The Pike cars, from left to right: S-Cargo, Pao, Be-1 and Figaro
Think the BMW Mini or Volkswagen New Beetle were the retro trailblazers? Think again…
We recently learned that Nissan’s clone of the new Renault Twingo EV will also have a retro design, inspired by a car from the same era.
The Be-1 is far less known than the Mk1 Twingo, having been exclusive to Japan, but far more significant in terms of influence on future design.
When Nissan exhibited the Be-1 concept car at the 1985 Tokyo show, Autocar’s reaction was a one-line dismissal: “cheeky ugliness”.
Yet the Japanese public reacted by mobbing the little Micra-based hatchback, and the only words its lead designer, Naoki Sakai, heard each day were ‘kawaii’ and ‘hoshii!’, meaning ‘how cute’ and ‘I want it!’.
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This discord can probably be explained by the newness of ‘retro’ as a concept – the word itself had entered the English lexicon only a decade prior – and its peculiar prevalence in Japanese culture, especially among the young.
Whereas Minis were ten a penny in London, they were the dream drive for trendy Tokyoites – and the older the better.
So the Be-1 was approved for a small production run of 10,000 and, despite it being mechanically identical to the breathless and anodyne Mk1 Micra yet three times pricier, demand was overwhelming to the extent that Nissan had to run a lottery for build slots.
Naturally, Nissan got fully behind the ‘Pike Factory’ team that had imagined it, leading to the 1987 debuts of the Pao and S-Cargo another supermini and a small van, again Micra-based.
“The Pao is basically a ’40s jungle car or at least that’s the image Nissan wants to portray,” we commented.
“Inside, you get a simple metal dash with a large single speedo, old-fashioned flick switches and brilliant period-look radio that was designed for the car. The safari theme continues with simple hemp-like seat trim and authentic-looking satchels for maps on the backs of the front seats.
“S-Cargo, in case the joke has passed you by, is a clever play on the French word ‘escargot’, and this snail-shaped device is essentially a modern Japanese interpretation of the Citroën 2CV. Cute, weird, fun – they’re all adjectives that apply to the S-Cargo’s ‘retro’ styling, which is so completely over the top that you can’t help but fall for it.”
Isamu Suzuki was the general manager of Nissan’s Product Planning and Marketing Group Number Four – but universally known as Mr Be-1.
“Cars on the market today are so serious,” he told us in 1989. “Hi-tech, fuel efficiency, durability – those are the kinds of things that are usually given priority. We don’t want to be so serious. We want to create a feeling of enjoyment, a natural look, something interesting.”
At that year’s Tokyo show came the debut of the final, most famous Pike car: the ’50s-flavoured Figaro coupé. This time production was set to total 20,000, but again Nissan had to run lotteries.
Looking at these four cuties, it’s puzzling to learn that Sakai had a ‘bad boy’ image – he was infamous for “provocative” television appearances and drank a beer during our interview – and that he was a fashion designer who had had “no interest in cars”, let alone a driving licence.
But he explained that his team knew such design would be loved because “we are part of our own major market: the well-heeled, young, turn-of-thecentury, cosmopolitan, audiovisual information junkie”.
That team was mostly female, and the few men were gay – as a matter of policy. “Japanese [straight] men have no spirit, no curiosity, no bravery,” was Sakai’s rationale.
Ironically, this incorrigible contrarian had detached himself from his most famous work early on, having grown bored with retro.
“Modern mass product design is just like repeated incest,” he said. “All cars in Japan look alike, because nobody will take risks. Nissan only cares about what Toyota and Honda are doing, not about its customers. An interesting failure is better than a boring success.”
As we noted at the time, this rant was rather unfair. Nissan customers had been delighted by the Pike cars, and many more people had to live with terrible FOMO – a situation that persists even four decades later.
The quartet paved the path for retro revivals of the Volkswagen Beetle, Fiat 500, Mini and American hot rods in the 2000s and have been noted by design critics as the zenith of automotive postmodernism.
If the new Wave proves even half as appealing, it will be a smash hit.
