Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: Isuzu Bellett

Isuzu Bellett and Florian passenger cars – How many are left?

At a time, Isuzu imported Bellett and Florian passenger cars into the Netherlands. This started back in 1963 when the Dutch company Seinen in the Hague started importing the Isuzu Bellel and Bellett. In fact, Isuzu was the first Japanese car company to set foot on Dutch soil. The Bellel (with diesel engine) was mainly sold to taxi operators because what better way to prove reliability than running it as a taxi. Naturally, this also backfired when they proved to be far less reliable than their European counterparts. Toyota repeated the same strategy with the Crown and was successful as the Crown proved to be a reliable car. You could argue Isuzu was a pioneer and Toyota followed and succeeded.

Isuzu Bellel used as a taxi in Amsterdam or The Hague
Isuzu Bellel used as a taxi in various Dutch cities like Amsterdam or The Hague

Near the end of the decade, the Bellel was replaced by the Florian. By 1972, the Bellett was replaced in Japan by the Isuzu Gemini. The Gemini is an Opel Kadett C built in license through General Motors. Opel has a very strong foothold in the Netherlands and therefore the Gemini couldn’t be sold in the Netherlands.

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Rustheap junkyard – Japanese rustoseums

According to Daniel O’Grady from Wasabi Cars, rusty cars are slowly disappearing from the streets of Japan. This is mostly due to the increase in the price of steel and people actively knocking on people’s doors and offer to take them for free. Luckily I still have heaps of Japanese rustoseum photos in my drafts folder, so I have many more to post here on the blog before I run out of them!

This week we have a junkyard in the Kami district in the Miyagi prefecture. According to the blog poster, the owner doesn’t see it as a junkyard, but as a treasure trove!

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Brilliant: collection of Showa scale model cars

Now this was a big jaw-dropper: two videos of a Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 literally covered in Showa scale model cars. This must be the largest personal collection of scale model cars I’ve seen!
Brilliant: Showa scale model cars
Now if you look carefully enough you can see that each and every scale model car has its own special paint job (mostly kaido racer, race car livery or kyusha kai) and set of (rare) JDM rims! If you count the number of hours it took to make them look this way alone it already is an amazing job!

Now the list of cars, mainly from the late Showa-era, is going to be a lengthy one, but I’ll try to sum up the most important ones:

  • Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 (duh)
  • Toyota Soarer GZ10/MZ11/MZ12 (including the Shakotan Boogie Soarer twice)
  • Numerous Toyota Celica XX GA61
  • Toyota Celica GT RA45
  • Toyota Corolla Levin TE27
  • Toyota Corolla Levin TE71 four door sedan
  • Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 hatchback
  • Toyota Corsa AL11
  • Numerous Nissan Skylines C10, C110, C210, R30
  • Numerous Nissan Cedric/Gloria 230, 330, 430
  • Numerous Nissan Fairlady S30
  • Nissan EXA
  • Hasemi Skyline KDR30 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
  • Nissan Silvia S110 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
  • Isuzu Bellet GT-R
  • Mazda RX-3

And the list could go on for another 20 or 30 models that I overlooked…

Watch video number one: Continue reading

Puzzle: how did they get there with this Toyota S800?

Once again I was just aimlessly browsing through photos and bookmarks I made and I encountered this photo of two girls, a guy and a Toyota S800:

So it puzzled me: how did the three get there with that Toyota S800? I saw one in real life and that made me aware of the fact that fitting two average persons in a Toyota S800 is a real challenge, let alone three!

Well, when I looked futher on the Flickr page I found the answer: Continue reading

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