Nissan Type 80

The Nissan Type 80 was a large truck and van that Nissan produced from 1937 and the first semi cab-over truck on the Japanese market. Like the Type 70 passenger car built at the Yokohama plant from the same year, it came from the American Graham-Paige company: Nissan bought the drawings and machine tools and, because Graham-Paige had stopped development for lack of funds, paid the cost itself and built the truck under licence. The engine was a Graham-Paige design, a 3,670 cc inline six of type A shared with the Type 70, and two wheelbases were offered. A derivative with the same front was the Type 90 bus. The army used the truck heavily, but in the war in China its problems showed: poor serviceability and cooling with the driver over the engine, exposure to mines, a wide front track that kept it out of ruts and a width that would not pass city gates. Nissan therefore replaced it in 1941 with the bonnet type Type 180 and a much stronger chassis. Wartime Type 180N trucks had wooden cabs and one headlamp, and production continued until the 380 truck of 1952 and the 290 van of 1949 followed.