Rejects in unlikely places: James May's Cars of the People

[dinizintheoven]

He's Japanese! He's a Formula One Reject! And he's not Taki Inoue!

I'll make the spoiler in very small text, so those who want to watch James May's Cars of the People on iPlayer first can do so. For everyone else, I'm sure there are more underground ways of watching it, but go right ahead and paste this tiny text if you want to know what happens...

James May (on a Honda Super Cub) races Toshio Suzuki (in a Daihatsu Copen) around the streets of Tokyo to deliver a bowl of noodles to the head honcho of Honda before they drop below 50°C. There's even footage of Toshio racing... something, which looks like a Pacific PR01 in the wrong colours but I'd suspect is a Formula Nippon car.

Jamie! Enoch! Make sure this gets a mention on the next podcast!

[AndreaModa]

The guy living in the flat above me had one of those Daihatsus for a while. Traded it in recently for a great huge Lexus! Quite a difference on the driveway!

There was a clip of said unnamed reject when he was first introduced in a blue Holden-branded single seater. Was that Japanese F3000? Or was that just some dodgy library footage a la Talladega Nights?

[eytl]

There was a clip of said unnamed reject when he was first introduced in a blue Holden-branded single seater. Was that Japanese F3000? Or was that just some dodgy library footage a la Talladega Nights?

Having found a clip of the relevant episode and said Japanese reject, I see what AndreaModa means about the blue Reynard with the distinctly Australian (and un-Japanese) "Holden" on the rear wing.

Quite a few ex-F3000 (and presumably Formula Nippon) cars made it to Australia to race in what was variously known as Formula Holden, Formula Brabham and Formula 4000. I do believe the brief footage is of Australian driver Brenton Ramsay in a Reynard 94D. I don't know the history of the car and whether it has any connection with said Japanese reject or not.