FUJI HEAVY DISEASE

Meet the world's most obsessive Subaru collector, who stashes his finds in a train station car park in Yokohama

- MARK RICCIONI

If you were to believe social media, the archetypal car collector should be a chiselled, brilliantly tanned entrepreneur with teeth so bright only the Large Hadron Collider could accurately measure the light they emit.

Most of these characters are usually found at the more insufferable end of the personality scale. But worse yet, this attitude gives very little insight into their actual passion for cars, instead functioning more as a peacocking exercise to showcase their wealth.

Which is what makes this particular collection all the more endearing. It's not located in a tax haven, rather the outskirts of Tokyo. But not some onsen-clad retreat filled with panpipes and geishas either. It's actually a car park under one of Yokohama's many train stations, accessed by thousands of commuters every single day. Hardly the venue for one of the world's largest Subaru collections...

Time to meet Akira Yokoyama - also known as Mr Boxer - who suffers from what he describes as Fuji Heavy disease. And no, this isn't the aftermath of another Fukushimaesque meltdown. But a nod towards Fuji Heavy Industries, parent company of Subaru before it was renamed in 2017, and the only carmaker Yokoyama-san will entertain in his pursuit of maximum happiness.

Mr Boxer isn't just collecting all types of Impreza, either. He did that back in 2014 before selling off all but four and starting again. "I love the Impreza, but I wanted to experience the models before its creation to better understand its history," he explains. And since then, every Subaru built since the company's inception in 1953 has become a target.