Obscurity is exactly what makes us tick here at the Classic Driver office; the unrivalled joy we feel when discovering something that we didn’t know existed is what makes us thrive, so when we stumbled upon Bingo’s upcoming Collection 19 auction taking place on the 30th July, we didn’t just find one incredibly unique machine, we found a whole baker's dozen.
Out of all the listings, one well and truly stopped us in our tracks. Combining the simplistic nature of a car intended for the everyday driver with the Italian flair and character of De Tomaso, this oddball isn’t just your grandma’s old Daihatsu Charade in a figure-hugging red dress, but a rather impressive hot hatchback. The first De Tomaso Charade was a concept car fitted with a 1.0-litre turbocharged engine that was shown way back in 1981 at the Tokyo Motor Show. Four generations of the Charade would pass, and this 1995 example is emerged closer to the end of the model's lifespan, featuring a naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine. Displacing 1.6-litres and with a 16-valve head, the little firecracker made a raunchy 122hp. Notably, the De Tomaso branding was for Japan only, while all other countries got the slightly less-exciting GTti variant, yawn.
If the AE86-styled two-tone hot hatch is a little too potent for you, feat not. Bingo are some of the finest in the game when it comes to finding oddities, and this upcoming sale has plenty more to choose from. Just check out some of these quirky little things!
Chiyoda-ku, 30 Jul
