By the end of the Second World War the Nissan Motor Company
was in a bad state. Their factory in Yokahama had been bombed in the closing
stages of the conflict and production had ground to a halt. After the war
the American occupying forces led by General MacArthur took control of
the government and factories for several years, and during this time the
Americans oversaw the rebuilding of Nissan's factory.
When the Yokahama factory reopened again in 1946, at first
production was limited to trucks, with Nissan builing commercial vehicles
based on the ones being built before the war. Initially passenger car production
was not allowed, as there was a more pressing need for trucks to help the
country during it's fragile rebuilding phase. In June 1947 the restrictions
on passenger car production was eased slightly, and in October 1949 the
restrictions were removed completely, opening the way for full scale car
production to begin again.
The restrictions may have been lifted, and Nissan again had an operational
factory, but the company was not in great financial shape. Whilst they
had the funds to continue producing cars that were based on ageing pre-war
designs, they did not have the resources to design completely new vehicles.
The cars Nissan built during these years, whilst being robust and well
built, were hopelessly out-dated in comparision with the rest of the world.
Their factory was also out-dated by world standards, with cars being almost
entirely hand built in a slow and time consuming manner. Factory photos
from this era show that the main assembly building did not have overhead
lighting, the workers instead toiled under hand-held lead lights. Nissan's
President in 1951 was Genshichi Asahara. Asahara was well aware of his
company's inability to move ahead while building cars that belonged in
a different era, and decided that the way ahead was to build cars under
licence. This would allow the company to learn new techniques whilst being
able to sell a locally built car of world standards. Asahara searched the
world for a suitable business partner. After briefly flirfting with the
idea of a tie-up with Volkswagen, which seems to have been dropped mainly
due to the perceived notion that a joint venture between the two enemy
nations of the Second World War would have been a marketing disaster, Nissan
eventually found a willing partner in the form of the Austin Motor Company
of England.
Austin had been founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin and had achieved world
wide success with it's pre-war Austin 7 models, and continued on after
the war with the Austin 16hp and Austin A40 models. One reason why Austin
became a prefect ally for Nissan was that right from the begining of the
century, and even right through until today, the English and the Japanese
people seem to require almost exactly the same things in a car, and English
and Japanese cars of any corresponding era are almost always nearly identical
in their dimensions. It also helped that Austin had been selling cars in
Japan after the war and had developed a good reputation for their ability
to operate reliably on Japan's awful road network, of which less than 5%
was sealed. By 1952 Austin had sold 1288 cars in Japan, and as a result
they were a reasonably common sight.
After a series of meetings a final agreement was signed on
the 4th of December 1952, described as a "technological co-operation agreement"
for Nissan to Build Austin passenger cars under licence for the next seven
years. The deal Austin agreed to was quite a generous one. Nissan would
buy component kits from Austin to allow Nissan to assemble the Austin A40
Somerset sedan, and for the first year Nissan would pay no royalties to
Austin. In the second year royalties would be set at 2% of the car's retail
price, with a minimum payment of £10000. In the third year this would
rise to 3 1/2% with a minimum of £20000, and in the forth year through
until the end of the agreement it would be set at 5% with a minimum payment
of £30000. The deal stipulated that the Nissan-built Austins were
to be sold in Japan only and were not to be exported. The deal also allowed
Nissan to build the Austins with Japanese made parts, which would be slowly
substituted until the cars were completely Japanese made. But of greater
long-term importance to Nissan was the rights to use the engine designs
in their own vehicles. This clause was of great benefit to Nissan because
it's next generation of engines were all based on the basic architecture
of the Austin B series engine, even right up until the 1980s Nissan were
still powering small commercial vehicles and forklifts with versions of
these engines.
The Nissan assembled Austin A40 Somerset went into production in 1953.
Austin supplied two British engineers to oversee the start of production.
The Somersets were built up until November 1954 and were all assembled
using English made parts. The Somerset was a mid-sized four door sedan
that was powered by an Austin engine which displaced 1198cc and produced
42hp.
In December 1954 Nissan started assembling the Austin A50
Cambridge. The Cambridge was also a mid-sized sedan. In England it was
available with either a 1198cc engine or a 1489cc engine, for the Japanese
version Nissan decided to use only the larger engine, which produced 50hp.
