Hiya guys,
So, many people knew of the possibility of a Bellett GTR in Australia. I told a few people, but generally kept it off the Net so I could kind of 'reveal' it at the SA All Japan Day.
Consider it revealed!
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Isuzu Bellett GTR - Dave.jpg [ 110.72 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
Those that received Bring A Trailer emails would have seen it; both when it was for sale and after as it was featured in a "Success Story" follow up.
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Hallett Cove - Isuzu Bellett GTR - 01.jpg [ 79.91 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
Here's one of the original sales pictures. Unfortunately, it shows an intact passenger-side bumperette... more on that later.
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1973 Isuzu Bellett GTR - 27.jpg [ 127.42 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
Also, it appeared on Facebook for about 15 minutes until my mate pulled it back down again!
Anyway, it's landed and it's technically a driver, although it's not yet registered.
To explain, I owned the ex-Glenn Percy/Dean Beasley Bellett GT and thought that I could make an adequate post-1970s Bellett GTR replica out of it. I bought some parts but then realised that I might, MAYBE, be able to buy a genuine item for an equal or less amount....
So I discussed briefly the notion of selling it with Gav 65Bellett who, after some deft negotiations with his lovely wife, agreed to buy it.
My personal history of that car can be found here:
http://www.bellett.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=408
Glenn has been nice enough to add his history of the car, which has turned out to be amazing...
http://www.bellett.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1775
So the car is sold; a casualty of my Bellett GTR purchase; the wife supported the purchase of a GTR, but another car had to go. The only one that would have been generated the right amount of income was the ex-Percy GT, and as discussed elsewhere, Gav 65Bellett has loved the car since before I even knew it existed.
The Bellett GTR landed in January following a short boat trip from Japan.
A couple of weeks ago, 2ldohc Ross, GToo Bruno and I have spent a couple of afternoons on it; I've put a set of NOS tail light surrounds on it along with better lenses I had, while Bruno was kind enough to pull off the bumperette and replace the GT over-rider.
Unfortunately, the car took a hit during transit as the passenger-side bumperette was straight and the over-rider intact in the photos prior to it leaving. Bummer!
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Lonsdale - Isuzu Bellett GTR - 02.jpg [ 67.3 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
Ross tried to tune it and tune it again; much messing around occurred until he found that one of the needles in one of the Solexes had gone awry and it was spewing fuel into one of the cylinders with reckless abandon.
Ross was good enough to fix it, then I was able to take it to the exhaust place for a new 2" exhaust. The original was well buggered and yes, I'm pretty sure it was the original!
Here's a pic of the original exhaust - it doesn't look knackered in the pic, but it was rusty-as!
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AAA Exhaust - Bellett GTR on hoist.jpg [ 98.33 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
The next day I took it to Auto Carburettor Services where the Guru Allan was able to tune it up. He reckons there's some slop in the linkages, which explains why it sometimes gives a stutter before building up revs; the initial splash of fuel is a tad uneven, but once the revs are piling on, it's smooth.
I think.
Going up South Road hill after All Japan Day, it gave a bit of a cough... it won't be points as they are brand-new. I will just see how it goes for the time being. I don't have 100% access to our trade plate; it is shared between us, so I might just see how she goes for the next few times it gets driven.
The car is fairly unique amongst Belletts in Australia, being that it was a JDM-specific vehicle. There is now another post 1971- Bellett GT in the country, so mine is not the only example to rock the Legoland tail lights! Dammit!
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Lonsdale - Isuzu Bellett GTR - 07.jpg [ 77.14 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
This car has some weird features; the plastic novella bonded into the driver's door trim was pretty weird; Ross says it's mainly about servicing!
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Bellett GTR door information.jpg [ 100.26 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
Here's the engine-bay shot again:
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Bellett GTR engine bay.JPG [ 119.14 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
The chassis number is not visible here, but it is: PR91-4216574.
This doesn't really lay to rest the PR91W vs no W issue, because of these reasons. Back when the GTR came out, all Bellett GTs were 1600s, regardless of the amount of camshafts fitted. I'm still not taking sides on the W thing, but this car has none, nor does it need one.
By 1972 when the final Bellett model came out, the GT had been upgraded to an 1800cc and therefore the chassis numbers all started with PR95... but this one, as with all 1600cc GTs starts with PR91.
Then I thought to myself, 'what if it's a 1970-71 PR91 that has had the later lights and grille put in it?'
This would mean that it would appear to be a PR91 without any modification to the build number area... and it could mean it's a fake.
So I checked the chassis number against our own numbers we have on the site.
Here are the build numbers for the last few years of the Bellett GT:
70 – GT: 1,461
71 – GT: 1,858
72 – GT: 1,523
73 – GT: 436
We had some chassis numbers on that same page, including this information which is the latest chassis # we had listed with a definite date:
October 1970 chassis # - PR91-4212582
With the GTR's chassis # - PR91-4216574, it means this car was built some 3,992 cars after October 1970. Given that there were 5,278 cars built from 1970-1973 and 3,817 cars between 1971-1973, this more or less puts it as a 1973-build and one of only 436 GTs built in that year.
It's possible it's a 1972, but that's about the earliest it could be, and that still puts it well within PR95 territory.
Unfortunately, it's got some rust; none of which I was told about. I did get them to take a photo inside the engine bay of the traditional shock tower, which is clean, but this has rust in about half-dozen other places and some of it is not pretty.
This is among the least-bad...
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inner guard - rust - near bumper mount.JPG [ 55.83 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
Overall it seems like a relatively un-molested car... it's copped a fairly quick respray at some stage which only has to have you look at it the wrong way to chip it.... and it's got some filler, as Oz-toffa discovered when he sat his hand on the radiator support panel for some minutes while inspecting the engine bay, only to pull a large slice of paint off when he stood up... it was a sticky day, but that was ridiculous!
It did still have what appeared to be the original lock-wires for the rack...
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steering rack lock wires - Bellett GTR - 02.JPG [ 53.98 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
... which I have removed in order to try to tighten the rack down a bit. It will need to rubbers there and in other places; the rubber at one end of the front swaybar is just plain gone.
But given that it appears authentic, I'm happy to throw some cash at it as it comes up....
Like I told the Solexes.... STAY TUNED!!!
Cheers,
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Isuzu Bellett GTR - Dave.jpg [ 110.72 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ]
Dave
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Lonsdale - Bellett GTR with Dave.jpg [ 93.84 KiB | Viewed 42341 times ] |
But is just says "1970s". (I admit that in the '70s I considered fitting an EXTRA pair of '67 style lights to my '66.5. If I wasn't so lazy, I would have! 
) Big lights were the go back then.
