It's amazing what you find when wandering around the internet sometimes.

We all cherish our cars these days, especially the GT's, but some people still remind us of what the Bellett, and specifically the GT, was made for...
The below pic is proof.
I think this car is in/from Finland?? Maybe our Finnish friends on here know some more??

Anyway, this guy is a CHAMPION in my books!!
Enjoy.

Hi Brett isn't the steering thingy on the wrong side for a Finnish rally car maybe from New Guinea
or Solomon Islands?
cheers ken

I think I see helmets for the driver and co-driver, the wipers point to the right, but someone said that they all point one direction for some years...

Based on the file name, it's the 1970 100 Lakes Rally:
Overall Position: 7
Car Number: 19
Driver: Pertti Kärhä
Nationality: Fin
Co-Driver: Timo Alane
Nationality: Fin
Car: Isuzu 1600 GT
Group 2, Class 2
Sixth in Group, Third in Class
Total Time: 4:55.11
Behind Winner: 18.19

is definitly from finland.
the wipers are parked on their passenger side, being our drivers side.

i've got some finnish pics and things here of early and late cars, so i'll check the way they were on each.

Same car same 1000 Lakes Rally 1970 Finland when the GT was new !

Wipers are parked on right side in -70 and later Belletts and on left side in -69 and earlier models.

Ari

Many thanks Ari.
That means all the LHD ones were the opposite to all the RHD in the entire Bellett production.
The Canadian assembled LHD cars were the same as the Finnish ones as well.
All Australian Bellett's were of the pre '70 type with the wiper posts in the middle and parked to the right. While we Aussie's didn't get the later "separated" posts that were parked to the left, I'm sure we've all seen pics of them.

BTW Ari... does this car still exist??
Cheers.
Brett.

I´m not sure is she still alive.
Waiting for Antti´s answer...

Ari

This car was the last works rally car that the importer Suomen Koneliike made for Pertti Kärhä. It was registered in 13.8.1970. It was orange with black hood. The engine was changed from SOHC to DOHC. After the Jyväskylä 1000 Lakes rally it was driven in Tampere Kesoil-rally. Kärhä was fighting from the first place with famous finnish rally driver Timo Mäkinen, who drove Escort TC but the syncrons from the gearbox broke and Kärhä ended on 5th place. After that Kärhä won Helsinki-, Leppilampi- and Sata-rallys. Then the importer stopped to import Isuzus to Finland and they also ended their Isuzu rallyteam. The car was sold to Mr Harjapää 20.7.1971 and the lisence plate was changed to AIT-28. He drove some rallys with Isuzu and sold the car to a person who started to make some insurance crimes with this GT.. The lisence plate was changed to AAK-690. These criminals went to court and this GT was taken in custody. It went several years before the court made the final desicion. After that they took the twincam and sold it but the GT was pressed and melted... ARRRRGH!!!!!!!!

This is the short version. So, it does not exist anymore. Or I can think that maybe when I bought a tin of pea soup...there can be a bit of that GT in that metal of the can....

many many thanks for the story Antii.
the detail you guys in Finland have on the Bellett, and more so the individual cars, is amazing!!
a FANTASTIC read, and proves how good the Bellett's really are/were with some good preparation and great driving.
to read that it was dicing with a twin cam Escort (i'd assume this was a Lotus engined unit, not a BDA Cosworth, being 1970) is the sort of thing we here in Australia could have only dreamt of...

but it's a sad end to the car too. one Bellett that definitly should have been saved...

Yes, but we got only 18 GT:s...and you about 300? So it´s a little easier for us to know the stories of our GTs. Now we have 10 GT:s left (what are known to exist, 9 of them owned by our club members) and we know nearly all the storys and what happened to the rest. But not all. 3 are still missing. It´s not easy to find out their destiny, because many owners have died and the cars have been sold and sold again without registration. Maybe these 3 are still waiting us somewhere in a barn. I have worked out many-many-many rumours about GTs. They have mostly been 4 door Belletts with f.ex two SU:s, but also real GT:s have been found..

