Enter the Mythical Pike Factory
Sensing it had happened towards the a good thing, Nissan chose to continue off a comparable street, assembling a solution to make a collection from pseudo-retromobiles to your March’s low-dollar system. It absolutely was an endeavor meant to intrigue Japanese people buoyed by the fresh new relatively persistent upward move of the nation’s later-’80s savings, plus it on it over a little business sleight-of-hand.
Complicating issues a bit is actually that Nissan did not have the newest line space or even the assistance in order to turn out exactly what were essentially shop models of the existing networks. They considered Takata Kogyo, a family experienced in building unique-release auto (normally convertibles). That have Sakai being onto assist helm the next couple habits (handling Jun Shimizu and you will Takeo Shibue), the entire firm is actually dubbed “Pike Facility,” a tag you to definitely hinted at the a key skunkworks inside Nissan – albeit one which simply don’t can be found.
Since the Factory could have been vaporware, the power and you will facts about these Pike autos they put were real. Second up were the newest S-Cargo, an excellent snail-formed van along with a small Gallic DNA in structure (and that informed not simply its size in addition to the name), plus the Pao, good utilitarian proto-crossover which have a fabric roof and you can an effective tailgate unlike a beneficial hatch. For every single model’s interior try equally unique, with just minimal instrumentation and you can restriction kitsch when it stumbled on control and you can skinny.
A lot more like So it
Coming in in the 1989, the new Pao happened to be much more popular compared to Feel-1, pressuring the Pike Warehouse cluster in order 
to up design, with well over 29,one hundred thousand at some point ended up selling. Brand new S-Products, along with its larger motor plus commercial ambitions (but nonetheless rocking a fall-straight back roof of the individual), went near to ten,100000 gadgets. Nissan was not undercharging for the March-situated oddities, possibly, since the prices remained with the premium region of the ledger.
During that time after a while, which have Japan’s economic ripple not even burst, it felt like the air try the fresh new limit toward country’s automakers. An identical heart you to drove the shape and you may engineering of actually ever more sophisticated football trucks like the FD-age group Mazda RX-7, the latest dual-turbo Toyota Supra and you can Nissan’s individual Skyline trickled down to entry-top patterns like the Pike automobiles as well.
It’s using this cradle your last and you may last design try produced within Takata Kogyo. New Figaro try a modern Nash Metropolitan, a tub coupe which have a facial instance an informal seafood and you may probably the most adventurous dive on the 1950s cabin framework up until now regarding Pike household members. Smaller than any of your own past autos, and you can presenting an elaborate convertible method (you to kept the latest roof sides in position), the newest turbocharged Figaro was only because the preferred because the Pao, rapidly selling aside its 20,000-equipment allotment for the 1991 and you may forcing a unique lotto getting candidates.
An enjoyable Footnote
Whilst the team might have sold multiple what amount of February-dependent recollections computers, Nissan never ever figured out how to make a return from the contracted out plan with Takata, even with the latest relatively elevated pricing attached to the small-mobile devices. If the curtain came crashing off and you will Japan’s trader group is actually shown becoming startlingly instead clothing, Pike was unofficially sunsetted. Nissan immersed new weirdness embodied by the venture and you can spat it out in the form of coming in-family products like the brand new Cube, and that performed get to The united states almost 2 decades afterwards.
Now, every single one of Pike cars is eligible to feel brought in for the U.S. beneath the twenty five-season federal exception (and therefore pertains to vehicles which were never offered stateside). Viewing a great Figaro otherwise an effective Pao away from the present direction should be to end up being jolted regarding some time and transferred into the a reality away from nonspecific build you to evokes, in lieu of apes, signs from a discussed motoring early in the day. Very few auto tends to make a comparable allege to be each other a good tribute to, yet not in any way by-product away from, vintage eras from motor vehicle styling.
With so few of this type of vehicle put, and awareness low outside partner groups (Nissan never advertised the newest patterns), it depict a rather sensible portal into the antique automobile ownership. An easy task to take care of, comfy to operate a vehicle and you will significantly uncommon, the new Pike system signifies a different, life style chapter within the Japan’s automotive background, maintained even today from the garages of all over the world devoted.