Nissan

Nissan’s Flying Feather

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The Flying Feather was the brainchild of Yutaka Katayama in the late 1940s’ He Ryuichi Tomiya, Ryuichi Tomiya designers at Datsun in Japan went to work on a small vehicle that used mainly motorcycle parts and very basic, but netherless a functional and reliable means of transport. They came up with this interesting little vehcile. Unfortunatly it didn’t really get into full production but some 150 or so vehicles were produced in various stages in the mid 1950′ by Suminoe Manufacturing, which was an affiliate fo Nissan.  The vehicle was probably a bit to basic, which people were not quiet ready for in Japan. Similar style vehicles became popular a few years later This lovely example of the Flying Feather is on display at the Toyota Automotive Museum in Nagoya, Japan.

The Cony Guppy Sports- the name says it all

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The Cony Guppy Sports is one of the more unusual of the mini vehicles. Built by the Aichi Machine Industry Co. Ltd in Japan, which later went onto be part of Nissan. The vehicle featured some cutting edge items for its day including four wheel independent suspension, a torque converter for clutches gear box operation, but it didn’t quiet have what it needed to catch on, maybe because it just looked wrong or the 11hp two stroke once cylinder engine made it more like a lawn mower. What you can’t see from the picture the vehicle is actually a small ute, you could put something about the size of a slab of beer in the back. The vehicle only 5000 units and wasn’t’ very popular although collectors will pay good money for them today. This photo was taken at the Toyota Automobile Museum in Nagoya Japan.