I need someone in Japan to contact me on another Car Matter
-Don
Bump
There are several Model T's in Japan. There was a restoration shop in Sendai next to the airport train station stop. Not sure if it survived the earthquake / tsunami of 2011 though.
Here's a (improperly restored) 1914 in a Japanese museum:
Link to where I found it:
http://japaneseclass.jp/trends/about/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AB%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC
Did the Japanese make any of their own cars back in T days?
Ken,
Kinda. Japan domestic automobile manufacturing started out with license built versions of foreign makes such as British Wolseley and Morris, and Italy's Fiat.
1912 Fiat Tipo 3:
12-16 Taxable horsepower Wolsely:
The first Japanese domestic vehicles were trucks, likely Isuzu or Mitsubishi in the early 1920's. Toyota built its first prototype cars around 1937 - 38, but did not sell any cars to the public until well after WWII.
Ken,
I know of one built in about 1912. About 40 years ago I was on a tour in Sydney Australia and we were at a judging day at a historical house. While we were there a Japanese group arrived by bus.
One old guy saw our cars and rushed over to look at them. With the help of their guide he explained he had built a car in 1912. He produced a stamp sized photo of the car a small Touring.
I was the editor of the club magazine at the time and I had to go to a professional photographer to have the photo enlarged enough to print in the magazine.
I don't think I can find the magazine now but I may still have the original photo.
Model T's were imported into Japan in the teen's some even had local bodies on them. Years ago at a swap meet I saw a Model T handbook in Japanese for sale
(Message edited by P_Kable on September 27, 2014)
Nissan made cars under license on Austin. I can't remember the others, but I think Toyota started out making cars under license of Hillman.
And Subaru was from Goliath.
They built Harleys in Japan before WW2, but a lot of them were three wheeled trucks, it seems to me they built model T Fords there in '26 and 27.
I know there were T's in Japan but I was hoping we had a member there I could email
-Don
Don,
What are you after? I can give you the email address for the curator of the Toyota Automobile Museum in Nagoya. They have a few Model Ts. Maybe he can point you in the right direction?
Andrew
Don, didn't mean to hi-jack your thread, sorry about that.
Royce, Peter and Aaron, thanks.
Andrew,
The email address for the Curator will work
Thank you
-Don