In 1934 Nissan was being run by Rokuro
Auykama. Auykama was friends with a gentleman by the name of William Gorham,
who was an American engineer who had moved to Japan in the 1920s. Gorham
was a car enthusiast, and he even managed to start a business in Japan
building his own cars, named the Gorham. Auykama was well aware that Nissan
still had a lot to learn with regards to car manufacturing, and Gorham
offered to return to the United States to try to recruit some more American
engineers to work at Nissan and teach the Japanese more about mass production
of cars.
While Gorham was in the United States
he visited a recently closed factory of the American car manufacturer Graham
Paige. Graham Paige had a fairly modern factory and equipment, which was
now sitting idle. Gorham contacted Auykama back in Japan and suggested
that Nissan should purchase the production line equipment from the Graham
Paige factory. Auykama agreed to the plan and a deal was done that netted
Nissan all the equipment, and the rights to build the big Graham Paige
Crusader sedan, and also the cab-forward style Graham Paige truck.
By 1937 the factory was fully operational,
and in that year production began on the Nissan version of the Graham Paige
truck, which was to be known as the Nissan 80.
The Nissan 80 was a large truck, being
4750mm long and 1905mm wide. It was described at the time as being a cab-forward
design, though it would probably best be described as a semi cab-forward
design, as it still had a conventional opening bonnet rather than having
the engine mounted under the seat. The chassis and all the running gear
are all a direct copy of the Graham Paige design. The engine is a Nissan
built version of the Graham Paige engine, which was a 3670cc 6 cylinder
85hp side valve engine which Nissan designated the A type engine.
The original Nissan 80 from 1937 was
a very bold looking truck, and quite modern for it's time. It's grille
consisted of fifteen chrome plated horizontal bars, with the bottom bar
being the narrowest and every bar being slightly wider than the last as
they rose upwards. Above the grille there is another chrome bar of the
same profile as the grille bars, which travels from the front of the truck
to the back of the cabin, across the doors. Above this bar is another two
bars mounted on the doors.
As Japan descended into war certain
materials started to become scarce, one of these was chrome. By 1938 all
the chrome on the truck was deleted, and now all those intricate chrome
grille bars, and the bumber, were all painted the same colour as the body.
By 1939 steel was becoming harder to source as well, and from 1939 onwards
the bars on the grille were removed, and instead the grille consisted of
15 horizontal slots in the front of the vehicle.
A bus version of the Nissan 80 was
also built at the same time, which was designated the Nissan 90. The bus
used the same chassis, engine and mechanicals as the truck, and also used
the same front section ahead of the doors, but the rest was all a Nissan
design.
The Nissan 80 was rare in that it was
one of very few classic era Nissan products to suffer from sizable reliability
issues. The Graham Paige designed trucks may have been well suited to the
highways of America, but they faired less well on the poor quality roads
in pre-war Japan, and were especially troublesome for the military in rougher
terrain. The Nissan 80 was in production until 1941, when it was replaced
by the Nissan 180. |
A sales brochure for the Nissan 80
|
Australian soldiers capture a Nissan 80 in New Guinea during
World War Two
|
1937
Nissan 80 Specifications
Length - 4720mm
Width - 1905mm
Height - 2500mm
Wheelbase - 2241mm
Weight - 1306kg
Top speed - 79kph
Transmission - Floor change
4 speed |
Engine
Specifications
Model - Graham Paige A
Capacity - 3670cc
Bore & Stroke 82x114mm
Power - 85hp@3600rpm
Torque- unknown
Compression - 5.7 : 1
Carburettor - unknown
Final drive - unknown |
|
