Being exposed to a vehicle I’ve never seen or heard of before is a genuine thrill that doesn’t happen often enough anymore. A Hino Briska? But here it is, and Cohort poster Yohai Rodin shot it in Israel, no less. Why in Israel, of all places? Because it was built there, by a Kaiser division. And it has a Renault-based engine. And it’s so cute, to boot. That grille is even original too. What a find.
Before Hino joined forces with Toyota, and focused on only large trucks, it built the Briska light truck (and van), from 1961 through 1968. And its provenance is a bit unusual too. Its 896cc engine is derived from the Renault 4CV, the rights to which Hino bought for its rear-engine Contessa sedan and coupe.
In 1963, Hino inked a ten-year deal with Kaiser-Illin Industries, in Haifa, to build Contessas and the Briska. Later version of the Briska had a larger 1251 cc engine, making it decidedly brisker. During 1964-1965, Israel was the second largest market for the Contessa and Briska. Israel production ended in 1968 after Hino was purchased by Toyota.
If this is all news to you, it was for me too. This may be as obscure a vehicle as we’ve aver had here. Until next time.
Maybe Hino would have sold more in Israel if they included some pastrami with their brisket.
I never even knew Hino made cars and light trucks until very recently, given that the only products of theirs ever to make it to US shores were the medium-duty/heavy-duty trucks.
It is a great feeling to find out about cars you didn’t know about. I seem to recall reading about the Briska, but I think I didn’t know about the link to Kaiser and Israel.
And it is kind of hard to be surprised anymore, thanks to the internet. I remember when I was around 10, in 1998, and got a peek into one of those “All cars in the world” magazines. I remember seeing that they built Peugeot 505s in China. I was mindblown. China making cars?! I was shocked. Little did I know…
Neat truck! Something about the first shot reminds me of the Ford Courier (the front?), but in the second it is much more like a Toyota Stout what with the tall cab. Anyway, great find, I knew Hino built commercial trucks but not small ones like this, but since you learn something new every day, might as well get it out of the way early…
I had the exact same thought – the cab looks very much like a Courier / Mazda B.
I think I know that Hino made the T100 and I think I heard that here. Other than that I am surprised to see the name on anything smaller than a dump truck. Sure did see it a lot on the big rigs in Japan from 62-64.
Cute, even in semi-flat black. In baby blue it’s positively adorable.
Neat truck, but I wouldn’t dare show up on the job site here in the States in one.
Nice little truck! Reminds me of an early 70’s Datsun pickup.
SWEET ! .
Thanx Paul , I’d never heard of it either , Ilike the solid 1960’s design of it ~ looks like a ’62 or so Datsun 1200 pickup to me .
-Nate
Nice looking truck. I’ve heard of Hino cars and light trucks, but I’ve never seen one in person. Probably because they never were never sold in the USA.
Actually they do sell them here. They even build some in West Virginia.
http://www.hino.com/hino/story_1092.php
I knew Hino built cars (coupes and sedans) and recently found out the cars used a Renault engine…yet it never occurred to me there was a Kaiser-Jeep connection.
(Apparently) Hino stopped building cars about the time AMC started negotiations for Jeep. (Just a co-incidence though.)
That is something new. I’m not at home, but 99% sure Langworth never mentioned this in The Last Onslaught on Detroit. Even before they acquired Willys, Kaiser’s export division was their strongest asset, and the guys in Haifa were very entrepenural – they were cutting trunk lids out of Henry J’s a year ahead of the factory, and bartering cars all over Europe.
According to Mr. Ilyn, who was Kaiser-Ilyn’s boss, he was the victim of a conspiracy by the better politically-connected Shubinski (of Sabra/Susita) which ruined him. I believe there is some truth in this: in Israel back then you had to be connected to, or favored by the ruling Labor party, and Ilyn was an outsider. The factory turned to Hino after Renault decided to stop supplying it with Dauphine CKD kits due to Arab pressure; the Contessa, based as it was on the Renault seemed to be the perfect solution. The odd fact was that the big trucks were NOT imported to Israel (other than two isolated examples) – again this was due to political shenanigans (the government favored Leyland Ashdod for the production of heavy vehicles). Kaiser Ilyn also assembled Studebaker Larks and Jeeps (CJ, FC, Gladiator and Wagoneer). In fact, the last Larks ever to leave a production hall were Israeli ones, as late as 1967. They had a prototype updated Lark ready but by then it was too late.
As for the Briskas, I remember those well – they were fairly popular as the small tradesman’s pick up, competing on the market with the similarly sized Susita p/u. The 1300 model was far more stylish.
The 1300 (from the Benny Aviad archive)
We had the Contessa they were assenbled here but not this, An unseen vehicle for me and thats rare good find.
Here’s a comment from an Israeli friend of mine who knows more about cars in Israel than most… [Regarding the Hino Briska] ….Yes, of course I now it. The only true PU ever built in Israel. Well, sort of. There was a car made in Israel, called SUSITA, all fiberglass, morris 4 cyl engine, a piece of s**t, but it was also made as a sort of PU ala Ford Ranchero or an Australian Ute.
The Hino and the Susita in the picture have license plates in front stating that it is a “Collector automobile”. The Hino was not too shabby, and at the time it looked pretty good on the road. The company in Israel that built it was named Kaiser ILIN. Same company that built the Studebaker Larks from knock-down kits and the ’64 4-dr. convertible for the president of Israel that I researched.
Below is the Susita as a pickup
Well, with all due respect to your friend, Susitas never used any Morris engines, there were either Ford, Triumph or Hillman units. But he was right about it being a piece of s§$t.
Great find.
This sounds like a bad ” A Jew, a Japanese guy, a Frenchman and an American walk into a bar” joke.
Neat looking pickup though.
You want some weirder stuff?
A presidential Lark
FWIU the Arab-Israeli boycott did weird things to the Israeli car market – as a kid in the ’80s I noticed that practically all the news footage from there contained at least one, sometimes several, white Subaru sedans.
Of course, the appeal of a white car in the desert is obvious and some time later I learned that for a time Subaru was the only Japanese car available in Israel and substantially cheaper and/or better than most of the other options (wasn’t it down to them, the aforementioned Susita, Ford and the Germans at one point?)
As for the sedan part, being a Vermonter I had been getting used to seeing Subarus in wagon, hatchback and BRAT form until ’83 when they started offering 4wd on the full line…
NICE ! .
MORE weird Israeli photos please .
-Nate