Japanese Cars

I've referred previously to the 'Observer's Book of Automobiles' that I had when I was much younger and assumed that it had been lost/given away sometime in the last 60 years or so. I came across it recently, however, and leafing through it again brought back a lot of memories. It's the 1955 edition and the vast majority of the manufacturers detailed in the book are from Europe or the USA but out of the 107 entries there's only one for Japan, that for Toyota as shown below.

Since then, of course, Japanese cars have become more and more popular and common on British roads, but below are photographs of some that I've seen on the roads of Hyde recently which are not quite so common.

This is a Mitsubishi GTO, and the registration plate suggests that it was first registered in 1993 or 1994.

Here's a Subaru WRX STI, and it would appear to be much younger than the (1999) 'T' registration plate suggests.

A Nissan 200SX from 1998/99, though the badge on the bonnet of the car suggests something different:

This is a Mitsubishi FTO, and the 'W' plate suggests it was first registered in 2000.

Fiat 8V

I remember seeing a photograph and reading about the Fiat 8V in an 'Observer's Book of the Automobile' in the mid-1950s, but I'd never seen one until I went to the Silverstone Historic Tribute meeting in June 2004. The car shown below was amongst the vehicles being displayed by the auctioneers Coys.

I've been through all the Fiat 8Vs pictured in Google Images but this particular car isn't shown, unless it's been re-painted in another colour at some point.