Further to the comment in my Skyline History series (Skyline History, Part 1.) which states;
“Despite common thought that the Skyline’s were never exported to America, one of the destinations for the ALSIE (the E designating it’s the Export variant) was in fact America. Though as you could imagine in the mid to late 50’s, the US was quite happy with it’s own car industry and the some 600 cars they received were likely not well met. (Though it has to be said, this is pure speculation on my part. Given the size of American cars and the price of fuel at the time, I doubt there would be little regard for a smaller 1.9l, 4cyl car from Japan)”
So, contrary to popular opinion, the Skyline was in fact sold in the US and not just recently.
Though it was not under Nissan moniker (as most people know the Skyline) because of the period involved it was in “Prince Skyline” guise and from what I can find, it was only the first of the 1st Generation (LSI-1) that was sold, which in my opinion is quite possibly the classiest of all for the US (or anyone for that matter) to have been recipients of.
I can hear you all saying “Well, that’s all well and good to claim Michael. But where’s your evidence, where’s your proof?!” The reality is I don’t have much but what I do have should be enough for those state-side to perhaps investigate further on their own, should they wish to.
The first bit of such evidence is this snippet scanned from a book published in 1960 by Floyd Clymer called “Complete Catalog of Japanese Motor Vehicles” (cheers to Eddie for the clarification on that).;
If you're going to San Francisco...
A brief scan of the image shows the LSI in it’s Export form (broader side stripe with a slight downwards kick near the rear arch) which would go further to it being a line-up of exported cars, unfortunately I wasn’t alive in the 50′s or the 60′s so I can’t confirm that the background titled as the Port of Oakland in San Francisco, is infact that. Though it would be strange for what appears to be a legitimate image/scan to be lying.
Further to that, are these shots taken of an LSI, appearing to slowly return to the earth; (more…)
