30 Apr 2016 – Driven To Write

What A Month It Has Been!!

…as they like to say in the world of automotive print journalism.

We covered a lot of ground in our theme of the month, Japan, and the response from our clique of readers has been heartening. Most of what I read this month from our readers and contributors was new to me, as was the material I waded through when researching my own items.

Dealing with the Japan theme first, Sean Patrick and others handled the origins of Japan’s post-war development. The general theme is that Japan watched closely what Europe did but its selection of references showed its special set of values and interests. We dealt with notable examples of Japanese concept car design, production design. and the state of the product ranges. Under the production cars, the kei car phenomenon came under scrutiny from several angles such as this and this along with a few apparently randomly chosen examples of neglected classics and unloved daily drivers. Continue reading “What A Month It Has Been!!”

They Must Be Doing Something Right

Lately I have been wondering about the plight of the mainstream manufacturers, what with their customers being more and more enthusiastic about premium brands’ bargain-basement vehicles.

For a change, it’s lots of big and non-red numbers at Ford. Even in Europe they managed to turn a profit. South America showed less lovely results and Africa is a mess. These are the highlights as copied and pasted from their report: Continue reading “They Must Be Doing Something Right”

Theme : Japan – Isuzu’s Sporty ’60s Sophisticate

Driven to Write profiles an unjustly forgotten Japanese outlier.

They say the alcoholic always remembers his or her first drink. I can’t remember mine, so I guess I’m clear on that front, despite none of my assorted ethnicities being notable as strangers to the bottle. On the car-spotting matter, it’s quite different. I can remember seeing my first Ro80, XJ6, and Miura with complete clarity, including colour and location, despite the passage of four and a half decades or more.

The same is true of my first sighting of an Isuzu Bellett. Dark blue 4 door, Market Street, Sydney, June 1992. The Bellett had embedded itself in my automotive consciousness long before, the curiosity fired by reports in Autocar and Motor of saloon racing and rally successes which suggested that this was something out of the ordinary, from an industry about which we were told little. Continue reading “Theme : Japan – Isuzu’s Sporty ’60s Sophisticate”