The other day we spent a while admiring the perseverance of somebody who keeps an ’81 Cadillac Eldorado alive and in pristine condition, despite living in Iceland, not a country which The Firm With The Duck Spangled Crest has ever held as their number one target.
But then again, driving around in the reddest, shiniest ’81 Biarritz on the island is sure going to get you some admiring glances. You could say a similar thing about spending wheel time in today’s featured early ’70s Corolla- but the glances you’ll receive are more likely to be ones of shock, confusion, maybe even pity.

Click and large up the images to taste the patina

Of course, I’m generalising about The Human Race generally. Anybody au fait with the Hoonverse way of things is far more likely to smile and cross the road for a closer look.
I did. It was incongruously parked outside Harpa, the new Reykjavik Opera House. Upscale doesn’t begin to cover it.

As you’ll have seen from my survey of Icelandic Road Traffic, the island seriously knows how to make cars rust. It happens unremittingly and must be very hard indeed to stay on top of; I’ve seen cars a quarter the age of this venerable Toyota because the tin-worm has got its teeth deep into their flesh.
There IS rust, it would be implausible for there not to be. But it’s been kept in check sufficiently to be seen as patina rather than disease.

I’ve spent several minutes trying to assimilate the script down the side and can’t establish whether it refers to a website, a magazine, a club, a company or a sinister organisation that does something sinister with fermented shark meat, but whoever it is it would appear that this little wagon is central to its operation.
I saw this rocking about on several occasions in Reykjavik, and moving under its own power at least once, so it’s confirmed as a goer, which is nice to see.

There is a wealth of cool little details spread all over this cars dainty body; from the teardrop-like grilles coming from the corners of the rear quarter windows, through the fake intakes next to the front headlamps, to the oversized indicator lamps mounted under the front bumper (a handy piece of aftermarket “improvement”), there are so many things to look at.
Will we ever be able to say this about a Toyota again?
Or anything else, for that matter?
(All images copyright Chris Haining / Hooniverse 2016)