With its Italian style, racing heritage, and almost complete obscurity, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Hino Contessa would make for a hit at any Cars & Coffee or JDM car show. Let’s see what showing off just might reasonably cost.
Don Schlitz (no relation to the beer) passed away this past April. A singer and songwriter, Schlitz is probably best known for having, in 1976, penned the song “The Gambler.” While covered by several artists, the song became a number-one country hit in 1978 when it was released as the first single from Kenny Rogers’ album of the same name. The Gambler tells the story of two individuals meeting on a train, and at the payment of a last swig of whisky and a cigarette, one advises the other that “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em.”
I’m here to advise you that buying any old car is a gamble, especially when it’s a complicated German ride, far out of the warm embrace of its warranty. That was the dilemma we faced last Friday, when we looked at a 2007 Mercedes-Benz S 550 saloon. While it was clean and carried no implication of mischief being afoot, there is always the chance of something—anything—going expensively wrong down the road. Fortunately, our big Benz’s $8,400 asking price made that prospect a gamble worth taking, at least implied by the comments on the car and the 72% ‘Nice Price’ win it enjoyed.
Hino history
Okay, now let’s get a little funky. Today, we’re looking at a 1967 Hino Contessa 1300 coupe, a car with roots in France, Italy, and America, and a trunk firmly grown in Japan.
Hino Motors is named for the city where it was founded, just outside Tokyo. While its history dates back to the early decades of the 20th Century, the Hino name didn’t emerge until 1942, when the company built half-tracks and trucks for Japan’s military. The Contessa we are contemplating is one of a short series of cars built by Hino in the 1960s, a run cut short by financial difficulties that led Toyota to take a majority stake in the company. Today, Hino still exists, building medium-duty trucks and hybrid buses.
The Contessa was launched in 1961 in sedan, two-door, and coupe bodystyles. Hino had a business partnership with the French automaker Renault, which led to the first Contessa being engineered after that company’s 4CV model. In 1964, Hino heavily revised the Contessa, with styling from Italy’s Giovanni Michelotti. It was still a rear-engine design, with the water-cooled four-cylinder hanging out behind the rear axle line, and the radiator right behind. The standard engine was a 1,251cc four-cylinder with a single carburetor, producing 54 horsepower. Adding a second carb bumped that output to 64 horses.
Brock around the clock
While Hino’s auto-building exploits were short-lived, they did include plans to sell the Contessa in the U.S. To that end, Hino engaged with race driver and automotive engineer Pete Brock to give the car some bona fides on the race track. Brock took the Contessa racing as part of his Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) team, earning a win in an early outing at the 1966 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix held at Riverside Raceway. Later, Brock designed the Hino Samurai, a sleek, purpose-built racer for the company. The end of auto production stymied both the plan for entry into the U.S. market and on-track heroics here in the States.
This Contessa isn’t built for track exploits, but it does appear to have some hot-rodding. The engine looks to be fitted with a pair of Weber DCOEs, or their Japanese equivalent. It also has red ignition leads, which probably add a couple of ponies, too. Other mods include removing the front and rear bumpers and fitting a set of gold-colored basketweave alloy wheels. There are some minor dings in the bodywork, but nothing too egregious.
One of two in the U.S.
In the four-seat cabin, everything looks mostly well-preserved and pretty fun. There is no carpeting in the car, and the shifter has been exchanged for a comically tall lever and knob, both to the car’s detriment. On the plus side, there are extra gauges in the wood dash, and somebody’s signature on the glovebox door right next to a piece of tape that has a crudely-drawn guide to the four-speed stick’s shift pattern. Naturally, being a JDM car, it is right-hand-drive.
According to the seller, this is one of two Contessas in the U.S., and I had the pleasure of seeing this car at the Art Center Car Show celebrating Pete Brock several years ago. The other Contessa in the U.S.-ah (see what I did there?) is owned by car collector extraordinaire, Myron Vernis.
Our car comes with a clean title and an odometer reading of 35,000, which I believe is in kilometers. The seller says that this Contessa is “the perfect car for this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, where this year’s theme is ‘Icons of Japanese Motorsports.’
A historic deal?
That’s a lot to take in, and admittedly, this is a much more esoteric car than we’re normally used to here. That being said, I figured you all would want to see this, and if you weren’t aware of its existence or its maker, you’d appreciate the short, if incomplete, history lesson.
Now we get to the interactive part of the assignment. The asking price for this Contessa is $19,950, and I now need you lot to weigh in on whether or not that’s a fair asking, and also what you think about the car in the comments. Is this Hino a hero at $19,950? Or is that too much to ask to wallow in obscurity?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
Help me out with Nice Price or No Dice. Hit me up at robemslie@gmail.com and send a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your commenter handle.