Again all the components came from England, but gradually Nissan started
to fit locally sourced components and gradually began pressing their own
panels and in 1956 Nissan started casting their own version of the Austin
B series engines. Every time a new Nissan built component was to be used
on the Austin it had to be tested and evaluated by Austin engineers. By
1957 the car was being completely made with Japanese parts. At that time
Austin's engineers had reported back to their headquarters that the Nissan
built Cambridges were of the same quality as the English built versions,
and that later in the production run the cars were of superior quality
to their British counterparts.
While Nissan were building the Austin sedans part of the agreement was
that they could use the Austin B series engines in some of their other
vehicles, and in 1956 Nissan started fitting the Austin engine to their
new range of mid-sized trucks, including the Nissan Junior B40 and the
Nissan Junior Caball C40. Around this time Nissan engaged the services
of an American engineer by the name of Donald Stone. Stone was hired to
develop a new Nissan engine that would be based on the Austin B series
engine. Stone made several significant improvements to the Austin design,
most notably was the addition of a rope type seal to the rear of the crankshaft.
The Austin had no seal in this location and instead relied on a reverse
spiral groove to direct the oil back into the engine, a system that was
less than successful that gave the Austin a poor reputation for oil leaks.
The new Nissan engine, which would be christened the C series, was dry
as a whistle, with the oil leak issue completely solved. These engines
are known within Nissan as the "Stone engine", as a mark of respect for
the engineer. These engines would evolve into the E and J series engines,
and would power Datsun sedans through the 1960s, and be used in commercial
vehicles right through into the 1980s.
The agreement with Austin expired in December 1959, and the
Austin Cambridge was replaced by the completely Nissan designed Nissan
Cedric sedan. Whilst the agreement with Austin paid handsome dividends
for Nissan and their long term growth, it coinsided with a dramatic decline
in fortunes for Austin. At the start of the 1960s Austin was a motor industry
powerhouse and Nissan was only a small player in the industry who was only
just starting to export vehicles in small quantities. By the start of the
1970s Nissan was one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world, exporting
cars of exceptional quality to over 100 countries. Their growth stood in
stark contrast to Austin, who by 1970 were dead in the water and had been
sucked into the motoring abyss that was British Leyland. Under the Leyland
umbrella the once respected Austin spent the next decade building some
of the worst vehicles on the planet as their sales volumes fell through
the floor.
In all Nissan built 21859 Austin sedans between 1953 and
1960. After seeing the success Nissan had with the Austin project a few
other Japanese manufacturers sought to establish their own "technological
co-operation agreements". Hino ended up building Renaults under licence
in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and Isuzu built the Hillman Minx in the
late 1950s.
The allegiance with Austin was an important chapter in Nissan's
history, without Austin's technical expertise and assistance Nissan would
not have become the company it is today, and in fact may not have even
survived through until the end of the 1950s.
The photos
above show the following -
1/ The first CKD kit arriving in Japan,
being transported on that back of a Nissan 380 truck.
2/ An A40 body being lowered onto it's
chassis by an English engineer and a Nissan factory worker.
3/ British and Japanese engineers inspect
the components in a CKD kit.
4/ The first Nissan-built Austin rolls
off the production line in 1953. |
A sales brochure for the Nissan-built Austin Somerset A40
sedan
|
A sales brochure for the Nissan-built Austin Cambridge A50
sedan
|
A sales brochure for the Nissan-built Austin Cambridge A50
sedan
|
A sales brochure for the Nissan-built Austin Cambridge A50
sedan
|
1953
Austin Somerset A40 Specifications
Length - 4026mm
Width - 1600mm
Height - 1588mm
Wheelbase - 2337mm
Weight - 1012kg
Top speed - 111kph
Transmission - 4 speed Floor
change |
1954
Austin Cambridge A50 B131 Specifications
Length - 4120mm
Width - 1580mm
Height - 1570mm
Wheelbase - 2520mm
Weight - 1050kg
Top speed - 128kph
Transmission - 4 speed Floor
change |
Engine Specifications
Model - B series
OHV 4 Cylinder
Capacity - 1198cc
Bore & Stroke - 65x89mm
Power - 42hp@4400rpm
Torque - 58ft/lb@2200rpm
Compression - 7.2 : 1
Carburettors - Zenith
Final Drive - unknown |
Engine Specifications
Model - 1H type
OHV 4 Cylinder
Capacity - 1489cc
Bore & Stroke - 73x89mm
Power - 50hp@4400rpm
Torque - 10.2kg/m@2100rpm
Compression - 7.2 : 1
Carburettors - Stromberg
30VIG-10
Final Drive - 4.875 : 1 |
|
