My bellett story and pics from Japan

[GTtoo]

Hi Senrioka and a warm welcome.

Dave warned me there is alot to catch up on Bellett.net, as i have had some abstinence from the site. Yours is definetely one of the great stories and we sooo love the pics .

B.

[senrioka8]

A few days ago, I wrote a long message and then tried to upload a pic and then, odd log in sign page appeared. I thought it was something wrong but I signed in, and then all of my messages were gone!!! ( I have experienced it some weeks back, too.)
I've lost all of my energy to rewrite again I do hope you'll tell me the reason why.
Of course when I opened my sign in page, I believe.

So, this time I decided to upload pics first and then write messages.

The first pic:
Nissan Bluebird 1200cc.
I got the driver's license in Sept. 1964 and just a few days later, I rented a car to drive around my town. I lived in the center of the Osaka city at the time and you can see Osaka castle in the background.
This Nissan Bluebird and Toyota Corona were rivals of Bellett in '60s .
Bluebird was designed by a famous Italian car designer but this slant tail style was not accepted by Japanese people. Toyota Corona had a ugly face, I mean front grill, with angular shape.
So, I and my family didn't take much time to decide which car we should choose.

The second pic:
This was another pic when I went to Izu island in 1966.
There wasn't any colour pictures yet at those years.

The third pic:
First long tour to Kyusyu with 1600 GTR in Jan. 1970.
This pic was taken at Aso highland which is famous with active volcano Mt. Aso.

Fouth pic:
My brand new Bellett 1600GTR!!
I had a date, a long drive to lake Hamana, with my girl friend in Nov. 1969 just after I got this GTR. Unfortunately, the pic is very fuzzy, out of focus, but I hope you'll imagine the brilliant brand new GTR from the pic.

Fifth pic:
I made a long trip to my wife's home town Tsuruoka city in Yamagata prefec.,more than 800kms away from Osaka, in 1971 to get her father's permission to get married with her. It was a very hot summer drive without any cooling system apart from the wind from the triangle window. As you can see the engine bay, the original colour of the DOHC engine was this colour with big air intake filter box. I have seen some with red colour or blue colour, but they were all replaced engines, I think. Beneath the air filter box, there were two Mikuni Solex carburetors, which were very nervous against accelaration. When you stamp on the accelerator pedal fully all at once, then the engine didn't respond at once. In case of 1600GT with twin SU carburetors, it was much smoother than GTR, I remember.
Weber carburetors made in Italy were said to be the top brand at that time.

Sixth pic:
Farewell to my Bellett 1600GTR.
In April 1983, I bought the first generation of Soarer 2000GT with 170 ps and it was the time to say goodbye to my beloved Bellett 1600GTR. Those several pictures, I showed you in my first post, were taken at the same date. I had owned her 13 years and had driven more than 160,000kms with her.
As you may know, when you buy a new car in Japan, most customers will sell the previous car to the dealer, in other words, the dealer will buy the customer's car with a reasonable price and they must sell the car again as a second hand car.
So, for the dealer, it will be much better to buy the car with low price, but on the contrally, for a customer, who owned the car for a long time with proper maintenance, expect a highly appraisal price to sell.
In those years, old cars more than 10 years old were not evaluated highly.
As for my GTR, since it's been passed more than 14 years but the Toyota dealer priced it as 300,000 Yen ( AU$3,750 ). One of the reason why they paid 300,000Yen was simply because Bellett GTR was one of the very popular sports cars among those nostalgic car fans.
Dave, so Hideki's red Bellett is very famous among your forum.
He and his bellett was introduced several times among magazines like " Old-timer" or " Garage Days of discontinued cars" and etc.

[BULLITT]

HI ONCE AGAIN SEN GREAT PICTURES AND STORIES , THE WHEELS ON THE BELLETT LOOK LIKE THE ONES ON DAVES GTR ? ARE THEY THE SAME ? THANKS AGAIN CHEERS DAVO

[senrioka8]

Hi BULLITT,
Thank you for your watching my pics.
The wheel of the GTR is stock wheels. They were the original GTR wheels with chrome rims and hub caps without any wheel caps. I liked the design of the wheel very much. One of the best degined stock wheels in those years, I believe. It looks strong and wild!

[pa_man]

Your Right, for stock steel rims they really do look great!!
Josh

[1968GT]

WHERE DO WE GET A SET OF THOSE WHEELS?
Not available I would say!!

[pa_man]

78-80 GE Sigma had wheels VERY similar, but I would say still very hard to get!
See pics in Post "Little beast part 2" page 2
Josh