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!



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.





Here's one of the original sales pictures. Unfortunately, it shows an intact passenger-side bumperette... more on that later.




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!





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!





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!




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!



Here's the engine-bay shot again:



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...



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...



... 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,




Dave

i like it mate! its a good looking car in the flesh and with a bit of love it will be a really great unique car for us to see!

Thanks mate. I was similarly impressed with your Florian. I'm still in awe that the level of awsome there for the cash!

All in All lotsa luv goin round!!!

Love the car great set of photo's,colour is great,glad you show
the under body photo,save me checking,have this thing about rear
ends of Belletts,4 leaf springs,me too,mine look thicker probably after
market wonder who,enjoy a new toy

Well said mate, It's not a 'W' that provedes the awesomeness!
It's great to see you've taken the big plunge to bring such a unique car for us all to admire.
You desreve it, 'cause you're a good bloke!
And yeah, there are two now, but that's good, they'll be able to catch up at Merimbula and celebrate being in a land that shakes a bit less!

The mask grille is even starting to grow on me. Mmm, and the taillights - thems is big-arse taillights! 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.

Cheers (and remember to tell Sarah just how good she is and how much you love her!)
Matt.

Shucks Farmer

Gerry it's got 3-leaves, I'm certain, which was one of the optional Isuzu Motorsport rear ends... PR91 Brett may correct me on this, but I think they had an optional 3-leaf and an optional 5-leaf set up.

Strangely, though for the GTR, neither was standard!!

Yeah hopefully I can get it there; was going to talk to the boss (the actual boss, not the wife-boss) about delaying my return to Shannons until after the Nationals... otherwise I'll be returning to work 2 weeks before they start. Which will be very uncool.

... AND I need to try to get it regoed before then...

I am taking it to get set belts installed in the back and get newies for the front next week (or whenever the in-laws are down again. It will need a new parcel shelf then too, and a baby seat mount (for junior, not by law).

Fingers crossed.

Also, Farmer, I was aiming for a beard as full and as sizable as yours, however there are two problems

1) the wife REALLY wants it neatened up

2) junior has a vice-like grip and if I don't trim up soon, he'll have pulled it all out. It's freaking painful.

yep, was an "Isuzu Sports Kit" option.
there was a heavy duty single or a 3 or 5 leaf option as part of each kit, but i think they could be bought separately too.
the stage 1 kit was HD single leaf.
stage 2 was 3 leaf.
and stage 3 was 5 leaf.

oh, and the HD single leaf was part # 51300-276 and cost 2,050 yen.
3 leaf # 51300-351 costing 3,300 yen
5 leaf # 51300-278 costing 3,560 yen.

there's some more useless info!!

My PR95 also has 3 leaf spring under it,and it looks like it has been there for ever.

Ah Dave, you get used to it! And he's less likely to fall.
You just have to explain to people those are 'happy tears'.
It's been so long since Milli or Rhys did that, the other day I picked-up a friend's little fella, and sure enough, 2 hand grab & chin-up attempt! Yep, still feels the same!
His mum is "Oh, Charlie, don't do that!" But I'm "Nah, it's O.K., reminiscing!" - like the first time you put Bellett brakes on after you haven't for a long time! Happy expression.

Good luck with getting your ducks in a row.
Cheers, Matt.

hey mate..excellent type-r colour looks smick with the legolands! does that diff look different than a normal bellett diff by any chance?

diff is normal.

Well.... now that the little fella can sort of almost sit up, I could see a photo opportunity.

I had him in the shed while I moved some stuff around; had to get the GTR out for my DeLorean mates to look at as it needs some minor rust repairs.

When I started the GTR to back it up the wheel rams, even though he was about 5 metres away in front of me, the noise did not make him happy! Hopefully one day it will....

... but putting him in the sweet 1970s vinyl seem to calm him down (or drug him; what did they used to put in 1970's vinyl? Whatever it was, it probably causes leukaemia).

I've got pics like those of Belinda in the Wasp around that age too.
Always cool to look back on and was a really special day!
He'll be a car head mate... It's in the blood! Give it time and u won't keep him out of the shed!

Cute !

Dave, does your car have lap sash belts ? It seems most Jap cars hap lap only ?

glenn

it only had lap belts Glenn, but i informed Dave on where the sash top mounts are in the pillar and it now has lap sash's.

so, top mounts are already fitted then ?

Just saw this.............Ooooooooooooooh

B.

Dave. Not Mutch hair.eavern good looking . Have you had the test to make sure he Iis yours. Gricey