CC hunting at night is not usually very successful. This exceptional Isuzu Bellett coupé is the exception that proved the rule. Well, what it really is, is it shows that there are still a number of CCs hiding in plain sight in my neighbourhood.
The car cover is the bane of the CC hunter’s existence. These abominations are widely used in Japan, where folks like to keep their car clean and have fewer options to garage them. In this instance, all signs point to a big American two-door of some kind — late ’60s or early ’70s. Frustrating.
Sometimes, of course, the car’s distinctive shape can inform the onlooker as to its identity. Hi there, Mini Cooper.
Sometimes, the dreaded car cover can even be so considerate as to provide information about the marque of the car it is protecting. The folks at Daihatsu went so far as to putting the model name on the damn thing. Too kind.
But when all you see is this, it can be difficult to ascertain what is underneath. Besides, even if you do figure out that there’s a classic gem hidden there, you still can’t take a photo. In this case, the tell-tale sign should have been the fender mirrors, which the majority of cars dispensed with in the mid-‘80s. Though I passed by this car many times in broad daylight, it never caught my eye.
Little did I know of the eminently CC-worthy JDM coupé lurking under there, until a fatefully late and rainy evening. I was on my way home from a drinks party, passed by this little parking area and stopped in my tracks. Now, it might have been a combination of beer goggles and low lighting, but I thought this Isuzu looked fantastic.
As far as I know, the design is home-grown, though there are rumours of Giovanni Michelotti having been involved. He did work on a number of Japanese cars in the early ‘60s (e.g. Hino Contessa, Prince Skyline coupé, Daihatsu Sport), but in the Bellett’s case, it’s unclear whether he had a hand in the saloon or the coupé, or both. Or, indeed, either.
As far as the Bellett coupé is concerned, whoever penned its lines must have had a couple photos of the 1960-66 Alfa Romeo 2000/2600 Sprint on the office wall. The Alfa was one of Giugiaro’s early efforts while at Bertone; he was definitely involved with Isuzu to create the 117 Coupé later in the ‘60s, but he’s not suspected of having any involvement with the Bellett.
But the “Japanese Alfa” vibe goes beyond looks. The whole Bellett concept was something of a new departure for Isuzu. After years of assembling Hillman Minxes and Diesel trucks, the company had created its first entirely new car in 1961. Unfortunately, the Bellel was beset by problems. After a difficult birth, it had a tough life, punctuated by a premature death in 1967.
Isuzu Bellett brochure, 1963
But the Bellel was a relatively big car – an attempt at competing with the Toyota Crown or the Prince Gloria. Isuzu simultaneously worked to keep their share of the owner-driver 1500cc family car bracket, where the Hillman Minx was making a killing. In an effort to wean themselves off Rootes, Isuzu introduced the Bellett saloon at the 1962 Tokyo Motor Show and progressively abandoned the Minx.
The Bellett originally featured a 1.5 litre 4-cyl. – nothing too special, just a decent and reliable OHV engine. Power was sent to the rear wheels via an all-synchromesh 4-speed gearbox – slightly ahead of the competition, as 3-speed and partially synchronized gearboxes were still common in 1962. But the real ace in the hole was the IRS: Isuzu were definitely ahead of the curve in this regard. Also, the Bellett was available from the get-go with a 1.8 litre Diesel – not a common thing in the early ‘60s.
The quad squad – clockwise from Bellett: Isuzu, Toyota, Datsun, Prince, Mitsubishi, Hino
Isuzu aced out their competitors with the modern-looking Bellett, which sported trendy quads (except on the lower-spec models) and eschewed the fins still present on comparable domestic saloons. Nissan and Toyota fought back with the Bluebird 410 and the Corona T40, launched in 1963 and 1964 respectively. The Prince Skyline S50, launched in 1963, also boxed in the 1500cc category. Hino’s 1964 Contessa PD only had a 1.3 litre, but it was in the same category size-wise and was the only one (other than Isuzu) to offer all-independent suspension. Mitsubishi belatedly got their act together with their Colt 1500, which came out in late 1965.
