My bellett story and pics from Japan

[senrioka8]

I have never expected that a very rare car's, even in Japan, site exists in Australia.
I don't have a Bellett now but I have lived with Bellett more than 19 years in my youth.
Let me introduce my beloved Bellett which I had owned from 1964 to 1983.
I'm not a Bellett owner any more but still love it. I would like to have one again if I could afford it.
My first Bellett was 1500 cc four door sedan which was manufactured in 1964 when I was 23 years old.
1964 was a start year which was called "motarization" year in Japan. In other words, time has come when you can buy a family car ( it was called that way) less than a million Yen at that time.

Next year, I got a 2 door sedan (the first pic) and a year after I owned the Bellett 1500GT. This 2 door coupe has influenced definitely to my car life later. My ideal car in those years was a Alfa Romeo 2000GT and this Bellett looked very much like it.

In 1969, the flagship Bellett 1600GTR came on the market. I bought this car as soon as it's been released. Mclaren orange colour ( it was called at the time) with mat black painted bonnet!
120 hp was one of top power at that time with DOHC.
I have owned this GTR 14 years from 1969 to 1983 until the first generation Soarer came on the market from Toyota.

[gt orphanage]

Hello Senrioka
It's nice to here from someone in japan this may be the 1st post They are rare here too but they have a little group that love them and you found us. Your little red gt pr90 there are still a couple here but the others 2 door sedan was never sold here neither was the later gtr. There has been a small amount of dohc engines here that were imported after they were used in japan some got fitted into belletts.The four door 1500 sedan was the popular car here in the day and up until 15 years ago you could buy 1 any day of the week these days there are getting a little rare now also.
I was always led to believe that there was no belletts left in japan it was thought that registration issues in japan that they were destroyed after they got to a certain age. But when the internet became available it was good to see a few survived.
The toyota soarer was bought in as a used import and there are a few of them here also but we never had them imported new from toyota.

[redback]

Welcome Sen,

I bet you had a lot of good times in your GT.

Cheers for your story.

[mrflibbles]

welcome,
Its always good to see pictures of the cars from origional owners. Thanks for taking the time to share them with us, and feel free to hang around here and comment!

[PR95]

Hi and welcome,
Thank you for your story, and would love to hear more of your stories. I also have been involved with Belletts since 1969. and Bellett GT are very few and far between, and as said we never had GTR in Ausralia, There in only a couple of them here now. I have a 1972 GT, Bellett 1500 and a Wasp.
Cheers Geoff

[KJB]

Welcome Senrioka,
Those 1960's and 1970's photos are really good. Please post more photos if you have them. You will see many "early days" Bellett photos on this Forum incl. some of mine. It is good to be able to let other Bellett enthusiasts see these before they are all lost in time. It is great to have a former Bellett owner/enthusiast from the "Bellett Homeland " on the Forum. Please keep in touch and relay any other Bellett experiences that you may have had over the years.
KB

[BULLITT]

HI SEN ...THANK YOUR FOR POSTING ON THE FORUM ..WE ALL HAVE ONE THING IN COMMON ...THE LOVE FOR BELLETTS ..WE APPRECIATE ALL YOUR PHOTOS AND STORIES THE MCLAREN ORANGE GT WOULD FIT WELL IN MY GARAGE WHAT A LOVELY GT .. KEEP UP THE PHOTOS AND ANY OTHER IMFO ON OUR CARS .KIND REGARDS DAVO

[Farmer]

Welcome Senrioka, and thanks from me as well. It is really good to see these old photos, particularly of rare cars like your 1500 GT.
The 'Motarization' time corresponded with the big launch of Japanese cars into the australian market. They so outclassed other offerings at the time with great levels of equipment for the price, and soon earned a reputation for reliability that continues to this day.

Cheers, Matt.

[bembokabellettbloke]

great to see and Welcome!

[Early GT]

Hi and Welcome Senrioka!
Its great you have found our forum. I am interested... Was your PR90 originally painted red from the factory?
I am one of a few owners in Australia of a PR90 1966 model GT. I fully restored mine back in 1992 and have maintained it as well as I can since then. Here is a picture from last years Bellett Nationals, which may not already be on here.

Cheers,
Lewis

[dave]

Wow Senrioka8,

I think I can confirm that you are the first Japanese owner to join the forum! There have been some other people in Japan, but not any previous owners and certainly not any Japanese guys who owned a Bellett from the time they were released!

Welcome and please, put up some more photos!

