It’s getting mighty tough to find something that hasn’t had its CC post already. But for my first piece of 2022, I thought I’d do just that. Feast your ravenous eyes on this travesty of an ersatz of a mock ADO16, made from 99% genuine Nissan parts, the great Copel Bonito!
First things first: what a great name. I already entertained CC with this car’s main rival, the already-interestingly-dubbed Mooku Tokio Princess. But at least the Mooku had “Princess” in there to give you a hint. Copel Bonito sounds like a Brazilian delicacy or something – anything but a March dressed like a BMC VandenPlas 1100/1300.
It’s not easy to know your facsimile Japanese Princesses, but I’m getting to be rather good at it now. The Mooku and the Copel were joined by a concern called Lotas (with an “a”), so that by the turn of the Millennium there were a grand total of three March-based ADO16 kits to pick from. From the front, they’re all pretty similar and remarkably good at looking like a VandenPlas 1100/1300.
But it’s a lot trickier to do something about the rear end. All the faux Princesses managed to graft vertical taillights on the March’s rear end, but only the Copel Bonito did this on a grand scale (i.e. a lot o fiberglass) and coupled it with a remodeled tailgate. Copel also sold the Ministar, which did not include such a refined rear end treatment (and must have cost a lot less).
As per the other mock VdPs, the Copel kit did not include any particular mods for the interior. That’s one difference between these and the Mitsuoka Viewt: at least the Viewt made some effort to emulate the ambiance of a Jaguar’s cabin. The VandenPlas Princess 1100/1300 were very luxurious inside, with real wood veneer and leather galore, but that was a bit beyond the means of Copel & Co.
I have seen a couple of genuine VdP ADO16s about. Haven’t caught one yet, but then capturing a Princess is not an easy task in the land of Nintendo. These DIY VdPs are not too common either, as they are now getting on in years, as we can see with our feature car, which has seen better days. This would never happen to the real McCoy. A K11 March dressed as a Princess is still but a lowly Nissan after all.
It’s not as popular as Nissan’s own retro-themed March derivatives and it’ll never be as well-made and collectible as a Toyota Origin, but the Copel Bonito is the best of the small-time kit bunch, without a doubt. They really did a thorough number on that K11 body, which does have a shape that has an ADO16 feel. Well, more so than a Jag Mark II feel in any case…
More than anything though, the Copel Bonito is an illustration of the British bling retro wave that washed over the world in general and Japan especially back in the ‘90s. This retro, in other words, is passé. For the past decade or so, the Japanese automotive world seems to have been getting over its acute Anglophilia, so these kits are no longer reflecting the retro of today, which is now looking back at the ‘70s and ‘80s, as well as American and Japan’s own automotive heritage. Meta retro or just vade retro?
Related post:
CC Capsule: 1997 Nissan March (K11) Mooku Tokio Princess – Van Den Whaaa?, by T87
My snap impression of the front end was Volvo 164
As Maxwell Smart would say:
“…missed it by that much.”
Actually, kind of interesting, I guess? Looking at the article also about a bug-ugly Nissan under this write-up, you have to ask yourself ” where were the makers of these re-body kits in the early-mid 70s when Nissan was producing some truly ghastly looking cars like the B10 and F10 sedans and coupe with their normal sized lights in extremely huge surrounds?
This is a much more convincing alt VDP Princess than the K11 Viewt is at being a Jaguar.. I’m still daydreaming about the Simca 1000 Rallye 2 you showed us yesterday, what a hoot. I’m sure that gets a lot of attention on the streets of Tokyo.
I know the ADO16 was a technologically significant car, and successful in some markets, but a retro version? That’s like a Herman’s Hermits cover band.
The first and last 3 inches at either end might be convincing (a bit), but the rest isn’t, and the interior ends any suggestion this is anything you might want. IMHO.
As dman says, like a weak cover band
OMG I knew they liked the real thing but not so much that fakes were produced, something else should have been used for the middle section,
This raises the obvious question of why were the Japanese so obsessed with the ADO16 Vanden Plas to the point that it spilled over into buying Allegro VDPs and finally making replicars?
I know there’s a significant two way trade with Japan buying a lot of old British cars and the UK buying a lot of less old Japanese cars since they are the two biggest RHD markets but why these cars?
Well T87 you’ve finally done it. You’ve found a JDM car that hasn’t appeared in New Zealand! Well, that I’ve actually seen anyway. I must say the Copel is indeed by far the best DIY VDP, the rear end is particularly well done. Ghastly interior, but then again so was the original VDP’s under all the leather and wood.
“Bonito” means pretty, beatiful in Portuguese. But this…
I’ve never been on this website before today… I was driving around Shinjuku today and spotted a funky (looking) old car that I couldn’t identify. So I snap a quick picture for later research…
Step 1. Google Lens
Step 2. Read through a few Japanese blogs and figure this is a Copel Bonito (tf that is).
Step 3. Google “Copel Bonito”, and the top image looks good, which brings me to this post.
Step 4. Read through entire article before I notice it… The number plate. Was it the same???
I’m laughing that I saw this out in the wild driving around 😂.
Cool site 👍 10/10