All the Bellett variants, save the GT coupé
All followed Isuzu’s styling lead, to an extent, and most emulated the Isuzu’s variants as well: wagon, sports coupé, two-door sedan and pickup variants were expected in this category. But only Isuzu made a nearly full array of derivatives. The Bellett existed as a four-door saloon (including a low-spec 1.3 litre variant), a two-door sedan (middle left – a late model) , two- and four-door Wasp pickups (bottom pics), GT coupé (not shown) and two-door Express wagon (top right, a 1966-67 model). Covering all bases, Isuzu even launched the Bellett B, with a bigger trunk and the pickup’s live rear axle made chiefly for the taxi trade, in 1966.
The GT was the halo car, of course. It was launched in 1964 as the 1500 GT and gradually improved with disc brakes and an extra 100cc (in 1965), and later a SOHC version of the 1.6 litre engine. A fastback variant was introduced in 1967 (top right), but seems not to have had much success. The infamous 1600 GT-R arrived in 1969 (bottom right), with the 117 Coupé’s 120hp DOHC engine – best of the breed performance-wise, but also one of the rarest: only 1400 units made in two years. Finally, in November 1970, the 1800 GT was launched.
Our CC is an early model 1800 GT, as the Bellett range was given a general makeover for MY 1972 that affected their grilles in a rather unfortunate way. But for their introductory year, 1800 GTs were closely modelled to look like the 1600 GT-Rs, making these ’71 coupés very attractive nowadays. The engine is a 1817cc OHC 4-cyl. churning out almost as much as the DOHC 1.6 (i.e. 115hp), but provides a smidgen more torque. There was a single-carb version called 1.8 GTN as well, which only had 100hp. The coupés lasted until early 1973; Bellett saloons were phased out in favour of the Gemini in late 1974.
For clarity’s sake, I will adjoin a brochure shot of the interior to what I managed to capture in vivo…
Isuzu made this galaxy of Bellett models, from the dimmest of pickups to the brightest of coupés, for just over a decade, powered by anything from 1300cc to 1800cc engines (both petrol and Diesel) with OHV, OHC and DOHC heads, with or without IRS, some with automatic transmission, and so on. Spoiled for choice, how did the customer respond? By taking a look at the competition and buying one of those instead. Isuzu made just under 172,000 Belletts all models combined, of which about 10% were coupés.
What was it about Isuzu that made them perpetual underdogs, even on their home market? Comically-worded advertising like the 1968 example above? Well, no. That kind of silliness is par for the course. Nobody could read the English script – they still can’t, in many cases – so few understood how unintentionally funny these were.
Was it strangely obsolete details, such as external hinges on the trunklid or the floor-mounted gear change? Exposed hinges could still be found on most of the competition too, at least in the mid-‘60s. (They did look a tad passé by 1971.) Having one’s four on the floor was a mark of sportiness, in those days – Astons, BMWs and Maseratis had those, as did the higher-spec Skylines. If anything, those were on their way back by the late ‘60s.
It wasn’t that Isuzu shirked from conquering foreign markets. Belletts were exported to Australia (as evidenced by the 1967 advert above), Benelux, New Zealand, Scandinavia and, albeit quite modestly, to the US. Heck, Belletts were even assembled in Nova Scotia for a few months, during in their mid-‘60s heyday. Double heck, Studebaker even seriously considered producing the car in Hamilton, possibly with an elongated “S” badge in lieu of the unknown Isuzu brand. Wouldn’t that have been a lark?
And perhaps Isuzu’s relatively murky brand identity, coupled with their smaller dealer network within Japan, can help explain why they sold as many Belletts in a decade as Datsun were selling Bluebirds every year. Bellett production peaked at around 35,000 in 1966 and shrank to insignificance (around 6000 / year) by 1970 – perhaps the plug ought to have been pulled before 1974. But Isuzu lacked the capital to engineer a replacement, which turned out to be GM’s T-car, with the Bellett’s engine and transmission.
It might have been wiser for Isuzu to focus their range on fewer variants. Fragmentation is never a great recipe for high returns on investment. Did they really need two coupés and a two-door sedan? Not to mention the tooling costs for that peculiar four-door pickup. The mind boggles. Likewise, the expensive-to-develop IRS, great though it was, did not reappear after the Bellett’s demise. They didn’t even bother adapting it to the Florian or the 117 Coupé, where it would have made some sense.
