Sunday, October 23, 2022

Real Life TOMICA Transporter?

So I goofed.  I forgot to have my GT-R undergo the annual "shaken" process back in June.  Normally, I would simply drive my car to the nearest dealership and have them take care of the shaken required various checks, tax payments, etc. but given my position at work, I decided that from a compliance perspective, it simply was not appropriate for me to engage in non-legal behavior. Especially involving a Nissan vehicle.

As a result, I called around and found an alternative way to get my car to a dealer - by special transport of course.  In the past the transporters I have used were gigantic but uncovered.  Perhaps this is special compared to transport services outside of Japan, but in Japan these flatbed types are often used for cars with low ground clearance - hence you see a lot of sports cars and expensive vehicles being transported this way. Sucks when it rains though, like this incident four years ago.

From an older post - http://www.r33gt-r.com/2018/09/electrical-gremlinargh.html

So I was pleasantly surprised to discover upon meeting up with the driver at the prearranged spot in my neighborhood, that this transport looked a bit different.

Note the interior lights as well as the open right side. Interesting!

And yes it started raining on this day too...

So having the driver pull the car onto the loader was one thing but... does it bother you that the red third brake light looks more red than the afterburners? Or is this a function of the camera? Remind me to check next time...

Anyway when I asked the driver about the transporter style, he told me that normally this transporter was used to haul race cars and special cars such as development mules, prototypes, and demo cars.  Hence the covered construction.  Yes, I got lucky!

So I then stepped back and let him do his thing:


Note the use of flat wooden boards prior to the ramps

Fits perfectly

So check out this video clip. Love the engine rev!

Then it was a matter of getting everything tied down securely. I guess compared to race cars and secret prototypes my car isn't a big deal.




Once secured, the entire platform moved up onto the bed of the truck.


Yeah, hard to see so I took this video of the hoist up and then the sides getting locked up.


So what do you guys think? Gigantic TOMICA, right? On the other hand I don't expect to always get this kind of treatment, but wow this was special. 

1 comment:

マット said...

Awesome!!

As for LED brake lights, I had to go through a few different brands to get the correct red.