1992 Nissan Laurel 1800 LPG Taxi (C32)

Hirst · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2010 5:53 pm

Continuing my bizzare lifestyle decisions, I'm picking this up at some point soon.

It's a Japan-spec Laurel taxi with a 2-litre engine and factory-fit LPG. Why someone would import one of these I'm not sure, but I'm glad they did!

Must be a dedicated taxi-spec as it looks amusingly basic inside and appears to have a manual choke. You'd have thought they could have justified a rev counter.

Don't know quite what I'm going to do with it yet, think I'll change those wheels though as they're off a Silvia I think. Anyone know what the "S" means on the roof sign?

More pics and info to follow once I actually get it.

Garant · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2010 5:55 pm

speaking of bizarre, how is it the roof sign has survived importation? :lol:

Hirst · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2010 5:59 pm

Maybe they stashed it in the footwell or something.

john · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:08 pm

My what a nice parking pole you have...

Hirst wrote:

Don't know quite what I'm going to do with it yet, think I'll change those wheels though as they're off a Silvia I think.

Yes, S12 Silvia to be exact. Decent fit on a 510, though... :wink:

runnin4life · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:09 pm

just for interest sake these things are similiar platform as HR31's
the centre console is the same as HR31's, ignition surrounds and the engine bay from the strut towers back is identical.
pretty sure the seats are similiar/same even the door cards on some are neer identical

ide go as far as saying the drive line is the same,

is it live axle or independant rear end? i know with HR31's they made some weird combinations eg pillarless models came in live axle and independent and same with the pov taxi spec model with the B pillars.

cheers
elliot

runnin4life · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:10 pm

also can you take some close up pics of the front corner markers if you get a chance please? (things on the bumper corners).

skyrine · **Posted:** Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:40 pm

Awesome... I am confused on how it ended up there but cool... What are your plans

nzmax · **Posted:** Sat Jan 02, 2010 3:42 am

I could be wrong, but I always thought that the C32 series ended in 1988 with the introduction of the C33 series Laurel, or was there a "taxi" model that continued in production?

The C32's do use the same mechanicals and some of the interior parts as the R31 Skylines, and both were available as either pillarless hardtops or pillared sedans. As far as IRS and live axle were concerned, each country was different. You got what the Nissan importer of the particular country specified.

In New Zealand, Nissan NZ specified the 3.0V6 Pillarless Hardtop to have IRS, and the 2.4 pillared sedan to have live rear axle. In the Netherlands, their sedans had IRS.

NSRz32 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:32 am

That's definitely unique :tu:

Chickenwing · **Posted:** Sat Jan 02, 2010 3:12 pm

thats pretty cool.

Florin · **Posted:** Sun Jan 03, 2010 4:27 am

Wow, this is an interesting find!

According to wikipedia, the 5th generation was discontinued in July 1993. So probably it was still built for taxi use...

You said the interior is pretty basic. I see that the steering wheel is different from the regular C32 one. It reminds me of the one used in the early C32/C31 models.
Does it have electric windows? I read that there was a Nissan Laurel Spirit version and it seemed to be have less equipment than a regular Laurel.

Hirst · **Posted:** Sun Jan 03, 2010 4:41 am

It definitely has manual windows in the back, not sure about the front yet. Picking it up next week hopefully.

The Laurel Spirit is a different car - it's a Sunny made to look a bit like a Laurel by giving it chintzy interiors and loads of chrome etc. You could get a turbo one though!

MikeRL411 · **Posted:** Sun Jan 03, 2010 12:24 pm

[quote="Hirst"]Continuing my bizzare lifestyle decisions, I'm picking this up at some point soon.

[img]http://i.ebayimg.com/20/!Bhhks4wCGk~$(KGrHqIH-D4EsLIKYHehBLJi2+YkhQ~~_12.JPG[/img]
[img]http://i.ebayimg.com/24/!Bhhkyj!!2k~$(KGrHqIH-E!EsLfG5-PWBLJi3h!uhw~~_12.JPG[/img]

It's a Japan-spec Laurel taxi with a 2-litre engine and factory-fit LPG. Why someone would import one of these I'm not sure, but I'm glad they did!

