Fifty Bells: Two 1964 Isuzu Bellel Diesels
The 1961-71 Isuzu Bellel was a first for a few reasons — first, it was the first Japanese produced passenger car with an available diesel engine, but it was also the first independently designed car from Isuzu. The name Bellel was chosen as short for bell plus roman number for 50 (L)…which is what Isuzu means in Japanese (fifty bells). Find these 1964 Isuzu Bellel Diesels here on eBay offered for $1,100 buy-it-now or make-offer located in Oracle, AZ with 3 days to go.
This Bellel is a few bells short of a full tower, but combine it with the OTHER Bellel and you might have enough parts to make a full car. I wonder if it would be possible to shove a late model turbocharged Isuzu diesel into one of these and make it a hot rod?
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Honestly this seems like a great deal to me. I have seen a couple of these over the years and they are nice looking rare Japanese oddballs. These have some historic value as well, as they are the first Japanese passenger cars offered with diesel motors.
The ad claims both are running (bonus!) and that the black one could be driveable with some work. The other one comes with the dual axle trailer included! The seller is asking $1100 but adds "no reasonable offer will be refused."
I bet you could get them both for $900. Two rare cars! The trailer alone, if it's roadworthy, is probably worth at least $300. If you could just get the black one driving and roadworthy, and putt-putt to an import tuner / JDM car show, you'd almost be guaranteed to get a lot of attention, smiles, and requests for selfies in front of it from curious onlookers.
IF you could also "roll coal" while drifting it around a parking lot?!?! OMG. You'd be wise to learn the Japanese translation for "panty dropper" ahead of time. Which Google Translate tells me is: パンティドãƒãƒƒãƒ‘ー
I have no idea how to pronounce that and little hope that it is accurate. But if I was going to follow my current train of thought to its illogical non-sequitur final destination, I would have パンティドãƒãƒƒãƒ‘ー reproduced as a windshield banner and do smoke-blowing donuts in a parking lot until some impossibly cute Asian car model made it worth my $900 investment.
Kool Find not sure Rock Auto has any extra parts for this Front Grille Badge insert looks almost Fiat in nature.