1965 Isuzu Bellett 1500 brochure - Australian - 6 panels

[dave]

This brochure is a bit of a mystery; it appears to have been printed specifically for Australia, but note on the 4th panel that the diesel engine is detailed, with "diesel model not available in Australia" printed on there! Then why include it on the brochure?

It's possible this was a generic English-language brochure and that it was easier to do a special print run with some modifications to panel 4 than it was to totally re-format it. Whatever the case, it seems that this exact version is specific to Australia and what a cool brochure it is! And unlike another Australia-specific brochure already on this website, it's a high-quality item.

You may seem some weird stuff at the top of each page; this brochure was hole-punched by a previous owner. I've fixed it up as best I can with my limited Paint Shop Pro skills, but it's not perfect. And there's a word completely missing on panel 5, so if you know what it is please let me know! It was a fairly short word and ended in a 't'.

This is an A4-sized, purely landscape formatted brochure allowing wide, expansive views of the awesome Bellett!

The brochure cover shows just this with a handsome profile shot against a post-modern wall, along with a fashionably blurry shot of the sporty Bellett in motion down below.

1965 Isuzu Bellett 1500 brochure - Australian - single sheet, 6 panels - panel 01.jpg (196.15 KiB) Viewed 17871 times

The second panel is relatively devoid of Engrish, sadly. Again we see the happy Westernised Japanese people, the male channeling the suave Cary Grant from Hitchcock's North by Northwest, while the lady could be Audrey Hepburn. She's short, whatever she is; she's not much taller than the Bellett!

1965 Isuzu Bellett 1500 brochure - Australian - single sheet, 6 panels - panel 02.jpg (153.96 KiB) Viewed 17868 times

Panel 3 delves into the interior; plenty of room for your Kent cigarattes and gloves! This page also explains that the column shift/bench seat or the floor shift/bucket seat arrangements were no-cost options. Interesting, as with most Aussie cars that offered both, bucket seats and floor shift was normally extra.

Although this brochure is light on Engrish (compared to the brochure that describes the 'wide wiping wipers'), the notion of 'Fatigueless driving' while noble, is probably a bit of an advertisers liberty, especially as I'm fairly certain 'fatigueless' is not a word.

1965 Isuzu Bellett 1500 brochure - Australian - single sheet, 6 panels - panel 03.jpg (159.09 KiB) Viewed 17868 times

Panel 4 offers another awesome picture of a picnicking family with their Bellett by the shore of a lake. I'm not certain what the building is out in the water, but it looks excellent and the mist offers a surreal effect. Note that the 'top of the boot is quite flat'.

The third paragraph goes on to say that the Bellett is Australia's fastest-selling Japanese car, which was true for about 5 minutes until Datsun and Toyota woke up and started building decent cars (Toyopet Tiara, anyone?). And here's that remarkable diesel information; 'here's the engine - you can't have it' is what it's saying. Appears to be set up for column shift too, interestingly. Perhaps the option of diesel was going to be offered in Australia, only to be cancelled at the last minute. The 'not available' text is in a different font type, suggesting it may have been a last-minute inclusion.

1965 Isuzu Bellett 1500 brochure - Australian - single sheet, 6 panels - panel 04.jpg (129.02 KiB) Viewed 17869 times

Panel 5 gives a bit more info on the Bellett along with a great shot of it fanging through the mountains. Interesting to note that Isuzu thought to mention the car was 12 volt; the Belletts greatest rival in 1965 would have been the VW Beetle which was still a 6 volt system.

At the top, right hand side of the page, if you can let me know what the missing word is (it ended with a 't'), then that would be great.

Apparently the front-hinged bonnet cannot fly up at speed. Some Bellett owners may choose to dispute that; if you haven't clipped it shut once you get to about 50mph, it starts to hover a few inches above the bonnet line! Of course, it's easy enough to reach out at shut it on the move if need be! Don't try this at home..

1965 Isuzu Bellett 1500 brochure - Australian - single sheet, 6 panels - panel 05.jpg (174.22 KiB) Viewed 17866 times

Finally, here is the all-important specs sheet. Normally presented with both imperial and metric measurements, this brochure does away with metric measurements for most of the statistics. It seems Isuzu had done their homework as Australia still used the imperial system until about 1972 and most people didn't know much about voodoo stuff like millimetres and litres!

That was a fine brochure and unique in being the only Australia-specific, Japanese brochure I've found so far!

1965 Isuzu Bellett 1500 brochure - Australian - single sheet, 6 panels - panel 06.jpg (98.69 KiB) Viewed 17866 times

[2ldohc]

That's a good one! Weird with the diesel engine?

Nice picture of the complete tool kit at the end there. Does anyone have a complete tool kit or know what tools come with the Belletts?

I've got a set of Isuzu wheel chocks, bright orange in a little carry bag but no tool kit?

[AriNojd]

Above is one example from 1965 book.

Screw drivers are with wood head. Just like me

Ari

[2ldohc]

Cool, well I only have item 23 then

Good post though, thanks!

[dave]

Hey Ross, looks like you've got Item 24 as well; "Bag: Wheel Stopper!"

[MrJ]

Hi!

I still have the complete tool kit, all parts are original exept the tape. As you can see from the picture of the Parts List book that Ari sent, the tool set was not the same every year. As I've written my Bellett was manufactured and sold in 1967, but in Finland it was officially ´68, the "next year model" (square tail lights). But because of the manufacturing year I guess these tools are '67 tools.

Cheers
MrJ

[2ldohc]

Excellent pictures MrJ! Thanks for adding them to the forum, now I have an idea what they look like if I ever come across them

I think I saw item 13 in my shed too "Wheel cap extractor"

Thanks,
Ross.

[dave]

I just found item 13 in my manbag.

"key: distributor"