[img]http://i.ebayimg.com/15/!BhhlHj!!Wk~$(KGrHqEH-C0EsK81lDBNBLJi5kUuGQ~~_12.JPG[/img]

Must be a dedicated taxi-spec as it looks amusingly basic inside and appears to have a manual choke. You'd have thought they could have justified a rev counter.

Don't know quite what I'm going to do with it yet, think I'll change those wheels though as they're off a Silvia I think. Anyone know what the "S" means on the roof sign?

More pics and info to follow once I actually get it.[/quote]

Is that a taxi meter in the left hand corner of the windshield / windscreen? Also, most city taxis had a switch and hydraulic or electric rear door opener on the curb / kerb side to ease passenger entry and exit with packages. Is this unit equipped with one?

Hirst · **Posted:** Sun Jan 03, 2010 2:43 pm

Yeah, it has a meter but it isn't wired up.

Don't know if it has the door-opener yet, should find out in a few days when I go to get it!

Hirst · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2010 3:36 pm

I can confirm it has a door-opener/closer - big metal handle down near your feet. Might use it to scare people who are walking down the path.

Drives great!

ben · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:54 pm

That is positively awesome. But what happened to the all-important roof sign?

Florin · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 5:17 am

What's the mileage of the car?

Hirst · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:00 am

Roof sign is in the back, I was taking it back on the motorway at high enough speeds to occasionally make the overspeed chime come on. Didn't fancy the idea of it flying off. The base is on there, it just slots on.

Mileage is something like 329K km, can't believe how good the condition is, but the taxi drivers there do seem to keep them really nice. The engine is great.

I wonder how long it was in use as a taxi? It was imported in 2000 and I reckon it couldn't have been far off that, it would have only been 8 years old.

Anyone want to translate all that?

MikeRL411 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:27 am

Hirst wrote:

Anyone want to translate all that?

The first sticker is the "Taxi Medalion" or permit. It's green, so I would venture that it was an Independent, not Franchise Taxi. 550 Yen is the initial meter charge. The third emblem warns that the left rear door is controlled by the driver to open remotely when picking up a passenger. It's obviously originally set up for liquid petroleum gas running.

On first glance this appears to be an "On Duty, Off Duty" sign.

Hirst · **Posted:** Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:52 pm

So I've had it for a while now, trying to piece together all the puzzles that come with a car like this. Not been driving it that much though as the weather has been awful, but it has improved a lot now.

Figured out a lot of confusion I was having by discovering that the engine is a CA18P rather than a CA20. The CA18P is a special taxi-only engine with the P meaning it is set up for LPG from the factory. What this means is that I have 76ps in a car weighing 1360kg, which makes it pretty intense.

There's that roof sign. I'll put it on for a bit at some point.

The original radio. I find it really funny that Nissan bothered to produce a non-tapedeck one. There's a modern Kenwood tapedeck in it at the moment, I'll swap it out for something more period at some point. As much as I find that one amusing, I like listening to my tapes.

So at the moment I'm trying to track down the bits to give it a service in the near-future and also sort out the exhaust system. I'm not sure whether it has one off another car fitted or if the back half of it is missing, but it doesn't end where it should do and blows a bit.

Mine ends just before that backbox section, so it's on the wrong side of the car and not near the end of it. Note the pipe which switches the exhaust position to pop out on the other side of the car. Pleasingly, this system seems the norm across all C32 Laurels. Less pleasingly, exhaust systems for these cars are expensive and hard to obtain. I'm told having a stainless system fabricated is cheaper, so I'll probably get one created to the stock specifications (not a concours fan, just don't like loud exhausts much).

The other thing I'm going to turn my attention to are the current wheels. Right now it has some slightly untidy Silvia S12 wheels with so-so tyres, I've had a long think about it and I've decided I'm going to go for a stock setup - 14" steels with chintzy hubcaps as demonstrated in the above picture (borrowed from Spottedlaurel). Just need to obtain some appropriate steel wheels with the right offset, not sure where from but I'll figure that out.

Finally, here's a video of me driving it around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nFanNXjTCc

1992 Nissan Laurel 1800 LPG Taxi (C32)

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