Personal Car – Who Stole My Caravan?

For the North American and South Canadian readers – the standing joke in Australia at Easter used to be the propensity of old fogeys to hook up large caravans to Toyota Crown sedans and then block two lanes of traffic everywhere as they slowly cruised around the country. Not quite a standing joke – more of a 20 miles per hour joke. The humour has declined with the passing of the Crown and its replacement by 4WD’s – they have more power and can now travel at 30 MPH…

This Toyota owner who exhibited his carvan tug at the Oakover Winery Hot Rod Show has decided to go for the lowrider look without jacking up the front end – Lord knows it gets up there when the caravan hitch hits the ball at the back – and achieved it with modern slim-line tyres. These are popular with the rice rockets here in the oriental suburbs too, though I cannot say whether they improve handling around the car park of the Krispy-Kreme on Leach Highway to any marked degree. At least they look good when they  turn on the blue under-pan lighting.

Looking at the lines of this Crown we must complement the Japanese for a reasonably smooth design. Heavily sculpted on the sides with the slab windows that preceded modern curved glass and bench seats – this were the days before whiplash existed – if your neck ached you rubbed it.

Note the rear quarter and the fact that this was made before the law looked at cars –  the tiny little turn signals look like they are afterthoughts – and not amber ones at that. Definitely made for the NA market.

Kudos for the owner for keeping the side trim – the white slab would be undefined without it.

Interior? I wonder what is under the Mexican blanket? Will he upholster the door panel in Mexican stripes as well? Are we saving up for roll and tuck? Does the radio work? Isn’t having only AM a bore? Too many questions to ask…

Never mind – this is a personal car all right. Hope the suspension agrees with the low profiles – it would be a nice sedate rider if you had thicker tyres. Just right for a caravan to the coast.