Cony 360
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The Cony 360 was a
kei car Kei car is the smallest category of Japanese expressway-legal motor vehicles. The term ''kei'' is a shortening of , (kanji: ), which translates to English as "light vehicle" (). With restricted dimensions and engine specifications, owners ...
, truck, and van made by
Aichi Kokuki was a Japanese aerospace manufacturer which produced several designs for the Imperial Japanese Navy. After the war, the company was reorganized as Aichi Machine Industry Co., Ltd (愛知機械工業) where they made small '' kei'' cars until ...
.


Overview

The 360 (referring to the 354 cc engine, bore × stroke: 64 × 55 mm) had a two-cylinder boxer engine producing at 5500 rpm. Originally introduced as a two-door sedan, it was also built in light panel van and pickup truck versions, replacing the unrefined and outdated
Cony Guppy The Cony Guppy is a small pickup truck manufactured by Aichi. The vehicle had suicide doors and rotating amber beacons on the B-pillar. The brake lights were tiny and circular. The engine, which rests behind the seats, is a two-valve, 199 cc ...
and the similar Giant 360. Instead of an air-cooled two cylinder engine from the previous model, which was seen as outdated and unrefined, a new lighter air-cooled four cylinder engine producing 18 hp was placed in the 360; power went up to 20 hp after 1967. The vehicle was a technical oddity in early-1960s Japan. The compact engine, designed to take as little space as possible, was mounted in a RMR layout with a
dry sump A dry sump system is a method to manage the lubricating motor oil in Four-stroke engine, four-stroke and large Two-stroke engine, two-stroke Reciprocating engine, reciprocating internal combustion engines. The dry sump system uses two or more o ...
instead of an oil pan. The vehicle featured
rack and pinion rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the '' pinion'') engaging a linear gear (the ''rack''). Together, they convert between rotational motion and linear motion: rotating the pinion causes the rack to be d ...
steering, a feature that was rare in Japanese cars at the time and mostly found on advanced American and European performance cars; post-1967 models also had a four-speed manual transmission, a rarity in ''kei'' cars of the time. Despite technological advantages, the 360's performance was low even for its class. It had a top speed of 74 km/h.


Cabover truck

The wide truck was unveiled at the 1964
Tokyo Motor Show The , called (TMS) until 2023, is a biennial auto show held in October–November at the Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Hosted by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), it is a recog ...
as a competitor to established cab over ''kei'' truck models such as the
Subaru Sambar The Subaru Sambar is a cabover truck and microvan manufactured and marketed by Subaru as Japan's second truck compliant with the country's strict Keitora (軽トラ) or ''Kei'' vehicle tax class, after the Kurogane Baby. Introduced in 1961 in ...
and
Daihatsu Hijet The , is a cab over microvan and kei truck produced and sold by the Japanese automaker Daihatsu since 1960. The , a passenger-specific version, was introduced in 1981. Despite the similarities between the Hijet name and Toyota's naming scheme ...
. The name of Wide was due to the large size of the loading platform, which was the largest in its class; a panel van version was introduced in 1966. Some of the cab-over trucks were made in left-hand drive for export markets, mainly North America.


Demise

For a smaller Japanese manufacturer,
Aichi Kokuki was a Japanese aerospace manufacturer which produced several designs for the Imperial Japanese Navy. After the war, the company was reorganized as Aichi Machine Industry Co., Ltd (愛知機械工業) where they made small '' kei'' cars until ...
was fairly successful and innovative; however, competition in the Japanese auto industry became fierce, particularly in the 360 cc ''kei'' segment. The introduction of newcomers, mainly the
Honda N360 The Honda N360 is a small front-engine, front-wheel drive, two-door, four-passenger car manufactured and marketed by Honda from March 1967 through 1972 in Japan's highly regulated kei class — as both a two-door sedan and three-door wagon. ...
and T360 in particular, ate into Cony's market share as the vehicles, while advanced, were inferior in capability and performance compared to the
Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...
and
Suzulight Suzulight was the brand used for kei cars built by the Suzuki, Suzuki Motor Corporation from 1955 to 1969. They were Suzuki's first entry into automotive manufacturing, having previously only produced motorcycles. It was Japan's second front-wheel ...
models.
Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...
, having taken over
Prince Motor Company The Prince Motor Company (Japanese language, Japanese: ) was an automobile manufacturer, automobile marque from Japan which eventually merged into Nissan in 1966. It began as the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, a manufacturer of various airplanes fo ...
in 1965, was greatly expanding its production and influence in the Japanese auto industry. Aichi Kokuki began its collaboration with Nissan in 1965, designing the
Nissan A engine The Nissan A series of internal combustion gasoline engines have been used in Datsun and Nissan brand vehicles. Displacements of this four-stroke engine family ranged from 1.0-liter to 1.5-liter and have been produced from 1967 till 2009. It is a ...
which would debut in the brand new 1966
Nissan Sunny The is an automobile built by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1966 till 2004. In the early 1980s, the brand changed from Datsun to Nissan in line with other models by the company. Although production of the Sunny in Japan ended in 2004, the ...
. Aichi Kokuki's financial problems, combined with Nissan increasing their share of the company, caused the production of Cony vehicles to finally come to a halt in 1970; while there were plans to continue Cony vehicles under the Nissan badge, the plant was instead put to use to produce larger and far more profitable Nissan models, such as the
Nissan Cherry The Datsun Cherry (チェリー), known later as the Nissan Cherry, is a series of subcompact cars which formed Nissan's first front-wheel drive supermini model line. The Nissan Cherry featured the front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The Ch ...
, while the dealer network was transformed into the Nissan Cherry Store. Nissan did not control Aichi Kouchi completely until 2012, when it became a full-fledged subsidiary of Nissan.


References

{{Nissan Cars of Japan Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles