Cars – C. Buddha's Hasty Musings

Triton is no longer the Bang Saen Special

We wanted to transfer my lowrider to Nam’s name from her sister’s, in order to prepare it for possible sale. The prefectural inspection officer we ran into at the Land Transport Office either wanted a bribe and didn’t ask for it clearly enough, or was just having a bad day, and decided to insist that my truck was too low and had to be restored to standard height (which is technically not a law here). Either way, we were not in the mood to pay into corruption and thought it might be easier to sell the truck at standard height anyway, so we took it for modification to Nam’s old classmate across the street, who runs a garage in front of his house. Pics of the restored-to-stock truck will follow after I’ve replaced the tires to match the ride height. The photos below are just a remembrance of why I bought it in the first place (in honor of the lowered racing trucks AKA rod sing cruising the beach roads in Chonburi Province).

Gauge cluster (mostly wrong/defunct – true racer style)

A shift indicator – the first one I’ve used since learning to drive stick in a Porsche 944 35 years ago!

Pickle loves hanging out under the truck and in its shadows all day – it’s very secure

The shop pictured is the one written about above, but the photos are from a previous visit, when they were replacing brake pads and doing maintenance.

Faithful Steed

My daily ride, a 2005 Honda Wave 100S. A friend sold it to me cheap when he moved away. The most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned.

Toyota 2000GT Sighting in BKK

Somebody drove their original Toyota 2000GT through Bangkok traffic to a classic car show last week.

What a legend!

This must be the same car I wrote about being kept in an underground garage a couple years ago: Toyota 2000GT in Thailand

Credit goes to Kai Vorra-asd on Facebook: LINK

SUZU Truck with Cargo Crane

A year ago, on one of my daily walking routes. I see all kinds of vehicles here that I used to see in Japan – cars, trucks, ferries, heavy equipment. They often still bear company names and logos (other than the manufacturer) that were applied decades ago… It’s strangely comforting.

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Alice in Borderland Kujira Crown Chase

I need to get my Crown fixed and out of the shop – it’s been sitting there since the great floods a couple years back. It feels like it’s almost time.

Mitsubishi Triton for Sale

I love this truck and it’s actually been my only vehicle with twin 12″ subs, but daddy needs a minivan.

The truck is registered in Bangkok, but is currently in Maha Sarakham, Thailand. It is a 2013 model. The engine is the 2.4 petrol version that runs on 91 gasohol or E20. I bought the car a year and a half ago because my Crown got ruined in the great floods of 2021. The engine is just over 200k and was inspected and overhauled when I bought it. It runs flawlessly. This is a fun car to cruise in and the air conditioning is ice cold. Battery was replaced this week. Headlight assemblies are new; actual headlights are LEDs. Price is 185,000 baht OBO.

TEL / LINE: 0845136254

NOTE: The Hello Kitty air freshener is NOT included in the sale.

The Green VIP Party Bus

We just came back from a back-to-back four day trip to Pattaya and 8 day trip to Japan. I will try and document some of it here. The Pattaya trip was a 40-person corporate trip for my cousin’s company in Japan that Nam and I organized; it turned out well. It all started out with a double-decker bus we chartered to pick up the group at BKK. It was a pretty awesome setup and the driver, Noi, was very cool.

Upcountry Sidecar

Saw this girl being transported to school a while back

I still see something new every day up here.

It’s nice having a truck

Someday, I will make a list all of the vehicles I have owned over the years. A truck has never been among them, until recently. After our neighborhood and my precious Crown was flooded in 2022 (the Crown is sitting at my mechanic’s place, waiting for me to save enough money for a proper restoration), I needed new wheels. Since both of our kids were studying in the USA at the time, I figured we could get away with a standard size pickup and got a great deal on the Triton. It’s been great for carrying stuff around.

An older lady in the neighborhood was giving away huge potted plants, so Nam and I headed over to her house after work one night.

She told us the local name of the plants, which I have since forgotten, and I have since misidentified them several times. We originally thought they were giant lilies (Crinum asiaticum), but that appears not to be the case.

We gave the two shown on the back of the truck to Nam’s mom and kept the twins in the pot on our driveway shown in the top pic. The twins were eventually infected with rust, so I had to do some serious leaf removal.

Celica GT

I found this beauty at one of my go-to breakfast places in town – it doesn’t serve breakfast food specifically, but it’s open from early, so you can eat whatever they make from the early morning all day. I usually order several bags of curry, stir fries, soups, and desserts to take home. But hey, I got all excited talking about food, and this is a car post.

This is an original or reproduction Celica 2000 GT liftback, reminiscent of a mini ‘Stang from the same era. It might have the legendary 18RG engine in it. I’m still heartsick about what to do with the Crown (it’s been sitting in the back lot of a nearby body shop since it got flooded), so I didn’t want to stick around and wait for the owner to ask questions. But damn, it was pretty. I generally like my cars black, black, and black, but this color really suits this car. If I found one in crustier condition, I would wide body it and immediately change the wing mirrors…