Nagoya Motors, International
Nagoya Japan: March 1972
Two engineers, Hideki Kisagari and Sekori Awamura, decided to split off from their employer, a well renown manufacturer of rotary engine cars. They felt that the rotary engines, while powerful, yet quirky and endearing to the corporation’s customer base, were too problematic. Their bosses did not agree, and their concerns would fall numerous times upon deaf ears.
Kisagari and Awamura felt that they could design an equally appealing light sport lineup of vehicles, equally as endearing to their customers, without all of the wankery. Kisagari had designs for a box 4 motor, that could confidently power a lightweight, rear-wheel drive car; one that Awamura would design.
Almost immediately there was tension between the two. Each had wrangled up their own set of investors, and each had their own idea of the direction of the company. Most importantly, they could not agree upon a name. Kisagari wanted to name the company Hide-Sek, combining the names of the two founders, while Awamura wanted to call the company Baraea, which means ingenuity in Arabic. The two argued, even on the cab ride to the patent office; each threatening to leave the venture, taking their investors with them. As they entered the patent office, neither one had any intention of blinking; that is until their attorney announced them as the representatives from Nagoya. It was so simple, and it said everything it needed about the company. That day, the pair registered their company as Nagoya Motors, International.
With all the proper patents and permits filed, and all the funding in place, the partners laid out a plan to release their first car. Dubbed the Osprey, based on the company’s platform naming convention (later models would be internally referred to, and sold in Japan and South Korea, by their platform name, while international offerings would utilize localized naming conventions, especially after their purchase by OMG), the first model featured a 1.5 liter Box 4 producing 70 Kw. The Osprey debuted to the public for the 1975 model year and initially was only available in Japan and South Korea.
Other platforms were patented, and would join the lineup, such as the mid-size Falcon,
and the Kei class Swallow.
There were also patents filed for a full-size upscale model, dubbed Eagle, and a heavy utility vehicle, called the Crane, but those were never brought to market. A mid-engine model, dubbed the Sparrow was added later to the lineup.
The 1980s saw an extra sporty version of the Osprey, dubbed the Osprey XS, which came to be known by enthusiasts by the mid 1990s and early 2000s, as the NO-XS
Between 1975 and 1978, Nagoya was only available in Japan and South Korea. Starting with the 1979 model year, Nagoya was found in fourteen countries. In 1981, Nagoyas could be found in South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. By 1982 Nagoya had reached the shores in the western hemisphere, as a company in Argentina began importing them and selling them throughout South America.
It was about this time, when Nagoya began to show up on Olympus’s radar. The Nagoya Osprey had begun to eat away at the market share enjoyed by OMG’s Pegasus brand, as the value cost leader in South America. Add to this that Nagoya had just broke ground on a new plant and headquarters in Belize, with the intent of spreading up through central America; and even were in negotiations with an importer in Los Angeles, to bring Nagoya models into the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The board of directors at Olympus Motor Group, were impressed and a bit threatened with how well, and rapidly Nagoya’s expansion plans were going. Nagoya operated around the same price range as comparable Pegasus models (import fees and taxes would have made them slightly more expensive). Pegasus had become a larger part of the OMG portfolio since the oil embargo and Japanese invasion of the 1970s; the last thing Olympus wanted was another competitor, especially one that operate within their target demographic.
The company’s recourse was obvious; they made a purchase offer for Nagoya Motors, International. Their bid was accepted, perhaps thinking that this would bring Nagoya to the North American market. Instead, Olympus absorbed Nagoya as a sub-brand of the company. They re-positioned the brand to be slightly up-market from Pegasus, and in many countries, the two were sold side-by-side. Sometimes American designs, that would have been sold as Pegasus in the U.S. and Canada, where marketed as Nagoya. An example of this would be the Nagoya Tagalong crossover SUV, a port of the Pegasus Tagalong, a downscale version of the Star Journey, and the Olympus Aquarius. http://discourse.automationgame.com/uploads/default/optimized/4X/b/2/e/b2e6d51ad28fdd350f265e65873377cec4341b42_1_690x388.jpg
Kisagari and Awamura continued to design cars for Nagoya, until the former’s death in 1997, and the latter’s retirement in 2002. Some of Nagoya’s designs would eventually make it to the North American market, such as the Sparrow, which was re-branded as the Pantheon Sparrow.