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It's 31st October, Halloween season. I'm not really going to do anything. Halloween was always more popular in America than the UK...

However, me and a friend have a small tradition, we always watch "Halloween Ⅲ: Season of the Witch" at his house. It's an old American horror movie from 1982. You don't need to see the first two movies, because the third one has its own story. It's about a company called Silver Shamrock who make Halloween masks in a factory at a small town.

I don't know if it is well-known in Japan, although I did find it to be available on DVD: http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0000CBCCN

Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is because the factory has a security patrol with some unusual cars, all Japanese models!



They have a L10 Tercel 4-door. Toyota never sold these in the UK, although they sold it in other parts of Europe. We got the L20-series, though.



E70-series Corolla 2-door. These were always a rare car here, the 4-door was a lot more popular. If a 2-door version is for sale, it will sell for a high price. The old FR-layout Toyotas have high prices here.



B310 Sunny Coupe! It's known in the USA as a "Datsun 210", but here it was the Datsun 120Y (most people call it a Sunny). I don't know why they would use a sporty Coupe for a security patrol, haha.

Anyway, you should watch it! It's not very scary, but I enjoy it.

So, a few months after my friend got a very rare Quintet, another appeared. I went to the other side of the country to pay for it, then I arranged for it to be transported to my house. I'm really pleased that I could get one, because they're one of the most rare cars in the UK. The last owner was an old man who bought it new in September 1982, so I'm the second owner. He paid £5630 (¥1,046,000). I didn't pay that much...

I don't know if there's any SU Quints in Japan with private owners, I only know the one in the Honda Collection Hall. I think there will be a few in mainland Europe, some more in Australia and New Zealand. But it's probably one of the most rare Honda cars of the 1980s era.

I have done some research and in the UK I think there's only three cars left:

1. Later type, DX grade, 5MT, Red Metallic (my friend's car)
2. Later type, DX grade, 5MT, White (I don't know the owner)
3. Later type, DX grade, 3AT, Silver-Blue Metallic (me!)

There may be a few more hidden in garages, I hope so!



Anyway, the car arrived on a car trailer. I charged the battery and started it. Of course, the engine started immediately. It needs some paintwork, but I can do that later!



It's the same 1602cc engine as my old Accord. I didn't secure the bracket over the battery, I'll remember to do that.



The back end is similar to the Civic. I need to replace one of the Reverse lights too (no problem). There's no grade badge on the UK Quintet, the only two grades were "DX" and "Executive". The main difference is the Executive has alloy wheels.



There's some damage on this side, but it can be fixed without replacing the panel. That's good, because panels for this car may be impossible to buy! Even though it looks similar to some other Honda cars, I think all the panels are unique. I think the styling is cool, I like the aggressive bonnet vents on this era of Honda.



The interior is quite cool, with a curved dashboard. There's a basic LW/MW radio, it looks like the same type as my old Accord. My friend's Quintet has a Sharp FM cassette radio, so I'm jealous. The previous owner fitted an electric window kit, but it doesn't work. I'll remove it!



The dashboard has markings for the Hondamatic H3 gearbox. It's unusual, because it doesn't have the usual automatic setup like "P-R-N-D-2-1". It goes "P-R-N-OD-✪-L". L is for low-speed, ✪ is normal driving, OD is overdrive. Normally you will drive in ✪, but change to OD at high speed. So it's more like a semi-automatic. When I started the car for the first time, it took me a while to see that normal driving is done with ✪ gear. My Accord was 5MT, so I didn't know.



I really like this type of clock from old Hondas. It's like an old household Clock Radio.

Anyway, I can't drive it on public roads yet and the winter season will be starting soon, which is bad for old cars. I don't want to cause any rust problems, so I won't start repairing it until next year when the weather improves. But I look forward to driving it!

You may know already, my friend got a Honda Quint (European name: Quintet). You can see it here: https://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/933700/blog/35945193/



As I said then, it's an incredibly rare car here. I haven't seen one for about 10-15 years, so I was amazed that my friend got one. Actually, he just got it back from the Paint Shop and Inspection so I'll do a new post about it soon! However, this post isn't about his car, it's about my car.

There's a well-known saying here - "You wait for a bus, then two come along at once". I don't know if it's a saying in Japan, your bus service may be more reliable. Anyway, my friend called me in the morning and said "There's another Quintet for sale. Do you want his phone number?". Of course, I said "No way, I have too many cars YES!"

I talked to the seller and I have agreed to buy it from him already. I hope to collect it later this month. I haven't seen it except for the photos, but the price is low and the car is rare. I can fix any problems later.



There's some damage, I can see some paint on there too. But one of my friends is a painter, so he can fix it.



It's a Hondamatic 3AT. My friend has the 5MT, so we have some differences.

Anyway, the car doesn't have Inspection so it may be a while before I drive it. I want to use some of my other cars first, so I think I won't be driving it until 2016. But anyway, I'm very happy.

