Simple as “P”s…almost

I had two random combinations of letters and numbers to investigate – S20 and KPGC10. I was pretty sure that a combination of four consonants that clearly don’t form part of any word in the English language, followed by two numbers would narrow my quest for information quicker than S20 so that’s where I’d start.

Forums, or to be precise the GTR forum, were right at the top of the organic SERPs. Unusual, I thought and a clear indicator that information around this car is sparse and difficult to find. There were a number of interesting threads from a couple of years ago and I was tempted to ask a few questions. Should I? Shouldn’t I?

I didn’t and still don’t like forums. Don’t get me wrong, the information available (if you can find it) is second to none and used as intended, to connect and discuss with others sharing in your interests is of course brilliant. However, in my opinion this is all completely ruined by the prevalence of an increasingly large army of keyboard warriors looking for any opportunity to verbally castrate an unsuspecting ‘newbie’.  To avoid a public ridiculing I decided “no questions”. I knew I was an ignoramus on the subject, just didn’t need a stereotypically teenage nerd abusing me for it from their bedroom, between levels of grand theft auto.

Very quickly it became apparent that there was a whole spectrum of Hakosukas, all very rare outside of Japan but all very different. Here is what I’ve learned so far and while it is not be the full technical picture it gives some insight, call it a layman’s guide:

Skyline

The Skyline started out in life at the Prince Motor Company in 1955. It wasn’t until 1966, when Prince merged with Nissan, that the Nissan Skyline (Nissan Sukairain) was born.

C10

The first Skyline to be launched under the Nissan badge was the C10. It’s development began in the Prince R&D facility but the name was dropped in favour of Nissan before its launch in 1968. The 4-door sedan was available in two variants, the first with a Prince 1.5l OHC G15 I4 engine and the second with the Prince 1.8l G18 version. Various other models were built including a coupe in 1970.

These early models are generally not discussed at any length and it’s very rare to find pictures even, unless your inclined to dig. It’s here however that the confusion begins, and having generally berated forums above, the details of these cars are explained in amazing detail by a UK expert in many threads which are well worth a read. Usually they start with “Is this a genuine Hakosuka?”…tumbleweed…

Hakosuka

Firstly, Hakosuka is a combination of two words, Hako, meaning box and Suka coming from Sukairain, or Skyline. So translates simply to box or boxy Skyline.

Secondly, every C10 Skyline is a ‘Hakosuka’ – it’s not a word that’s interchangeable with GT-R and herein is where the majority of the confusion arises.

GT-R

As the model range expanded, variants included the (long nose) 2000 GT and 2000 GT-X with an L20 straight six engine.

The first GT-R to market came in 1969 as a 4-door sedan and used a Prince designed DOHC engine, the S20 – things were beginning to become clearer to me. This was followed by a 2-door coupe in 1971, again with an S20 engine and the variant that most call the ‘Hakosuka’and indeed the car I’d been unknowingly searching for.

The confusion stems only from the lack of information combined with real excitement around the car and it’s mystery outside Japan. To get a basic understanding of the C10 range there are a few key letters to learn in the chassis codes. Here’s how I understand them (bearing in mind I’m still a novice):

K – denotes a 2-door coupe. You’ll often see 2HT (2 door hard top) in adverts, auction sheets which derive from the fact it’s a ‘K’.

P – suggests a ‘Prince’ engine, G15, G18 or S20.

G – denotes the long nose body type and cars will use a 6-cylinder engine.

With these in mind let’s dive into what these codes are and what you can expect from a factory original. Let’s start with all the letters!

KPGC10 – long nose, 6-cylinder, 2-door coupe with a ‘Prince’ engine, which has to be of course the S20. This is a GT-R and it is defined in the chassis code by the combination of P and G.

KGC10 – long nose, 6-cylinder, 2-door coupe but without a ‘Prince’ engine, namely the L20. These are most commonly confused with a GT-R.

PGC10 – long nose, 6-cylinder, 4-door sedan with the S20 engine, a GT-R.

KPC10 – short nose, 4-cylinder, 2-door coupe.

And finally (for this list, not the extensive list) an off the radar the VPC10 DX – information almost none existent, so don’t ask what the V is for, however I have to say it’s a car that looks great in my view.

