Only 1,404 examples of Toyota’s first passenger car, the Toyoda Model AA, were built in the six years of production from 1936 to 1942.
Until recently it was thought that none of these cars had survived to this day. Even Toyota itself had been forced to fabricate a ground-up replica of the Model AA because an original example could not be found to exhibit at the Toyota Automobile Museum in Japan.
So when news of a 1936 car, one of only 100 units built in the very first year of Model AA production, suddenly surfaced from within Russia, the discovery was met with a degree of scepticism. Nevertheless, even the most remote opportunity to uncover an example of the world’s rarest production Toyota had to be followed up.
Further investigation by specialists at the Louwman Museum revealed that the car was indeed genuine. The Model AA had been owned by a Siberian farmer since World War II.
During more than 60 years in the family’s ownership it had been used extensively on the land and been heavily modified. At some undetermined time it had also been moved from deep within Siberia to the outskirts of Vladivostok, where the farmer’s grandson now lived.
The video below, kindly given to us by its new custodians at the Louwman Museum, documents some of the arrangements surrounding the purchase and transportation of the vehicle. It marks the culmination of a protracted, seven-month negotiation process with the owners and Russian Ministry of Culture in Moscow, which eventually granted approval for its exportation.
Now with the necessary documentation the Toyoda Model AA was secured safely in a container and transported by train from Vladivostok to Moscow. The final leg of its journey to Western Europe was on the back of a container lorry.
This 1936 Toyoda Model AA is now part of the private car collection at the Louwman Museum in The Hague, Netherlands.
Click the following link to read a more extensive report on the discovery and incredible unrestored condition of this Toyoda Model AA on the official Toyota (GB) website.
La Vidange par Darwin Custom et CRMC c’est ce week-end à Bordeaux sur 3 jours et ça commence vendredi soir à partir de 19h. L’année dernière l’événement avait rencontré un fort succès et du coup, ils remettent ça cette année avec encore plus d’animations et d’expositions.
Le programme est assez chargé et à l’air bien sympathique. Vendredi 09 Octobre
LE CATERING (4 rue des Ayres 33000 BDX) 19H – 23H – Bagels & DJ’S Party – Exposition Yohan Colin / Rémi Bédora / Cosmic Medusa – Briefing de la ride moto du Samedi
Samedi 10 Octobre
Accueil des participants 9h au Hangar Darwin (87 quais de Queyries) avec un café bio par l’Alchimiste Torréfacteur
Le ride photographié par David Marvier, filmé par Studio Paps et avec en plus un drone piloté par Guimball Prod, vivement les images.
La soirée : Entrée 3€ (Gratuit pour les motards de la Ride) – 18h retour Ride, lancement Vide-Garage – 19h course de futs de bière poussés à moto 1 contre 1 – Photo Booth MAN vs MACHINE réalisé par Lucky Studio – FOODTRUCKS Sok Bordeaux – LIVE TATTOO Matt Captain Chaos – LIVE BARBER La Boucherie
CONCERT LIVE
Decheman & The Gardenner Libido Fuzz He Dedicated Nothing
Dimanche 11 Octobre
VIDE GARAGE – 10h-18h au sein du skate park Hangar Darwin MOTO / SURF / SKATE / STREET WEAR / ART
– Expo photo David Marvier – Expo Deus Ex Machina – VISSLA demo de shape avec TAZ – The Sailor live shape
16h-18h SESSION SKATEBOARD -Photographié par David Manaud
Plus d’informations sur la page Facebook de l’événement : La Vidange
Pour vous donnez envie d’y aller, voici deux vidéos de l’année dernière lors de la première édition.
The gathering of all six Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupes was arguably the star attraction at the Goodwood Revival earlier this year. So inspired was artist Klaus Wagger, that he has painted two pictures depicting the famous cars at the 1965 12 Hours of Sebring…
Aptly named ‘Splash-n-Dash’, the two 55x35-inch paintings are moody and atmospheric, just as Sebring was that weekend in 1965. In fact, it was one of the wettest races on record – a stark contrast to the sunny, late summer weather we enjoyed at the Goodwood Revival just a few weeks ago. We’re sure ‘Ol’ Shel’ would approve...
