Isuzu Bellel

The Isuzu Bellel was a compact car built by Isuzu in Japan from 1961 to 1967. It was the company's first independent design and Japan's first passenger car with a diesel engine. It came as a four-door sedan and as a five-door station wagon called the Bellel Express, which was technically a commercial vehicle under the custom of the time. The name joins the English word bell with the Roman numeral L, or fifty, a nod to the fact that Isuzu means fifty bells in Japanese. Engines were 1.5 and 2.0 litre gasoline units with Bosch licensed fuel injection and a 2.0 litre diesel, all with a four-speed manual gearbox, and the suspension was modelled on the Hillman Minx that Isuzu had built under licence from the Rootes Group.