So now I knew roughly the model range (to an extent), the vastly different pricing began to make sense, the Czech car was a KGC10, the carsensor cars genuine GT-Rs.

Do I want a genuine GT-R…hmm? I couldn’t believe I was still contemplating it, six figures for a potentially soluble, 40+ year old Nissan.

Having just got comfortable with the pricing, I stumbled across results from an August 2014 Sotheby’s auction that blew the landscape wide open and released the investor inside – the hammer had gone down on a KPGC10 at $220,000. Time to bring in the experts…

Sources for some technical information: Wikipedia, GTR forum, Pistonheads.

The Search Phase Two

I had to bring “the other half” over the wall. It involved the standard grilling, the “how much is it?” followed closely by “you’re crazy” conversation that we’d had a number of times before, but on this occasion I needed her expertise to assist in the search. Reluctantly she agreed, despite continuing to question my mental state.

Prominent UK car classifieds had turned up nothing. I was left scratching my head, what was the next move?

Japan. Of course!

There must be an Autotrader.jp or something similar there, however kanji and my grasp of the Japanese language don’t rank up there in the list of my most useful skills, so navigating to the right website would be almost impossible. Japanese however is her mother-tongue and so her morning ahead (after the school run and should she choose to accept it) was going to involve an important mission. The brief was simple, find Japan’s biggest used car classifieds site and search for 1971-1972 Nissans! She was ecstatic…

Despite owning exactly the same smart phone, I had to hand mine over to perform the deed, I suspect the craziness should remain in my operating system and browser history? In a flash:

Step 1: Done. The intuitively(?) named carsensor.net was the vehicle, a website that I’m sure fills hours of the average salary man’s working day, that is if the culture for viewing used car classifieds is the same in Japan as it is here in the UK.

Step 2: Done. She’d found them! She’d only gone and found them! 3 Hakosukas.

I’ll have one…!!

“F” pattern out the window…again, snatching back my phone, my eye was drawn straight to the large black and red numbers, prominent above all else on the page (probably because I couldn’t read anything else) this must be the price.

Hako 1: 2138

  
Hako 2: 1848

Did these prove the car from the Czech Republic was mis-priced?

Where’s Sterling/Yen???? It had been a long time since I asked myself that! Bloomberg to the rescue. 195. Wow, the Yen is weak, good sign, stars aligning! Get more for every pound!

Why on Earth are prices listed in such on odd way?? Why not show all the digits, instead of forcing me to to the maths. Here goes:

2138 x 1000 – it’s obvious they were missing a few zeroes, assumption, standard accounting method, show figures divided by one thousand = JPY 2,138,000

JPY 2,138,000 / 195 = £10,964

It was my turn to be ecstatic, for a minute, weak Yen, £11k, Czech car forgotten, I’ll have one!

Given I couldn’t read anything on the page, I excitedly passed the calculator over for confirmation.

“Ni(2)-ichi(1)-san(3)-hachi(8) man” was mumbled back at me as my other half traced zeroes on the palm of her hand.

“Man” – was the name of the character that followed the price.

“Man” – was the three zeroes I added to the price.

“Man” – had created a puzzled look across the table.

“Man” – it turns out, is the character that represents 10,000. 

“Man” – was the defining point in the journey. I’ll have one?! These cars are being listed for £110k in Japan.

Oh man…

At this point the search was over. I wasn’t a classic car investor and with a price tag breaching six figures you need to know your apples. I knew nothing.

Search over, for now at least, but curiosity deeper than ever before. Time to get educated. What better place to start, the title of the advert (above) and two clues, or at least 2 sets of numbers and letters I could decipher:

S20 and KPGC10…

The Search Phase One

The next morning I was straight back to Autotrader and Pistonheads. Had there been a deluge of 1970’s Skyline Hakosukas posted during the last 6 hours of slumber? Of course not, the greeting from both reading “no results found” exactly as they had the evening before.

Time to get out of the comfort zone. Which medium would a discerning classic car buyer use to peruse the Internet for their next acquisition, I asked myself? I had no idea really, so back to the drawing board, and a quick Google later I was navigating around Car and Classic. A couple of dropdowns and I was into the Nissan Skyline results page. Hope soon faded as the top few results were much newer cars than I expected and as I quickly flicked through the list I almost scrolled past exactly what it was I delaying the trip into work for, I’d found one! 

