So here's a real freakshow brochure.

In James C Mays' extensive history of the Bellett in Canada, there is no mention of the Bellett GT and as far as any of us were aware, it just wasn't a thing that happened.

... and yet, here we are.

This is a fairly unique, joint-English & French-language left-hand-drive brochure, printed in Japan with Canadian Motor Industries-specific information. That in itself is a rarity, with most of the LHD, English language brochures we've come across making NO mention of Canada or anywhere else...

First up, this brochure shows a 1967 Bellett GT in full flight on the front cover....



It took me a LOT of ALT+TAB action, but I worked out it's the same damned photo as this one from a RHD, English-language brochure, having been reversed and doctored.



Strangely, it looks like the numberplate on the RHD example had been doctored... rather than the LHD example - ie the photo is of a LHD car. It's hard to see given I've had to reduce the sizes of the pics to fit on the page, but in the originals, the LHD car's numberplate is PERFECT, while the text on the RHD example looks kind of bendy.

Strangely, neither of the photos show the JDM-spec mirror-top guards... instead they appear to show holes!!!!

The cover also shows that this is the brochure specific to the 1600GT, as well as the 1500S. I've not noticed the Japanese refer to their 'Sport' models as '1500S' for a start... plus I think the Sports were 1600.

Perhaps this was a model set up specifically for Canada, as they had made their own locally-developed 'Sport' using the first series 'teardrop' model, which they continued to assemble into 1967 after being replaced in other markets with the 1966.5 shape shown in these brochures. You can see the locally produced CMI brochure for their own 1967, teardop-shape Sport here:



It's even got a dodged-up 1500S badge on the fender in lieu of a regular Bellett badge!

So back to this mystery 1600GT and 1500S brochure...

You can see here the Bellett GT in the small pics, plus two large pics of a 2-door Bellett 1500S... now I also have to say that the 2-door sedan in Canada is news to us and again, something that James C Mays did not mention in his history of the Bellett in Canada!

The dashboard is of the Bellett 1600GT and again shows no signs of being doctored up; all gauges and badges are the right way around - she's a LHD Bellett GT, all right!



As the text is quite small due to the dual languages, I've put a cropped version here in case you want to read the English text. If you want to read the French stuff, then "va te faire foutre" you smart-alec.



Page 3 shows us the dashboard of the 1500S. What an awesome combination of sedan and GT stuff going on here! Noticeably afflicted with the regular sedan's familiar, HUGE and decidedly unsporting bus wheel, the 1500S does score a full set of Yazaki gauges but misses out on the centre console of the GT.



According to the English section you can read below, both cars get SU-type twin carbies, with the 1600GT having them hanging off the regular G161 OHV motor, while the 1500S has them attached to the G150 motor; interestingly, all capacity measurements are in cubic inches rather than metric, although this makes sense as Canada did not go metric until 1970.



Last page are the engine details, which I kind of went over already as part of the last page.



Here's that stuff you want to read, close up.



...and now here's the clincher. This wasn't some dodgy, 'printed in Canada' photocopy like the early-shape 1500S brochure we showed you above. This was some Columbian-grade action going on here... printed in Japan and EVERYTHING.

However, unlike the majority of LHD brochures we've seen that mention no specific country (aside from a very select few), this one is emblazoned with a big CMI logo, as seen right here:



So that's that... still no more light on the situation; was the Bellett GT sold in Canada in small numbers? We thought not, but maybe. Or is this brochure part of a defunct project?

Certainly a 1500S was sold in Canada, but in 2-door form?

Again, this is a typical bloody Bellett brochure; it creates more problems than it answers!

Enjoy!

If you look at the radio speaker in the LHD GT it is in the right place compaed to the RHD pic. My opinion is it is LHD.

Hey yeah; nice spot.

I actually didn't over notice GTs had a single speaker hole like.that.

Well that certainly confirms that its a photo of a lhd GT!

Now i wonder if we would have ever noticed that the GT on the rhd brochure was a doctored lhd example. I think not!