Did you know the Figaro has three siblings? Welcome to the Pike Factory.

You have to understand what was going on in Japan in the late 1980s to early 1990s.  The perfect storm of consumerism.  The Ultimate Bubble Economy. Overheated economic activity, as well as an uncontrolled money supply and credit expansion. Pile on top of that overconfidence and speculation regarding asset and stock prices.  Which were further fueled by an excessive monetary easing policy during this time.  In short, money money everywhere, looking for something to be spent on.

Now let us take Nissan.  Caught up in the same overvaluation, they were transitioning from the old name of Datsun and wanted to put out there that they were innovators.  With the bankroll and audacity to try some really crazy things.  

That’s where the Pike Factory came into play, for both production and marketing.  Pike is defined as a medieval infantry weapon, a long spear tipped by a small leaf-shaped steel point.  The Japanese felt this symbol was Avant Garde – experiential in the arts, taking chances.

So the Pike factory (actually,  Takada Kogyo, a contract manufacturer for Nissan only) was going to produce a special series of four cars to showcase the company’s out-of-the-box thinking and ability to take a vehicle from concept to reality without compromising all of the Avant Garde elements. 

Some speculate Nissan went with a subcontractor because they had limited experience with convertibles.  I think they wanted to keep their house in order in the strict Japanese way and didn’t want to retool a factory kicking out Sentra’s that were paying the bills for artful concept cars for the upper class.  Just my two cents. Or two yen.

Now keep in mind, Nissan wasn’t going to build these cars all-new from the ground up.  What they picked for a common platform was an existing JDM production compact car called the Micra (North American) and the March (in Japan).  Very simple vehicle. 

Plus the Micra used parts that were common to the Sentra, Pulsar, NX200, Stanza, 300zx, and even the Pathfinder.  Waste not want not.  But it’s what they stacked on top of this platform and drivetrain that would really make them special.

The four Pike Factory cars were built between 1985 and 1991.  Let’s take a look.

The first offering was the Be-1, which premiered at the Tokyo Auto Show in 1985 and went into production in 1987. It was boxy and cute and called nostalgic modern. It was said to have an emphasis on playfulness and excitement (I guess in a Japanese way). With a limited run of 10k, all presold immediately. Canvas top was introduced later.

Next in the lineup was the PAO. Again the boxy cute look, but with more of a safari vibe with the drop gate for the picnic basket. All came with a canvas top, and the theme was old-world British adventure and finding the terra incognito.

Learning from how fast the Be-1 sold out, this 2nd limited offering was bumped up to a 50k run. All 50k were pre-ordered in the first three months. Then produced and delivered over the next couple of years.

Not to neglect the commercial side of the market, Nissan came out with a funky little van aptly named the S-Cargo. They made it look like a snail, with even a sushi tray pullout holder on the dash for when you just don’t have time to eat while delivering whatever it is you deliver in a van that looks like a snail.

Release in 1989, the S-Cargo packed a lot of space for a small vehicle. A cap of 8,000 was made. Which I personally feel it about 7,999 too many

The last of the four-car series was the Figaro. Name after the opera The Marriage of Figaro. While the Be-1 and PAO were throwbacks to 1950, the Figgy (as owners call them) was an homage to the 1935 Datsun roadster.

But I see a lot of Fiat, Renault, Citroen, and some Italian curves to make you think it’s more early 1960s European. Of course the name helps. But they did hit the Art Deco vibe perfectly.

But if you want to be honest, it looks like they ‘borrowed’ a LOT from the Gutbrod Superior, a little post-war German car made from 1950-54. So much for Japanese originality.

With only one model year in 1991, the first car was delivered on Valentine’s Day. The last car (like mine – one of the last 100 made) was pushed out in late Dec. With an original production cap of only 8k (2k in each of the four colors), it was bumped up to 20k.

Again all were presold, with potential buyers being pulled from three separate lotteries thru the course of production. I’ve heard there were 225k people in the lottery, so the odds were one in ten to be allowed to buy one. Kind of crazy.

Of course, when the bubble economy burst in 1992, Japan went into the darkest financial decade they have ever known. And when things did start to return to ‘normal’ in the early 2000s, there was no longer an appetite (or market) to create more Pike cars.

It took a perfect storm at the perfect time for these little concept cars to come into being. One which is not expected to happen again any time soon (at least in my lifetime).