She's finally back home, safe and sound, and her hat's off. After a total of 101 days in different garages and a total cost of nearly 670,000 yen - nearly half her base purchase price. Ouch.

Watanabe Motors phoned me towards the end of February, but work timing meant it wasn't until March that I could go down to Nagoya. I was thinking about just making a day trip of it, as it's only about three hours each way, but I did want to check out the Toyota Automobile Museum, and wasn't sure how much time I'd have there--and how tired I would be on the drive back. And there was always the slight risk of roads icing up at night. So I decided to stay overnight, at which point my wife announced that she was coming with me, we were in fact going to stay two nights as it was too much hassle to pack for just one, and we were going to the aquarium she missed out on last time.

Instead of picking the car up only when we were ready to head back, my wife suggested we pick it up first thing, so we could make sure it was working properly first. So I needed a hotel with parking. The parking at the hotel I eventually chose was actually provided by a rental car company next door, using one of those tower lift parks. First, however, they had to check my WOF (shaken) certificate to make sure Lady Mary could fit. But she's not really that big, not compared to a lot of modern full-size cars, and there were no problems. She really does look bigger than she is until you park her next to a large modern car and realise her proportions are very deceptive. Like a tall model who's all legs sitting down, she's all bonnet....

At Watanabe Motors there was a nice white four-door Maserati parked outside Watanabe, with an even nicer two-door red sporty one inside. We later encountered an identical white one (same one?) on a Nagoya expressway, and whatever other issues modern Maseratis might have, I will admit their exhaust note sounds impressive.

The final bill came to a bit over 118,000yen (US$1,120)--a little bit higher than quoted as they discovered a nail in one of the tyres, and fixed that for me. One of the rear tyres, which is a bit annoying, as those are the new Continentals, not the older Pirellis from 2012 I still have on the front, and which are in pretty urgent need of replacing.

This is what got replaced:


Dinner was a local Nagoya speciality, miso-katsu. We went to a well-rated chain called Yabaton, which apparently gets long queues, but we were early enough to be seated immediately. The food was acceptable. My wife felt her pork fillet was very nice, but my waraji tonkatsu was merely okay. The sauce, which the waiter pours on after your order arrives, was nice, but nothing to really go out of your way for. Nagoya has quite a variety of local dishes, mainly modern (post-Meiji) semi-Western ones like miso-katsu and tebasaki, chicken wings. We had that the second night, at one of the two main competing chains (Sekai no Yamachan vs. Furaibo: Battle of the Ages!) simply as that was closer. The wings were nicer than the miso-katsu, I think.


Miso-katsu from Yabaton


Nagoya's famous chicken wings (tebasaki)

The Nagoya Port Aquarium was our main goal the next day. In particular, their Orca Training sessions. They have two a day on weekdays, and she was intending to see both if possible. It's just as well we did get there early enough, as there was a serious lack of good signage at the outdoor pool seating, and we ended up being seated in front of the dolphin pool, while the orca pool was way on the other side. So for the afternoon session, my wife made us get there half an hour early, so we could be right at the front--unlike the dolphin area, the orca area is standing only.
I don't know much about the ethics of keeping orcas in aquariums, but these two were certainly well fed. I did find myself wondering what would happen if the keeper slipped and fell in, however....


Pre-sushi.


I found Nemo!


Feed me!


Killer whale attacking a keeper.

The next day we got to do what I wanted: the Toyota Automobile Museum. It is out by Nagakute, site of a famous battle from the Warring States period, and the only time when Hideyoshi and Ieyasu faced each other in battle. There was of course no question of actually visiting the battle site--my wife would not be at all happy. By the end of the car museum she was getting distinctly bored as it was.

I wasn't. Well, okay, maybe a little, as it's organized by age, so the ones at the end of the route are cars that were common on the streets just a decade or so ago. They simply can't compete in terms of interest with cars from a century ago, or rare models from long before I was born. There were a lot of really impressive cars there, including some very famous models and makes. Time for a load of car ****....

 

Don't care. The 2000GT IS Sex on 4 wheels. Sod the E-Type! The 2000GT is the most beautiful car (apart from the XJ-S) ever built. Toyoda knew how to build emotional cars. They just weren't allowed to. Emotions don't sell well...

 

More pics of the 2000GT for you then - which I agree is a very good-looking car indeed. Much more so than the LFA it was sitting next to.


Look at how much slimmer and sexier the 2000GT is....

Dashboard by Yamaha....

Not sure about those bumper. Very sure about those pipes.

One looks like a sports car. The other looks like a bodybuilder on too many steriods.

Those wheels/tyres....

 

Gorgeous! It really is a work of art.

 

i think designers these days spend too much time in wind tunnels and looking at the drag stats which make a lot of modern sports cars look the same. They should spend more time looking at women. this may be an over generalisation

that 2000gt looks wonderful

 

If you think along the lines, the GT86 has very similiar lines. People see the hommage to the AE86 but I see it more so with the 2000GT.

 

I agree with Leo's opinion.
I think car design have changed from " Work of Art " into " Result of Calculation" / from " Idea of a genius " into " Product of Collegial " ...

 

And it's a horsepower war. Moah Powah!! Nobody, ever, needs 500+hp outside a racetrack. Least of all for a large luxury sedan.
One big problem, however, is safety. Pedestrian impact zones means higher fronts so you don't send the pedestrian flying over the roof or something. High waists for more side crash protection. Thicker pillars for airbags. Cars are getting bloated.
You want a safe car? Give the driver the sense that an accident might actually hurt....

 

Safety and Low emission dominate Automobile marketing strategy and the government also requires more safety and lower emission car by regulation and law. I think the movement is unavoidable because this is a sound argument. So automobile will converge same design and spec and feel more and more. We should keep our Jag for long time, the car like XJS will never be made in future.

 

If it wasn't for the SUV rage and truck models of the same size, you wouldn't need high sides with window stripes. Look at say Volvos from the 80ies. They aren't high cars. But they are safe cars. And even in the early 90ies, the NHTS safety pick was the Volvo 240, a car developed in the 70ies.

And the front end height is easy to adjust as well. Subaru show you that. A bixer engine. A low, flat engine (though it does required some width) allow for enough space for a person to impact on but also keep some pretty lines.

Just compare for example the amount of height above the front wheels to where the wings end to a modern car. Heck, the XJ-S has basically nothing. But also that long bonnet aids pedestrian safety, as they will normally, if hit, will smack into the V area. The bonnet has enough space between the engine and bonnet to allow for an impact. My XJ8 has a lot less. And I mean a lot less.

The biggest problem though is people WANT SUV because marketing says so. So that means everyone else has to suffer. Thin pillars are a thing of the past. Elegant and sleek designs too. All you get is crud with iceing.