A while ago, I was lucky to find some old video footage of my city. Since my city isn't famous or a tourist town, it's difficult to find many old videos and photos. In this case, it was video taken by a Bus fan. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEllebXZdE4

This video is from 1997, it looks like winter because most of the cars are dirty. At the time I was still in high school and didn't have a car. It's quite a nostalgic video for me, because the area looks quite different now. I'll show you what's in the video, anyway.



First there's a Honda Ballade 2nd-generation (AJ/AK). It's the 1.5 EXi, a high-specification model with 100ps! This model was also available as the first Rover 200-series. This model is known for rust problems in the floor panels. I'd still like to buy one.



Here's a model not sold in Japan, the Hyundai Pony X2. It's the 1.3 Sonnet, I think this was the base grade. They use Mitsubishi engines and gearbox, probably from the Mirage. About 65ps. These were quite popular a few years ago, but I saw one last month and was surprised to see it. My friend has driven a few of these and says they're quite good, but the handling is poor.



Early-type K10 Micra (March), 5-door model. It's a 1.0 Colette. At the time, the grades were Base, L, Colette, SGL. The Colette had a special front grille painted the same as the body, but only 4MT and one-speaker radio. The SGL gets 5MT and stereo... nowadays, this is useless information, haha. From 2004-2008, I worked in the office in the background. It's closed now, ready for demolition. I should take some photos before they do it, for my memories...



Here's a Nissan Sunny N13. It's true! At the time, we knew the N13 Pulsar (3/5-door hatchback, 4-door) as "Sunny". We also got the B12 RZ-1 "Sunny Coupe" and B12 Wagon "Sunny Estate". But we didn't get the B12 hatchback or 4-door... I don't know why! These N13s are very tough cars, so I still see some today. Anyway, this is a 1.3 LX - quite basic.



This is shameful youth fashion from 1997, haha! Full tracksuits and "bowl" haircuts were very popular at the time. I didn't have a bowl haircut at that time. I did have a red/silver tracksuit though.



This kid has taken his Sonic doll into town... it really is the 1990s! Maybe he's going to look at Sega Saturn games.



Here's a Volvo 850 "T5" police car. For a police car, they were very fast! 2.3L 5-cylinder, 245ps, 0-100km/h in 7 seconds, top speed over 250km/h. On this one, they moved the numberplate to the bumper. The numberplate area has a LED sign, it lights up "POLICE" and "STOP". Usually these would be seen on high-speed roads. It was probably coming back from the Police Station.

Anyway, it was nice to look at this old video. Even though it's just a few dirty cars driving down a street, there's a lot of good memories for me.

Last Friday, I drove to Scarborough. It's a seaside town, I'm not sure how well-known it is outside of the UK.



From my city, it's about 110km if you drive through York. It's still summer so I didn't take this route, it would be too busy. Most people visit for the weekend, so they will drive there on Friday and come home on Sunday, the roads are very busy at this time.

I decided to take a longer route of about 160km, driving on quiet country roads through a large national park. The official speed limit on these roads was mostly 60mph (100km/h), only slowing down for villages, so it's a great place to drive. I took the Prelude, since it has good handling and the fuel consumption is OK.



I arrived in the afternoon and left the car in an underground parking area. You can pay for parking by calling a phone number, but there's no phone signal underground, haha. I had to walk outside to make the call.



There's no bikini girls on cold English beaches... it was very cloudy when I arrived, but there was some sun and it didn't rain. Later on, the skies were clear and the sea was calm.



Scarborough has many old buildings, mostly from the 1800s and early 1900s. I haven't been here for many years, but everything looks the same as I remember.



It's still used as a fishing harbour. Of course, I had fish and chips from a "chip shop". It's popular all over the UK, but it's more fresh here. Also, seaside area chip shops usually cook the fish with the skin on. If you're not near the sea, chip shops usually remove the skin before cooking. So it tastes a little bit different here.



This boat was full of fishing equipment. There's big rust stains on the side. You can see an old Rover 214, this was also rusty...



There's a lot of Amusement Arcades at the seaside. It's a traditional name, the closest translation is Game Centre (ゲームセンター). Most games are mechanical, known as a Penny Pusher. I'm not sure of the translation... Pusher Machine? Medal Machine? You put coins into a slot to knock coins off a sliding tray, you try to win more coins. It's not a serious gambling machine, little kids play it. There's a lot of Slots too, but mostly low value.



I remember when I was younger they had some electronic games too, but I could only find Sega Rally 3. It was quite good, but I prefer the first one from 1994! I remember playing some games here when I was younger like Chase H.Q., Hang-On, Lethal Enforcers, Darius... it's harder to find these now, but I have a lot of memories.



Later in the afternoon, there was room to park outside near the sea, so I put the car here to take a photo (and eat fish and chips outside). I then went home, driving the country roads again in the evening. There was no traffic, so the driving was great fun.



Part of the road I used has a 25% gradient and hairpin turns, so this was fun to drive. I'm glad I took the Prelude. Even though it's not a VTEC model, it was still quite fast and the handling was good in the corners with the low down suspension. This isn't my photo, I didn't have time! I was enjoying driving too much to stop.

Anyway, it was nice to take the Prelude to the beach.