This particular Evo V probably has fresher memories of its Japanese engineers than most.

It was built in Japan, obviously, but it carried on living there until sometime shortly before or during 2009, when it first pops up on the DVLA radar.

As a Japanese import we can safely deduce two things about this car.

Firstly, that it spent its formative years in a culture where people tend to take pride in their cars and usually spend a great deal of time and effort cossetting them and making sure no harm comes to them.

Secondly, that it comes from a country where salt is thrown over the shoulders of sumo wrestlers, not chucked all over the roads in industrial quantities like it is in the UK.

Consequently, Japanese imports almost always arrive with somewhat cleaner undersides than their British counterparts.

The vendor is a self-described ‘car rescuer’.

Other people come to the rescue of cats and dogs.

He does cars.

When he bought the car in 2022 it had already made most of the journey...