And yes, you are right, Timo Mäkinen got his first BDA Escort in 1971 to Hankirally...

only 18 GT's... I would have thought that you guys received more than that.
and I guess that does make it a bit easier to track them, but even so, 40 years have passed now with Belletts, so it's amazing that you have been able to account for all but 3 with great accuracy!!

and yes, we got 290 GT's in total.
55 PR90's and 235 PR91's.

Well, that kills the idea of buying a LHD GT. It would probably be easier to ship over another rough one and track down a Canadian Sedan firewall and steering rack to install.

If there were only 18, there couldn't have been many differences in the body and mechanicals between RHD and LHD...

A little over 6000 4D Belletts were also imported to Finland. Only Australia got more Belletts than us... And 15 2D Sport -models, 300 Florians, 3 Bellels (and 1 more from the Japan embassy. It is the only Bellel that exists here) and those 18 GT:s. So, those all were of course LHD.

Suomen Koneliike started the importing in 1964 and stopped in 1970 and General Motors started importing Isuzus in 1980 (pickups, vans, trucks and Troopers). Now there is again a new importer which is importing pickups.

It doesn´t look so difficult to change from RHD to LHD. The dashboard equipment is interchangeable from right to left. And you have to make some holes to brake- and clutch master cylinders and of course for the pedals and for steering. The steering rack is the only part you have to get from a LHD car.

But I have in my use also a RHD car for my "second" car. Jaguar XJ from England. I think it doesn´t matter if the steering wheel is in right or left side. You only sit about 1 meter elsewhere. But when I was in Australia, it was first difficult to drive on the left side of the road and change gears with your left hand. My brains said all the time "this is wrong... this goes very wrong...".

Off topic a bit, but I worked at the General Motors Holden plant at Elizabeth, Adelaide for a while when they were (and still are) building the Holden Commodore in LHD for export to (at the time), Brazil (as Opel Omega) and the Middle East (as Chevrolet Lumina). I have to say, I didn't have any trouble getting used to driving the LHD auto cars around the lot, but about 1 in every 1000 was a LHD manual and THAT felt really weird.... plus there was the fact that I unlocked the passenger side of my RHD Holden (Isuzu) Gemini most nights when I went to go home....

I had no idea Finland actually got so few of the GTs and Sports; there seems to be a pretty high survival rate, especially given how trecherous your roads would be over the winter periods (I'm only guessing here, but by comparison we don't have much snow and ice to content with at all).

I'm sure there must have been other LHD markets for the GT, because it seems crazy to only build 18 or so of them. I know Canada got some LHD sedans, but as I understand they got no GTs, so that rules them out.

Most of Asia etc is RHD, as is South Africa and NZ, so that rules them out.

Does anybody know of any other LHD markets that would have received the GT?

Maybe this could be a whole new thread. I found this really interesting article about the Isuzu Motor Company in Honduras. It says that they sold the whole range of Isuzu passanger and commercial vehicles which I would assume were left hand drive. Check out this link http://www.casajaar.com/history.html

Below is a photo taken from the article. I also think I found a photo of an Express on a South American car web site while surfing a while ago.

I know that Casa Jaar. It has sold Isuzus from the sixties. The father of those brothers, who run now the business, started this company. They speak mostly spanish but Guillermo J. Jaar speaks english. When I about 10 years ago first time contacted them, I wanted to know if they have Bellett parts. And they sent me the inventory lists about the Bellett parts they have, in spanish of course. But there were also the parts numbers. So I translated the lists with the help of my Bellett parts catalog. They have lots of Bellett parts and many of those parts are not available from Japan anymore. There is not many Belletts left in Honduras, so they are very willing to sell those parts. So we have bought lots of parts from Casa Jaar during the years.

You can see the driver, Pertti Kärhä, in our club homepage www.isuzuownersclub.com If you look the images section, Pertti Kärhä is in that last photo with a orange GT. That photo is taken last year from Classic Car Show in Lahti. He has a LOT of stories about rallying with Isuzus. He was one of the drivers of our importers rally team. Some years ago we interviewed him and made a long story about him for our club magazine.

PR91, post this over on the JNC rally picture thread:
http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum/v ... php?t=3738

You found it, you should have the honor.

Great read on asunday nite long live the belletts

I've got this photo.. on my wall even. I bought it off someone on ebay in the UK a few years ago.