Bow to your Prince, CCommoners! You are in the presence of HRH Gloria the Second. This is no mere Crown, this is the whole regal personage, the one and only. Well, the Second one and only, anyway. And as far as I’m concerned, this is the Prince of Princes, the glory of all Glorias. Let us reverently examine this late example of the breed, straight out of the Nissan Heritage Museum vault.
The Prince Motor Company may have disappeared in its merger with Nissan almost sixty years ago, but its influence remains felt to this day. After all, they created the mighty Skyline back in 1957, and that nameplate has survived the Nissan takeover, the Bubble Economy bursting and the Carlos Ghosn era. Sadly, that last hurdle was one the Gloria could not clear. But it started strong and lasted a very long time nonetheless.
The first Gloria, launched in 1959, was really a Skyline with added gingerbread and a 1.9 litre 4-cyl. engine (the Skyline had a 1.5). At the time, only the Toyota Crown was comparable on the JDM, a formidable opponent. One thing Prince had going for them at the time was a major princely champion in the form of Crown Prince Akihito, who was very public about his liking of the marque. This counted for something, but Gloria the First was still little more than a tarted-up Skyline, and rival companies such as Nissan, Isuzu and Mitsubishi were already planning to respond with larger models.
So that’s what Prince had to do as well. In September 1962, the S40D Gloria Deluxe was launched, initially only with the same 1.9 litre 4-cyl. its predecessor had. The S41 Gloria 6 and higher-spec Super 6, featuring a 2-litre OHC straight-6, hit the streets in June 1963, bringing the Gloria up to par with the new Crown and the Nissan Cedric. A super base-spec S40S 4-cyl. Gloria Special (photo above) also joined the fray, as did a similar-looking taxi version.
There was a bit of a race to the top going on in mid-‘60s Japanese executive saloons, and Prince had the upper hand for a bit thanks to the S44 Grand Gloria. These 2.5 litre “outsized” (displacement-wise) models arrived in May 1964, competing against the 2.6 litre VG10 Crown and the 2.8 litre Cedric Special. The Prince was more powerful and had much better performance than its rivals, but was soon out-gunned by the V8-powered Crown Eight and Nissan President.
Like most of its rivals at the time, the Gloria did offer a long roof variant – both in 4- and 6-cyl. form. These came in two series: the deluxe “civilian/family” Estate or the more business-like Wagon (above). The only significant technical difference was that these were only available with a 3-speed manual, whereas the saloons had a 3-speed with overdrive as standard or an optional Okamura 2-speed automatic called “Super Flow,” which was replaced by a more user-friendly Borg-Warner 3-speed in 1966.
The Prince G7 engine was the Gloria’s calling card – a real advantage over the competition. Taking inspiration from Mercedes-Benz M180, the Prince engineers designed the first Japanese OHC straight-6. Rated at 100hp (gross) for the wagon, it produced an extra 5hp in the saloon. The twin-carb 125hp version used on the Skyline GT-B was never fitted to the production Gloria, though that blue racer above might have it…
While not exactly a rocket ship even at the time, the G7 was still very capable and reliable. It only really became a track legend when shoehorned into the Skyline. But that’s another story. In the Gloria, it was hauling over 1300kg of car – 450 more than the Skyline, so performance was far from stellar. But then again, the 2-litre Crown and the Cedric were even less in a hurry.
Like its domestic rivals, Prince still favoured body-on-frame construction – nothing revolutionary there – and made do with drum brakes all around, apart from the 2.5 litre cars which did have front disc brakes. Suspension-wise, the car was again in its own league: the front was the tried-and-true double wishbones and coils, but the rear featured a single (initially double) leaf-sprung de Dion tube, a technical feature inherited from the first-gen Skyline.
There were a lot of fairly expensive and uncommon optional extras one could fit on a Gloria Super 6, including A/C, power windows, power seats, automatic headlight dimmer and many other goodies. Most of these would have been available on the Toyota Crown Eight or the Nissan President, but not on the 2-litre cars.
Prince cars, including the Gloria, were exported to a number of countries, back in the day. I’m unaware of any being sent over to the United States, but they were definitely shipped to a number of European markets, where they were sold (for some unfathomable reason) as the PMC Mikado Gloria 6. Some must have made it all the way over there – I read a 1964 Swiss test that was extremely positive about the car, for instance – but quantities would have been pretty small. The Skyline sold a lot better abroad: folks who shopped for 2-litre cars simply did not think to look at a Japanese option, in those days.
Prince also tried their luck in Australia, but apparently only managed a little under 600 sales in four years. They were a little more successful in New Zealand, where the Gloria was assembled locally for a short while.
Our feature car, not unlike the Skyline I caught a few years back, belongs to the tail end of the production run, after Nissan were gently persuaded by Japanese bureaucrats to take over Prince in August 1966. From that point on, a little Nissan script found its way on Prince cars. The last S40 Glorias were built in April 1967, making way for the rather different (but also quite attractive) A30 series.
There remains one topic we have yet to explore – the styling. Let’s start with the interior. Nothing much to be said here, even with this rather inferior shot, we can see it’s just plain old mock Detroit in there. Not in a bad way, but definitely dated for 1967.
The external side of the issue is far more interesting. Again, very early ‘60s, but what can we say about the influences? What cars did the Prince styling office look at while designing this thing?
Japanese sources speak of the 1960 Buick. I’m seeing a soupçon of ’59 Chevy in there as well, especially at the back. What else are we thinking? Ford Falcon? 1961 Rambler Classic? Corvair? Yes, I think so too.
Somehow, I’m also seeing some Mercedes Fintail in that profile. The greenhouse, in particular, is strikingly similar.
Of course, with that many influences (be they real or supposed) going on all at once, the end result is quite unique. And there are a few knick-knacks like this thing on the fender that seem to have spontaneously generated, just to add a little flavour to the whole gumbo.
To my eyes, the Prince Gloria Super 6 is possibly the most attractive in-house saloon to come out of Japan in the early ‘60s – though the Mitsubishi Debonair is probably ties in first place with it, but I’d have to see an early one in the metal to be able to make up my mind. Sure, it’s fussy and a little cluttered with brightwork, but it’s surprisingly well-balanced when seen in the street – or in a showroom.
I couldn’t find sales or production numbers for this car, but the word on the Japanese web is that, after an initial sales uptick, the inventory started to pile up pretty high. These were expensive cars for the time and Prince just didn’t have the sales network that its rivals did. That’s not to say that they are particularly rare, either – I’ve seen a few and caught the odd one for my regular Singles Collection posts. They were apparently extremely well-built, so even if they sold fewer than Toyota did the second-gen Crown, the survival rate is fairly high.
It didn’t keep Prince from being gobbled up by Nissan, but the Gloria and its great engine were at the root of the Skyline GT-R and a bunch of high-performance Nissan models that made the company’s sporting reputation in the ‘70s and beyond. We bow, once again, to the Prince.
Related post:
In-Motion Classic: 1965 Prince Gloria (S41) Super 6 – Brief, But Still Glorious, by T87
Very cool car with a helluva blend of styling ques… Would love to have one in my driveway
Have you noticed the brand and model name on these Japanese market cars are in English? I wonder if the automatic models use PRND21?
Thanks Mr 87, I really enjoy these articles, not another this or that but for me another fresh car to look at and learn about. The JDM is a fascinating parallel universe.
’59 Chevy in back, ’62 Imperial in front, and ’60 Ford on the side.