I had that same feeling of excitement that I felt every time I looked for a car. It’s going to be a pristine, low mileage, high-spec, well cared for example that’s been priced incorrectly at the low end of the market…and I’m going to buy it.

Unfortunately, that was as close as it got to a purchase. 

Research shows that webpages are read in an “F” formation, across the top, down the side with a bit in the middle. That, I’m sure is true, however it is flawed if you’re browsing classifieds on an iPhone and there are pictures to expand. This is how the next minute went:

1. Front three quarter picture – nice, love the shape. Silver car, black bonnet, hmmm – looks “ok”.
2. Rear three quarter picture – shape, still looking good, the black bonnet morphs into a stripe that continues to the rear of the car and under the bumper, hmmm – “ok”, above, was generous.
3. Engine bay – that can’t be an original 1971 engine – not that I had any qualifications to differentiate any given engine from another but it didn’t look right. This early in the search and having no understanding of engines in general, I didn’t want a non standard car.
4. Images closed – back to the “F” pattern. Title long but included Hakosuka GT-R. Tick.
5. Location – Czech Republic. The penultimate but search ending, body blow. I once bought a Lotus Elise from a helicopter pilot in a Guildford supermarket car park and that felt adventurous. There was no chance I was going to negotiate on a 40+ year old car, unseen, from anywhere in Europe. No way! Particularly when I continued down the “F” to the next section…
6. Price Tag – £39,450…the liver shot, [insert many expletives here and given we’re in an “F” theme you wouldn’t be wrong sticking to F related expletives]. Uninformed? I sure was, I’d decided to buy a car I knew nothing about, the first example of which would cost me almost forty thousand golden nuggets. To say it another way, I could buy a very nice, nearly new BMW X5, have a decent family holiday and have a very happy fiancé for the same money.

Being an optimist, I was sure the price tag was wrong for the type of car I wanted! I was unaware at this stage but, guess what, I’d got something right, the pricing was indeed wrong! The search was about to get way more involved, I hadn’t found a car yet but was 100% still of the mindset, I’ll have one…

I’ll have one…errr…

So I’d found it, a Nissan Skyline, also referred to as a Hakosuka. A car that I knew nothing about, but was soon about to research at length because having browsed a few Google images, I’d decided…I’ll have one!

Now I wasn’t in the market for a car, I already had a Qashqai that was more than sufficient for my needs. I’d had the pleasure in my younger days to drive and own a few performance cars, but as many will understand, priorities change and back in 2011 the advert went up for my yellow mid-engined Sunday chariot, “family forces sale”. It was a sad day to see it leaving, squeezed into the back of a transporter, but of course Sunday’s had just gotten a whole lot busier and as two became three, and with the disproportionate amount of luggage required for every journey, a 2-seater didn’t cut it anymore. Fast forward 4-years, a classic (though a classic I knew nothing about), I thought why not, this is bit different, let’s get involved again.

First question I asked myself, the “obvious” one, I thought – do I find Hakosukas on Autotrader or do I have to go to the more specialised Pistonheads? A quick, excited search soon turned to disappointment, both had drawn a blank – this should have been the first alarm bell – 500,000 cars between the two and no trace of any notable, elderly Nissans.

Undefeated, undeterred and massively uninformed, this is where the journey really begins. I’ll have one, I was mentally “done” without the faintest clue of what that really meant. The search starts here…

The beginning

I can’t remember exactly what sparked the idea, or even  where I began the search but I’d seen the image of a car  years ago and suddenly I was sitting at my kitchen table, family asleep upstairs, prodding the shiney iPhone screen trying to find out what had been tucked away in my mind for years.

After a big of research, remembering only that this thing was square, had 4 “headlights” and looked fairly aggressive, to my surprise i discovered I was hunting for a car from the same manufacturer as my school run fun bus. It was a Nissan.

Now when I say “hunting”, I was literally just hunting for information, for confirmation of what the car was. When I found some images, I was again amazed at how good the it looked, yes it’s old, but it has a presence that would catch the eye among any collection. So what exactly was this memory I’d had tucked away? It was a Nissan, yes, but it this was not the same as my sanitised, reliable everyday Qashqai, no.

It was a Hakosuka.