I can’t resist these old automobile Annuals. Today, we’re back in that magical year of 1967, when so many brilliant new cars appeared: Camaro, the second Mustang, the all-new Eldorado, and this car. Quick, what is it? It’s so familiar. Isn’t it?
The all-new Nissan Gloria A30, looking ever so much like the all-new 1967 Valiant. Except those stacked headlights, which of course were also to be found on the Valiant’s big brother Fury.
And its not only their looks that are similar. Their size is almost identical, and both sport six cylinder engines; the Nissan a 2.0 L with 107 hp, the Valiant a 2.8 L with 115 hp. Top speed for both is listed at 160 kmh (97 mph). Obviously, their intended mission in life was very different.
Although given the Nissan name at the last minute, the A30 Gloria was intended to be the Prince Gloria, but the merger of Prince and Nissan in 1966 meant that both the Gloria and very similar-sized Nissan Cedric/Datsun 2000 (above) were sold side by side. No mistaking the Pininfarina-designed Cedric for a Valiant though.
The Cedric was hardly “original” too, being a Pininfarina design. That always meant sharing one’s nlines with others. In this case, there’s more than a hint of Peugeot 504 here. Since the 504 came along two years later than the Cedric, Pinifarina’s work was already evolving, and it shows.
And the front end is very apparent here in the Austin 3 Litre, another vintage Pininfarina job. Want original? Head to Citroen.
Amazing. You had me guessing Dart (or Valiant) or Rambler American. The Japanese were really copycats back then, weren’t they?
It’s not so much that they were copycats, but that they were in need of a design language of their own and turned elsewhere for inspiration. Through the 60’s and 70’s, the Japanese had two major influences, Italian and American design. A not insignificant amount were actually penned by Italian powerhouses like Pininfarina, Michelotti and Bertone. The American designs were not copied outright, more in style and fashion than mere theft. Especially in the Brougham epoch. This divided almost schizoid view can be symbolized with this particular pair, the Cedric/Gloria twins.
Well put. Maybe I shouldn’t have used the word “copycat”. I was trying to be funny but it sounds accusatory. Was the Gloria also Pininfarina-designed? I guess at any given time, (including now) different cars often look very similar to each other, thanks to fashion and the constraints of technology and the packaging at that time. Whenever people complain about how cars all look alike now and wish for the “good old days” when you could tell them apart from 100 feet way, etc., I laugh a little — what about examples like these?
I think copycatting is a useful expression, used tongue in cheek. My personal view on Japanese design is that none of them got a personal touch until the late 90’s. Lexus and the “L-Finesse” may be the first truly coherent Japanese design developed by their own.
Coherence is they key here, ref Mercedes and Bruno Saccos “Vertical/Horizontal” design language. His thought was that a Mercedes should always be instantly recognizeable both within the group of contemporary MB cars, but also up and down in MB history.
The Japanese companies always had individual efforts that stood out, but they weren’t a coherent effort, not within the lines, nor in history. Bland, generic, functional and useful, but with not that much of flair. It has taken them forty years to catch up to knowledge that especially the Italian firms take for granted.
I won’t add much to Ingvar’s excellent commentary except to say that these two cars appeared at the same time, so I wasn’t implying that the Gloria was a direct Valiant clone. Their styling evolved along similar lines, and those evolutionary lines had been in the “air” for some years. The results speak for themselves.
Design rarely pops out of an isolation chamber (it’s pretty exciting and often too weird for most when it does). Designers chose what “air” to breathe, if that makes any sense. And as Ingvar said, the Japanese were breathing a lot of European and American air.
The Koreans, and now the Chinese are going through the same evolution.
Rambler was my first guess as well. If you hadn’t told me that was Japanese, I’d almost have said a Soviet copy of something. (I think it’s even LHD.)
Nissan 240 was first but not 67 must be an ancestor, the Gloria and of course the Cedric not many survivors from Japan of this era here they decomposed pretty quick
I love all of these American Copycat Executive Japanese cars from the 1960s, these and the Toyota Crowns that look like generic American cars.
A Holden 6 bolts right into these old crowns gives em a new lease of life Real popular in Aussie and Toyota even had a Crown ute for a while
This car looks heavily like Brooks Stevens’ 64 Studebaker.
I recognized some Peugeot 504 in those lines of the Cedric. It’s funny, because I saw that before I read that it was a Pininfarina design. I think it’s interesting, because they really don’t look that similar. Could you put up a picture of the 504 in the right angles besides the Cedric? They should even have been made more or less during the same time.
The Peugeot 504 was also my first thought when I saw the photo of the Cedric. Perhaps it’s the slightly droopy nose that’s common to both.
It’s difficult to know why there’s so much resemblence in feeling, when the cars don’t look that particularely alike. I guess it’s just the masters touch having a hand in it. Though I always get the feeling about the Italian jobs that the Japanese somehow botched the efforts on their way home. Like they outsourced the designing on the cars, just to make a lot of changes before production because they weren’t satisfied with the effort. So, a lot of them look slitghtly peculiar nonetheless.
Another thing I noticed is that the rear door on that Cedric is almost a dead ringer to the rear door of the Jaguar XJ6 Series III, that Pininfarina redesigned in 1979. Most of the work went in to the rear roof section, stretching and flattening of the roof and rear door. Je ne sais quoi, as they say. Whatever it is, Pininfarina left a lot of marks.
Ingvar’s right to some extent, Imitation is most flattering, especially where the Gloria’s concerned… I remembered my Late uncle trying to get a LHD Gloria into Canada, and Prince Motor’s Canadian operation became Nissan’s seeing doom for those who loved the Gloria… But I’m not worried as I’ll pick up the slack, and get one to honour him. He’s got a Chinese Red ’67 Valiant with a sandalfoot vinyl top. An’ the Gloria’d be the feather in an Eccentric’s big cap! Being a Chrysler family member, I’m proud that Prince —and Later Nissan had a Valiant soul mate!!!