What is a fun haver? Better yet, what is the ultimate fun haver? Drifting is fun, jumping trucks is fun, shooting up sick dirt roosts is fun as well, so why not combine all of those things into one? That’s exactly what Vaughn Gittin Jr. did when he set out to build his ultimate fun haver. He started with a 2015 Ford F-150 EcoBoost and it just went kind of nuts from there…
Officially dubbed as the ‘Ford F-150 Ultimate Fun Haver’ the truck sits very nicely, thanks in part to air suspension. Because, why not?
This is the perfect demo vehicle in that you can experience a little bit of everything while on board – check out the video above to see what I mean.
I don’t really know what goes on in Vaughn’s head when he’s thinking of these new ideas, but seeing as the RTR brand has taken off in the Mustang world, I am guessing he wanted to try a shot at the biggest market in North America.
After all, USA is the land of the free and the home of pickup trucks.
I had a chance to check out the Ultimate Fun Haver for the first time at Hoontown, USA, which is a ranch in Southern California.
Hoontown is basically a big dirt lot with a few jumps, and it’s an automobile killer.
That, of course, makes it the perfect location for a quick video shoot.
The director? None other than Andy Laputka, one of the key brains behind pretty much all of Vaughn’s video projects.
The truck itself was built by Kibbetech Offroad, which engineers race trucks for desert-running or whatever else you fancy in the off-road world.
The motor is a Ford 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, which of course is twin turbocharged and direct injected.
With some mild power adders including a Magnaflow exhaust and a K&N intake, the truck has some serious grunt. It also sounds awesome.
With the addition of a Full-Race intercooler and an ECU tune from Revolution Automotive, you can hoon all day long without interruption.
While the power was impressive for a near-stock truck, what really impressed me was how it handled in the dirt and on the road. Since I shot this feature though, the RTR team has installed some larger turbos for development purposes, and Vaughn said he is aiming for over 500ft-lb of torque at the wheels.
The airbags were made by Airlift Performance, but Kibbetech mated those with King Shocks dual bypass shock absorbers in the front and triple bypass shock absorbers in the rear.
This has resulted in 12 inches of travel when fully lifted, which is more than enough to do some serious off-roading.
In addition to the massive King shocks and Airlift airbags, Kibbetech also built a beefy custom radius arm with panhard bar rear suspension.
To handle all the power and abuse at the rear wheels, a Currie Enterprises full-floating F9 rear end was also installed.
Vaughn went out of his way to make sure the exterior reflected the theme of the truck as well, first commissioning Auto Explosion Custom Auto Body to create some one-off flares, then wrapping the F-150 in XPEL Stealth protection film and adding custom RTR 18×10-inch wheels fitted with 35-inch Nitto Terra Grappler tires.
The interior has form and function as well with five Recaro Sportster seats flanked by Takata Racing harnesses. Because you don’t want your passengers to flop around all over the place when you’re giving them the ride of their lives.
Aside from the seats, the only other interior modification is an Autosport Dynamics handbrake, which of course is perfect for initiating drifts on or off-road.
So what was it like to ride in the Ultimate Fun Haver?
With Vaughn behind the wheel, very smooth.
He easily transitioned between drifts and basically linked-up every single corner that Hoontown had to offer.
While kicking epic roosts whenever he lay on the throttle. It was interesting to hear turbo noises from a pickup truck too.
So what about the jump? Well, we went off it a few times and the big Ford landed very flat every time.
Although, I do have to say that it was an uneasy feeling being in the air.
I guess it’s just something that you have to get used to, but aside from a funny feeling in my stomach each time we took flight, you really couldn’t tell that the pickup truck was four wheels up.
That’s it for another successful day at Hoontown, USA, but no dead vehicles this time around.
And why not finish the day with a little sunset burnout!
It was a fun video shoot, but more importantly I had a chance to experence the Ultimate Fun Haver myself. Which makes me wonder what Vaughn Gittin, Jr. is going to come up with next…
Larry Chen Instagram: larry_chen_foto larry@speedhunters.com
