Collector Cars From Asia At the Cincinnati Concours

The Cincinnati Concours d'Elegance was one of the first to establish a regular class for cars from Asia. Over the years it has brought in many amazing and sometimes rarely seen examples. That was the case at the rain hampered 45th Annual Cincinnati Concours d'Elegance held in support of fighting juvenile arthritis. A case in point is a car that was never sold outside of Japan and required potential buyers to enter a lottery for a chance at owning one. Only 20,000 Nissan Figaro cars were produced in 1991. Available in one of four colors to represent the four seasons, this car was done up for spring in what they dubbed emerald green. All of these cars had a 987 cc inline four cylinder turbocharged engine that generated 74 horse power.

This is a 1987 Nissan Skyline Passage GT sedan. The Skyline was originally produced by the Prince Motor Company beginning in 1957 but when Prince and Nissan merged in 1967, Nissan took over production. The Skyline was only sold in Japan, Australia, and South Africa. It runs on a 2.0 liter single overhead cam inline six cylinder engine that generates 148 horse power.

Prior to 1986, many cars designed to be exported by Nissan were sold under the Datsun brand, a marquee that had been around since 1931. One of the most famed Datsuns to be marketed in the USA was the 240Z, like the 1970 model seen here. It is alleged that Nissan engineers and designers bought up some British sports cars, dissected them, took the best and improved on the rest to make the Fairlady Z, which was dubbed the Datsun 240Z when exported.  The car is powered by a 2.4 liter inline six cylinder engine that generates 150 horse power and and push the car to 120 miles per hour.

In 1997 Mitsubishi needed to homologate a vehicle for rally racing so they built a street version of their small SUV and dubbed it the Pajero Evolution. They produced more than enough for homologation purposes, eventually making 2698 between 1997 and 1999. It all worked as the car won its class in the Paris-Dakar Rally in both 1997 and 1998. It is moved along by a 3.5 liter, 276 horse power V6 engine.