Get your hands on a Hino Contessa

[Skizzer]

That is super-hot.  Rear wheel camber is a bit alarming, but it's super-hot.  And normally when I see a Michelotti design I just want to give him a good slap.

[STUNO]

Wow, I wasn't aware of a coupe version. Looks a wee bit like a Renault Fluoride too. My memory of Contessas when new is that they were an improvement on the R10. It looks like they still had a swing axle though. Hino had assembled R8s and 10s in Japan for some time and decided to make their own car. So what do you make in an ex Renault plant without spending millions on rebuilding it ? A better one !

[Guest Breadvan72]

That is super-hot.  Rear wheel camber is a bit alarming, but it's super-hot.  And normally when I see a Michelotti design I just want to give him a good slap.

 

 

Whut?  Even a Stag?  GT6?  BMW 2002?  Assorted Alfas and Lancias?

[dollywobbler]

Whut?  Even a Stag?  GT6?  BMW 2002?  Assorted Alfas and Lancias?

 

Don't forget the Leyland National and Scammell truck cab. 

[Station]

The back end of that coupe is gorgeous. Michelotti uses strake lines on everything he designs, I think it looks great, like those old 60's fairground car rides/bumper cars.

[STUNO]

A bit of quick googling showed me that Hino had been assembling and /or selling Renaults for many years, back to at least the 1930's.

And a short vid of a display of Hinos, probably in Japan.

 

[Skizzer]

Whut?  Even a Stag?  GT6?  BMW 2002?  Assorted Alfas and Lancias?

Michelotti earns his slap for producing designs that are so nearly spot on but are spoiled at the last moment by having a bit too much wheelbase...

 

 

...or just having one bit of decoration too many...

 

 

...or both:

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

OK, knowing when to stop is important, but maybe it was when one of his assistants wrestled him away from the drawing board just in time that he would come up with the goods, as he mostly did for Triumph (although even as a Dolomite-botherer I have to say that the Dolomite design is a bit frumpy).