Cheers,

Dave

[senrioka8]

Thank you very much for all of your heart warming messages.
Lewis, I was very much surprised to see such a clean and perfectly restored PR 90. It looks like a brand-new car! I do understand how you love Bellet.
About my red 1600GT.
This Bellett 1600GT came on the market in April 1964 and I bought it in 1966.
Only a week later, in September 1966, the second generation PR90 had been released.
Engine capacity has become a little larger from 1579cc to 1584cc and bore became 1mm smaller and stroke became 2mm longer, as a result, engine power became from 88ps/5400r.p.m. to 90ps/r.p.m, torque became from 12.5kgm/4200r.p.m to 13.0kgm/4200r.p.m.
Salesman didn't tell me anything about the new car that will be released within a week.
So I insisted to paint it "pure red colour" which I liked at that time as a penalty that he didn't tell me about the model change. But I liked the front grill with fog lamp very much.

I don't have many pics of this red GT but here are some other pics.

[pa_man]

Hi and Welcome Senrioka
Great Pictures, you never get Belletts out of your system.
Every time I take the Bellett out with a group or even just to get petrol you always
get people coming up to you saying they had one or new someone that had
and how great they were!
Josh

[GerryBellettGT]

Hi and a big Welcome,great to see your photo's,I also love the early model grill and dash,also the Tear Drop sedans,but its great to keep any Bellett alive and see the interest not just here but around the world,Gerry

[dave]

Senrioka,

I love all these photos taken back when the cars were new. Amazing to read that one of the photos was taken 47 years ago!

As one of the founders of the Bellett.net forum, I have been very happy with the amount of people who have joined our forum from all over the world. I realistically estimated we would have about 50 members in total and now we have over 200 members - people are on here from Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Malaysia, South Africa and even a guy from Russia joined at one point!

But was was disappointed that we didn't get more members from Japan! I know that the language barrier is probably an issue, but Google Translate goes SOME way to helping with that, although it's not perfect. I'm not sure if there are any other reasons why we have not had many members from Japan.

It's been great that you've shared these awesome photos with us - Japan in the 1960s would have been such a crazy place; it would have been changing every single day.

If you find any more photos of your cars, or even other cars and places you took pictures of, feel free to put them up!

Thanks again,


Dave

[senrioka8]

Hi Dave,
Thank you for your comments encouraging me to post again.
As you well know, one of the largest barrier for Japanese people is langauge.
Our Japanese language has completely different and complex sentence structures and said to be one of the most difficult languages in the world. Especially "KANJI" ( Chinese character ) makes it next to impossible to translate when you use a translation software.

Isuzu Belletts fans still alive in Japan but very few. A few years ago, I have acquaited with a Bellett owner through a Japanese SNS called MIXI and met him with his red Bellett. I'll show you some pics. I read in his facebook that he knows this Bellett Forum and have some friends.
But I don't know if he is a member or not.

In those '60s when Japanese motorization started, Toyota and NISSAN were the two major automobile makers and they took more than 80% of the market shares, I presume.
Rest of the 20% were ISUZU, MITSUBISHI, SUBARU, MAZDA, HONDA and others.
This is another reason why you don't have many members from Japan.

The reason why I chose Bellett was its style, design and performance.
I have read that develop department of Bellett aimed to make a soprty sedan.
No other makers had a floor shift transmission at the time and a separate seats, I remember.

I live in Osaka which is the second largest city in Japan but hardly encountered with a Bellett in the town, althogh I often drive and go on a grand touring.
There are some magazines specialized in old cars and there, you can find some Bellett enthusiasts and fan clubs.

[BULLITT]

excellent love the storey and photos thanks so much kind regards davo

[mrflibbles]

I recognize the red GT! it is a very nice car. I am friends with the owner on face book, and yes i use google translate alot, although the translation is not always correct! I love the model cars that you guys get over there and like following what the gt owner does with them! (and the trains!)
feel free to add me on facebook if you want, would love to see more vintage japanese cars!

[dave]

Oh yeah that's Hideki's car.

He loves his Bellett! And his models. Got some great train sets too!

We have communicated a few times, but I'm not sure if we're talking via Google Translate or if his English is rough. Either way, we get the point across!

Also Senrioka, I hope you enjoy the brochures on our site; I have more to put up but have not scanned any for some time.

Thanks,

Dave

[dave]

Actually, the photo of your GTR and wife from 1970 looks like it's straight from one of the brochures! Isuzu's marketing department made sure the models were seen in the latest Western clothes (snappy suits, mini-skirts, etc)... now those fashions are classic! Like the cars!

Cheers,

Dave