In the mid-‘60s, Isuzu were rumoured to be in for a merger with Mitsubishi, just as the Hino / Toyota and the Prince / Nissan hitch-ups were being worked out. This never took place and Isuzu flirted with Nissan for a spell, before figuring that salvation lay in a foreign marriage – other Japanese carmakers would have snuffed out the marque’s car line, just as they did with Hino and Prince. If nothing else, the Bellett showed that isuzu had engineering wherewithal and design capacity to rival the big boys, a fact that doubtless impressed GM enough to make Isuzu an offer.
This Bellett, made a few months prior to this GM deal, is a good specimen of the original Isuzu: brilliant in many ways, but also quixotic in their determination to exist in a market that always saw them as a third-tier carmaker. They tried to make a truly modern Japanese family car and succeeded. However, they didn’t have the financial clout to switch to a new generation after five years like their competitors, so the ‘60s Bellett became a ‘70s anachronism, albeit very cool one. Best kept under wraps.
It’s hard to not to wonder if the Bellet name came from the same source as the Mitsubishi Starion, (possibly a local translator who liked reading pulp Westerns with bullets and stallions?).
There still seemed to be plenty of these here into the ’90’s, with name for being tough and reliable cars. The very pretty GT coupes always seemed to have some hoon in possession as time passed, with fattened wheels and farty exhausts fitted. That may well have been because they raced them at Bathurst here, though in fairness, they raced everything short of the Goggomobil at Bathurst here.
A very pleasant thing to bump into on your stumble home.
Stroll, I meant I meant, stroll home.
Nice find. With the DOHC engine, these were the definitive Japanese hot car when I first got here in the early ’80’s.
The two-door looks sort of like a baby Bristol.
There were quite a few of these in Harare, Zimbabwe when I was there 1996-99. They are very pretty cars. I am surprised to learn that these are from the sixties, as at the time they struck me as having a look I associate more with late seventies/early eighties Japanese cars.
Great find. And it’s remarkable given how so much of the Alfa 2600 coupe was obviously and blatantly copied, yet it comes across as quite different too. Clearly the Alfa’s details were added to a body that lacked its basic shape; the Alfa is a piece of sculpture with flowing lines from front to rear, that make it so unique and timeless.
Nevertheless, the Bellett coupe is quite attractive and works.
Oh no no, to me, the Alfa is quite the gawky hodge of podges, and very much rooted in its time. By odd coincidence, the Bellet actually looks as improved in real life as the Alfa does awkward: photos somehow adjust the Milanese car to slightly exotic levels it does not possess, whereas the Isuzu is unfairly and mystifyingly dowdified.
You’ll have to find another website if you’re going to start saying things like that, this may not be the site for you.
( I forgot to add in my comment that the Bellet might well have had IRS, but it was swing axles, my permanent winner of the Worst System Ever – I’ve never mentioned it here before – as the racing pic above clearly shows. It didn’t win, btw).
Whatever you say….
Except it wasn’t swing axles; looks can be deceiving. It was semi-trailing arms, like BMW and others at the time. The image that shows the chassis is not showing up on my laptop; apparently not on yours either. But it’s in the post. The invisible chassis.
Ah! It is alas chassisless here too. But on your point, you are right and I am wrong as you so often are.
The old road test I had (incorrectly) referred to swingers, but it’s in truth trailing arms and coils with the weird addition of a transverse leaf across the back. Only needs hydro-pneumatic torsion bars to complete the set, really.
No! It turns out my change of mind was as premature as I apparently was, if more reversible.
The link is the owner’s manual: swing axles, it says.
http://isuzubellett.com/pdf/bellett-owners-handbook.pdf
Well, it also looks to have semi-trailing arms. But what’s not clear enough in any pictures is if the axles are jointed at the wheel. Maybe not? In which case it’s a bit of an oddball.
Here’s another image, also not clear enough:
But from the description in the manual and the camber change in pictures, I think you’re probably right, as always.
I was going to say, I thought I remembered them having swing axles too, Justy. Yet the picture in the ad clearly shows what appears to be a normal semi-trailing arm IRS. Are we conflating several sources here? Did they maybe offer both systems, in addition to the solid axle from the pickup, for a choice of three rear ends? Maybe the semi-trailing arms replaced the swing axles in later production? Or maybe they were saved for the Type Sporty, and the Type Gentle got the swingers?
