Tag: pulsar n11

JDM Trivia #4: Nissan Sportsmatic

December 23, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

JDM Trivia number four: Nissan Sportsmatic

Nobody took a guess at last weeks teaser and maybe it was a bit too strange indeed. So the question was what is this device called and what does it do?
The device is the Nissan Sportsmatic that was featured in both the Nissan Cherry F10 and the Nissan Pulsar N10 coupe.

The sportsmatic for the F10 was a conventional autobox with torque converter, but the Sports-Matic in the picture is the version on the Pulsar N10. This gearbox is an automatic by Nissan that isn’t a slushmatic, but uses an electromagnetic clutch to engage and disengage the drive.

Engagement knob

The engagement knob for this automatic gearbox is a bit unconventional: shifting it up puts it in Drive, shifting it down puts it in low gearing, to the right is the Over Drive while Reverse is left up and Park left down. Continue reading

WTF: Nissan Pulsar N11 Sports-matic gear shifter

June 6, 2013 / banpei / 0 Comments

I accidentally posted this as a blog post earlier this week while it was meant as a linkdump saved as a draft. Probably I pressed the publish button instead of draft…

Anyway, I had a bit WTF when I spotted the automatic gearshift lever in this picture:

Taken from the brochure of the N11 Pulsar (aka the Datsun/Nissan Cherry here in Europe) and it states something about this being a Sports-matic mechanical auto gearbox with an electro magnetically operated clutch. You are supposed to put it in L for the first (low gear), then D for drive (up to 80km/h) as the second gear and OD (overdrive) for the top gear. Do you still get it? I don’t and that’s probably also the reason this ingenious gearshifter never made it past the N11 Pulsar. ;)

This is what the N11 Pulsar looks like as a coupe: Continue reading

WTF: Japanese cars in the Red Light District!

October 22, 2011 / banpei / 0 Comments

I visited Amsterdam earlier this week and while waiting for my train on the Central Station this Amsterdam tourist postcard caught my eye:

Yes indeed: a third generation Mitsubishi Galant, a Nissan Sunny N13 (Pulsar N13 was sold here as the Sunny) and a Datsun Cherry N11 (Pulsar) and ehrm…somthing in the background. ;)

Somehow I knew in the back of my mind it was bad that I spotted these Japanese cars first and a second later the five brightly lit red windows behind them… And I know: it is also a really bad thing to admit… :(

Anyway, I just had to buy this postcard as proof and what unfortunate soul should I send it to? Any volunteers that wish to receive greetings from Holland? Or should I just send it to Japanese Nostalgic Car and see if they can appreciate it as much as I did? :)