It goes much further then that.... in the early fifties the Japanese auto
companies decided to get the most up-to-date small automobile manufacturing
and design techniques. They did so by assembling European cars.
Datsun/Nissan signed a deal with BMC and assembled various Austin models.
Toyota assembled Renaults, etc. and Isuzu assembled Hillmans (I have two Isuzu
catalogs for Hillman Minxes from 1959-61 era). After gaining experience in
this way, the Japanese went off to build their own cars. If you have ever
seen a Datsun 1600 engine, you would swear it was a BMC "B" engine (as used in
teh MGA, etc.). Nipon Denso made Lucas equipment and it was sometimes sold in
the USA as replacement parts.
If you look up "Hillman Isuzu" on the Internet, you will find the Isuzu
PH10.....
Jan Eyerman
Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> wrote:
At 05:38 PM 12/7/01 -0700, Jerome Yuzyk wrote:
>I have read that Nissan bought several British cars of various marques,
>took them apart and studied them. From that the Fairlady was born.
Britain and Japan were really close trading partners prior to the Second
World War, and most Japanese industry began by adapting British procedures
to Japanese circumstances. Thus, early Postwar Japanese cars are simply
British cars as they SHOULD have been built. Go over a late-model Nissan
or Honda product and you will still see far more echoes of British than US
technology.
Marc
msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315
Cha robh b`s fir gun ghr`s fir!
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