool story 😀

    Wish Ian took more pics of that ride, and maybe of the shop.

    haha shit looks so nice and clean.

  2. That was a wicked cool story. I dig how car culture crosses all other culture and language. So cool about the internet and those online translation thingy’s. Gotta love the Googletrons!

  3. I just wanted to leave you an quick post to thank you for your blog!
    I absoloutely liked your webpage!!! Would you mind whether I put up a backlink from my website to your website?
    Keep up the awesome work! Much Thanks!
    Edward

  4. I’m glad you guys enjoyed my post, and thanks Antonio for throwing it up! Sorry about the lack of lighting, I was just walking by. Please check out my link, I have started a blog about my “holiday” to Japan. I’ll throw some pictures up of my visit to the JCCA event, and my trip to Ebisu yesterday. Cheers!

Leave a Reply