The Bellett GT HistoryBellett GT – From a Group 4 GT Sports Car to the Street
The new Bellett Sedan was announced for sale in June 1963 with deliveries from September 1963, just prior to the Tokyo Motor show. For the Tokyo show, Isuzu exhibited another new and locally developed model, the Bellett G.T. This new vehicle was a sensation when shown and demonstrated at the October 1963 show.
Bellett 1500 GT at Tokio Motor Show
After the success of the Tokyo motor show Isuzu took on board the very warm reception for this first ever Japanese Grand Tourer GT and decided to go into limited production with the new GT and so orders were taken for delivery. There was already announced a second Japan GP in May 1964 so plans were made to enter the new Bellett GT in the GTII class which meant homologation as a Group 4 GT was required which was completed by March 1964, just prior to the public release of the new PR90 GT in April 1964.
Isuzu had been associated with building Wolsley and Rootes based vehicles from the 1920's and with the Rootes Group in the UK from the early 1950s when they contracted to build Hillmans and other Rootes group vehicles under licence. The concept of a sports range of Isuzu Hillman vehicles was never far from the surface in the early 1960s after the Isuzu Hillmans were a market success in Japan.
The sale of Rootes based cars in Japan was through Yamato Motors Ltd, a joint venture between Rootes and Isuzu, set up to sell Hillmans and other variants in Japan under the Rootes licence. From 1960 Yamato had also supplied as genuine factory accessories, the range of Sunbeam sports parts to Hillman owners known as Sport Hillmans to modify their vehicles for competition. These were the Hillman Sports Kit range that became the Isuzu Sports Kits on the Isuzu range of vehicles and these sports kits were homolgated for the new GT.
There were two types of the new car, the PR90 GT (1579 cc) and the PR80 GT (1471 cc) along with a number of 2 door variants of the PR20 sedan. These new Isuzu small cars were built at the Fujisawa plant (opened March 1961) in Japan, which was especially constructed for the purpose, after the assembly experience on the Isuzu Hillman Minx range at the Omori factory in Tokyo during the late 1950’s.
The Bellett GT shape evolved from an early styling exercise based on the Bellett sedan initiated by the Yamato car sales group and it drew on Isuzu employees (Inoguchi design), some of whom were also actively racing Isuzu Hillmans, Bellels and Sunbeams. Members of the group went on to be also involved in the JAF and to be part of the organisation of the first Japanese GP in 1963. The Advanced Engineering department also assisted in the development and provided a crashed PR20 Sedan to Suzuki Bankin, master metal craft shop, as the basis to develop the first new sports coupe using the sedan PR20 floor pan.
Initially an open car was envisaged by the design team but, with the guidance of head of Isuzu and with Yamato sales support, a coupe design was developed for the Tokyo Show display. Styling input also came privately from the Isuzu Design department but a lot of the styling and inclusions were developed in consultation with the Yamato staff and the new factory race team members who also suggested that the car developed was indeed a Grand Tourer and should be named as a GT.
Suzuki Bankin 1st Prototype, July 1963
Keeping the PR20 A pillar as reference the new coupe was hand shaped in steel using wooden bucks. A new, lower roof line and windscreen a two door coupe was developed with new tail lights and new rear window. Front guards and boot lid remained the same as the PR20 sedan. A new sports engine was developed along with special drive train, new sports interior, suspension and high performance disc brakes with Alfin rear drums.
A number of prototypes concepts were built and tested vigorously starting from the middle of 1963 and Advanced Engineering became more involved after the Tokyo Show.
The new GT coupe was the very first of a new wave of modern and stylish sports cars that were to emerge from the growing Japanese car industry. With the decision to proceed, Isuzu wished only to put the new vehicle into limited production so as it may use it as basis for promoting the Bellett range whilst contesting motor sport events around the world … a way of undertaking R&D whilst launching the Isuzu brand for automobiles for export.
pre PR90 August 1963 Front
For the 1963 competition season the FIA GT Homologation rules required that Isuzu produce at least 100 examples in a twelve month time period. Isuzu were aware that selling over 100 GT new race cars would be difficult so they built the Bellett GT as a street legal car for Group 4. Modifications and enhancements were applied and the Bellett GT could be constructed to full specification via the Sports Kit as used with the Bellels and Hillmans.
Based upon the development program, immediately after the Tokyo show in October Yamato/Isuzu submitted the new Isuzu PR90 GT to the FIA for homologation as a Group 4 GT under Appendix J of the FIA code. It was duly admitted in March 1964 as a Group 4 GT in category F classification list 10 for vehicles 1300 to 1600 cc or simply GT10 prior to the Japan GP in May.
In late 1964, a further run on series II 130 examples were produced which satisfied homologation requirements for 1965. In all, over 800 vehicles (PR80 and PR90) had been produced by the end of 1964.
PR90 Crystal Palace, UK 1965
By 1966 the FIA Group 4 GT homologation requirements had been lowered from 100 units to 50 and now only 2 seat examples needed to be produced to be eligible to race as a Group 4 GT/Sports Car. Popularity of the Bellett GT meant the car was produced now in greater numbers and as the volume of the vehicle built rose it was then reclassified by the FIA into Group 2 for 1966 to run against other Touring cars. To stay in the GT sports category Isuzu started to outsource competition development and went down the road of constructing 2 seat prototype cars for the new rules based upon Lola and other chassis with Isuzu developed power sources and bodies.
To contest the Group 4 class of the then world Manufacturers Championship, the FIA demanded at least 500 identical road cars to be built, from which a competition version could be derived. The Bellett GTX/GTR went down this track starting in 1967.
PR91 GTX 1000Km
From October 1963 a total of 17,573 PR90/91 type vehicles were built over the ten years between 1963 and 1973. In that time the Bellett GT evolves from a 1471cc sporting Grand Tourer to a GTR DOHC sports racer.
Copyright ICCA, 2009