These old Nissans evolved constantly the Cedric badge was used on the Laurel range in the 90s I considered a diesel Laurel when looking for my current car but though the drift kids like em they handle like a dog on lino
Hi Bryce, I have to disagree with you, respectfully!
The Cedric/Gloria were twins, and the Leopard/Cima were basically the same as the CedGlo (as they’re affectionately called in Japan); but the Cedric badge was never used on the Laurels.
Laurels and Skylines are the same as each other, just different looking bodies (and slightly less complex front suspension for the Laurels). As such, the Laurels are excellent handlers. The Silvia/200SX is effectively the same underneath too.
There’s an enormous amount of parts commonality/interchangability too – eg I had new shocks and rotors fitted to my Laurel this week; the shocks are 200SX, and the rotors are R34 Skyline. Check out google for hybrid versions of the cars – eg Lauvia (Laurel+Silvia), Laufiro, Lauline, Skyfiro, Skyrel, Skyline R32.4 (R32 front, R34 rear), Laurel C33.5 (C35 front on C33 body), etc etc. Hours of fun!
I’ve previously owned two diesel Laurels, a 1992 C33, a 1994 C34, as well as a 1994 R33 Skyline. I currently commute a 280km roundtrip to and from work daily, so drive a C35 Laurel diesel, which is quick (for what it is!), very economical, very quiet and well-built, and has a ride/handling balance my 2005 and 2009 Mazda 6s could only dream of!
These big Nissans arrived while I lived in OZ and are a new thing to me, I ended up buying a Citroen diesel plenty of go uses no fuel and corners on rails very few cars will corner with a Xsara even fewer better its the only thing I found as good as my old Peugeot 406 easy 1 hour Taupo to Napier in either of these at better than 45mpg and in my own lane, the Laurel I tested wouldnt do that but they are a good car especially the diesel the LD28 is great bolts into anything even Nissans.
Speaking of copycat design, how about those 1977 Toyota Celicas that were a 5/8-scale 1969-70 Mustang fastback? Some even came with the Venetian blind backlite covers as on the Mach 1!
I was thinking it was an Opel Diplomat. Never seen one in real life but I had the Matchbox car as a kid.
Reminds me of a Chevy Nova. But I think it’s an Opel.
Close, I think the back bumper is a better match on the Opel than the Valiant.
rear door window, not so much.
Looking at the cropped shot of the Gloria I did think it looked Japanese, but I would have put the Cedric down as a big Fiat before I read the caption.
Fiat 2300 looks just like it
Actually, the first thing I thought of was the 67 Chevy II/Nova sedan. The stainless strip that flattens off the top of the front wheel arch is right there in both. Certainly reminiscent of the Valiant as well, although both were kind of a generic scaled down shape of a full sized mid 60s US car.
Oh well, I was totally off; my guess was Opel/Vauxhall. The front of the Gloria looks like the offspring of a ’65 Ambassador and a ’66 Fairlane.
My first impression was Ford, somewhere around mid-sixties Falcon and Fairlane. Sure enough the ’66 Fairlane even has the vertical headlights.
Amongst us we’ve seen all the All-American Sixes of the 1960’s in that Nissan. They were all variations on the two-box straight-line generic look of the time.
There’s a seventies Maverick behind the Fairlane in this Wikipedia photo. Next chapter of the All-American Six story.
Thats a pretty rare Austin Paul, it was released into a market that didnt exist and its a 1800 landcrab body converted to RWD. I didnt realise Farina was involved in it.
Pininfarina designed the previous range of big Austins (A105/110), but I don’t believe they share any of the guilt for the 3-litre? A big, fat failure of a car, I nevertheless find them oddly compelling – the last of the big unnecessary cars (eg Humber Imperials) that were rendered unnecessary by Rover and Triumph simultaneously inventing what we now call “the BMW 5-series”, and Jaguar introducing the XJ6 – with big Fords getting better alongside.
AROnline is of course excellent on the 3-litre: http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/2011/07/21/the-cars-austin-3-litre-development-history/
Interesting link what a tortured gestation that Austin had, I love the way Issigonis stayed away from it his designs were bad enough and drove many mechanics mad trying to sort out BMC FWD cars endless problems. HE drove countless people away from BMC cars so when the Leyland merger happened there was only a corpse left
My first thought was Rambler Ambassador. Even the stacked headlights look similar.
Like these I visited a friends new toy last weekend
I’m a huge elderly-Nissan fan, loved the article. I always thought the original Cedric had Pontiac overtones, we didn’t get quite that Valiant model in NZ, so I never thought of similarities with that. I don’t see any Gloria/504 likeness though – although the Austin 3L front has a few hints!
The Cedric and Gloria were of course merged into one model line, differentiated largely by badging, for the models following the ones pictured. I have an extensive collection of sales brochures for them (mostly in Japanese though!) from the late 1960s to the late 90s.
Here in NZ we got the Cedric, Gloria, 504 and Austin models pictured – examples of all are currently listed on local auction site trademe.
NZ has an amazing array of cars and every time something rare comes on CC I do a trawl and usually find one for sale on TradeMe, a teacher where I went to high school had a 3litre Austin very fast by all accounts not up to a Jag 3.4 but not slow at all hardly ever see one now. Those Glorias I remember pulling the gearbox from one many eons ago The Nissan running gear had been replaced with PA Vauxhall then crashed and I bought the trans but they werent common at all