Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Unusual Car of the Unusual Owners: Chrysler Imperial (Part 1)

It should be noted that Japan's Ambassador to the USSR had very good taste and, I believe, corresponding ambitions in the choice of official vehicles.


To my knowledge, in the 1960s and 70s of the last century, the representative of the rising sun’s country preferred to be served only with American Chrysler Imperial Le Barons of different generations, the story of two of which is known to a small circle of people. By a twist of fate, one of those cars ended up in Armenia.


The car of the Japan’s ambassador was acquired in 1963. This Imperial Le Baron was in the Moscow residence of the Ambassador until 1968 and served him for all official events. In 1968 the car was replaced by a new, more perfect, similar model. A little later, the car received regular Moscow registration plates and was put up for sale.
To be continued…

Monday, October 5, 2015

The Immortal Toyota Crown (Part 4)

This engine is aggregated with a 5-speed manual transmission.
This Toyota is one of the brightest proofs of how reliable the cars of the past and the so-called cast-iron engines were. Having a mileage of more than 1.500.000 kilometers, this engine has never been repaired! Throughout the entire running period, none of the engine details has been replaced.


The car has undergone only few repairs so far: replacement of the oil pressure gauge (2010) and water-cooling pump (2011), as well as repairs to the injection pump (2012). It’s noteworthy that this car is actively used every day and there has been no major damage to the mechanical units.
The owner of this remarkable car plans to drive from Armenia to Japan in the near future, in order to visit the headquarter of Toyota Motor Corporation. So let’s wish good luck to the organizers of this challenging run.