Alameda Street Sighting - 1973 Toyota Corona Mark II

If you're a fan of old Hong Kong action movies, you've probably seen
some Toyota Corona Mark IIs ramping through the air and getting smashed into other nondescript Japanese compacts as collateral damage from a car chase. Or perhaps you spotted one of these as highway traffic in an episode of CHiPs. But apart from period TV footage, these cars don't appear to have survived in significant numbers. I was pretty excited to see this one on what Murilee Martin (of Jalopnik and The Truth About Cars) called the "Island the Rust Forgot", Alameda.

The MX10 Corona Mark II was a larger version of the basic Corona with a standard 2.6 liter inline-six cylinder engine for the American market. This one is a little beat-up, which is understandable given the difficulty of finding parts today. It still has its original dealer license plate frames from S&K Toyota in Hayward, making it probably a lifelong Bay Area car. I didn't look inside to see which transmission it had, but a four-speed manual is likely. A three-speed auto was optional, as were power steering and air conditioning. Note the factory steel wheels on the passenger side and Appliance wire mag wheels on the driver side. I quite like how the Appliance mags look on this car; they seem to be a popular vintage wheel choice for 1970s cars both foreign and domestic. It would look great with all the body and trim straightened out and a full set of the wire mags.