One of the original cars in Australia My name is Wayne. I was Honda Australia's Service Manager for a few years. We were located in Airport West opposite the old Melbourne airport. I know the Gold Coupe 9 in trashed condition on your web site. It was the Honda Australia Managing Director's (Mr. Shimazu) company car. It had a black vinyl roof and those same wheels. It came to Australia in 69, at that time the mainstay for Honda Australia was the Life Car and some Z'ed cars. When the first Civic's came to Australia Mr. Shimzu gave up the coupe 9 and it became a "Spare Vehicle" for senior staff to drive when their car was being serviced. I personally drove the car on many occasions and top speed tested it on the Tullamarine Freeway in the days when you could. We were a Coupe 9 family, I had a magnificent white Coupe 9 to which I fitted wide "Hot Wire" Mag wheels (which looked great) and every Japanese domestic trim I could buy through Honda Australia , my Dad had a Yellow coupe 7 and my sister a gold coupe 9. I sold my white Coupe 9 to a doctor when I got married to put the deposit on a house. While it set me off in home ownership I only wish I had been able to keep it. It's a shame to see Mr. Shimazu's Coupe 9 is such a sad state, it was a special car and certainly the only 69 model in that colour with those wheels and the black vinyl roof (which is now missing in the pictures) FYI, the yard at Airport West (suburb of Melbourne) housed Honda Australia's head office, warehouse, Service Centre (where we ran service schools for Honda Dealers) and also the de-waxing yard for Honda Civics. They came to Australia as deck cargo on ships so all had a very thick coating of wax, when they came from the ship to Airport West a team of guys would wash them with Kerosene and then high pressure soapy water. None were fitted with Radios so if the dealer wanted one with a radio it was fitted by the same de-waxing team. This continued for a few years until the cars were shipped below deck and the wax was not applied in Japan, also Japanese radios were fitted in the factory. Honda Australia was dynamic place to work in those years, Honda Japan would send out all their new models for testing in outback Australia (away from prying eyes). I can remember the first hand built Accord and every year they would send their new prototype snowmobiles for testing on Victoria and NSW snow fields. It's great to see people still appreciate Mr. Honda's master piece, the Honda 1300, it was a very special vehicle. Regards, Wayne