Only the Shadow knows.
Isuzu has to be one of the, if not the, most underappreciated marque(s) in the US, most people have no idea what they produced or the breadth of their product line, of course the majority of it was never brought here, so…
This looks like a delightful small coupe to cruise around in, I’d think it would look quite good as a convertible as well.
The car covers do a very good job of camouflaging the cars in most cases, I recall you and I spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out what was covered in the back courtyard at the Toyota Museum, this pic is on maximum zoom. The wind was whipping the cover around disguising it more, but eventually it became obvious that it was a Corvette, an entirely unexpected sight there.
They also made a lot of stuff that was usually unglamorous, but always exceedingly tough. Plenty of Isuzu Monteros (I think?) in Oz, because they were sold as Holden Jackaroos, as were many, many “Holden” Rodeo 1-ton utes, all for years on end. They all seem to be still on the road!
When the Australian army replaced its late-fifties/early-sixties Landrovers in about ’83, Landrover based models again won the tender – but equipped with a stonking great lump of an Isuzu 4-litre diesel four! They only retired the old buggers in fairly recent times, too.
Jackaroo I believe was our Trooper. Montero was the Mitsu Pajero everywhere else.
Both had good reps here except for a small rollover incident reportage for the Trooper at one time…
You may be thinking of its blue blooded brother, the Monterey?
(Also the name used on Vauxhall and Opel versions)
Yes, I remember that hidden Vette… It’s a black 63, as Google later informed me.
What I find funny here is the car covers they have for only half the car – the half that sticks out from the front porch. Nowadays when literally everyone is walking about with a mask on, it looks like the cars are also scared of getting COVID.
The Bellet rear suspension looks very strange – the bar across the back seems to be a ‘helper’ spring. If it was pivoted in the middle it would work as a camber-compensator like they used to make as aftermarket mods for swing-axle cars, but it seems to be rigidly fixed.
Isuzu was well into the car business for a long time casting engine blocks for Todd motors to be used in Hillman Hunters well into the 70s they must have kept the tooling around from their Minx days and updated it to 5 main bearings, The Bellet was fairly popular back in the day in NZ though we only got the sedan but it was the only Japanese car with any handling ability the rest came in for criticism for their numb feel and shocking roadholding very rare here now though I havent seen many live Bellets since my return Isuzus last Minx was the early 59 series 3 they didnt do the later 59 3A like my one though I dont when the last series 3 was produced, and they built them not assembled them.
I wasn’t aware that the Bellett was ever exported to the United States. It was definitely exported to Canada, and even produced there via CKD kit as you alluded to, but I can’t find anything concrete that points to it being sold in the US. As far as I can tell, although the Bellel was sold in very small numbers in the US (though not officially imported by Isuzu), the Bellett was limited to Canada.
There were quite a few of these in Cape town in the early 70’s, all from Zimbabwe.
They stood out from the general Japanese offering, all being in the hands of enthusiasts with spirited driving on their minds. I thought them characterful, reminding me of Alfa. I haven’t seen one in years.
The Chevette/Kadett/I-Mark/Gemini stretched platform based Impulse/Piazza replaced both the Bellett and the 117 Coupe’ in the 1980s.
A buddy of mine had 2 Bellel diesels. One of them pops up on the bay every now and then. He liked them except that the diesel was woefully underpowered for the freeway. I really like the Bellett trucks.
Isuzu were more renowned for their light and heavy duty trucks than they were for their cars.
Their dealer network was geared more towards selling these than passenger vehicles, which were often treated as window dressing.
They also excelled in sport utility vehicles like the Trooper before these became fashionable.
Sadly, their alliance with GM did them not much good as GM cherry picked their best offerings and usually marketed them under their in-house brands, not giving Isuzu much exposure overseas.
I would have to say the Chevy LUV (72-80) was the most successful Isuzu product sold in the USA.
so nice to have found this web page. I had 2 Belletts. A light blue1963 model and a burgundy 1966 model. Great cars, built like iron bath tubs and could go really well. Ah those were the days …