Ah, the C-pillar; of all the pillars we name with letters in the automotive world, the C-pillar is by far the thirdest. C-pillars, perhaps as a result of their location towards the rear of the car and the seeming freedom that offers, can find themselves growing to extraordinary sizes and taking on some strange shapes. Which is pretty much what occurred on the first-generation Datsun (or Nissan) Cherry 100A or late 120A. I mean, just look at that damn thing! It’s huge and majestic and unashamed and unbound!
This particular C-pillar only appeared on the coupé version of the Cherry, which was quite a striking design, largely because of this C-pillar, which, just in case you didn’t notice, was absolutely massive.
I mean, is it even still a “pillar” at this point? It’s a whole wall.
It almost feels like Dick Teague’s famous sketch for the AMC Gremlin, drawn on an airline barf bag:
But then when I look at the Cherry, I realize Datsun’s designers took things way further than Dick Teague ever dreamed. Look at the proportions of it! It takes up at least a third of the car, with its vast, unbroken, painted surface.
I bet visibility was pretty miserable.
Cargo area seems to be pretty cavernous, and that rear window is just about horizontal, and is almost a glass roof more than a rear window.
There was an X-1 variant as well that had a 1.2-liter engine and twin carbs that look like Hitatchi SU-style carbs, because they have those bottle-like dashpot things.
The Cherry coupé has a somewhat van-like quality to it, because of that vast, windowless side panel, and, really, it almost is a van. That’s a good-sized and relatively private cargo area back there, flanked by those twin pillars of C.
Those are good taillights, too. That odd little air-exhaust-vent molding or maybe a scoop I’m not so sold on, though.
Is this sort of strangely prescient of the Cybertruck? I mean, it kind of looks like that, with that bulky, angular ass. You could hide a truck bed in there, if you really wanted to.
Anyway, I really just wanted you to appreciate that huge C-pillar as much as I do, if possible. Because, damn.
I’m guessing this design is lighter, more cost efficient, and more assembly efficient than windows.
If there’s no B pillar, is it still a C pillar?
This is the same C-Pillar design as every small CUV currently on the market, except those have a “window” stuck in the middle of the slab that looks usefully sized from the outside but is actually mostly opaque black glass and from the inside actually a tiny, useless tunnel. The Datsun approach here is more honest and looks a lot better……I dig it.
Ice cold take: this looks so much better than the Cybertruck.
The later version brought to the US as the F-10 was almost as bad, and had the worst shift linkage ever devised by anyone. I remember one of the car mags referring to it as ‘a pencil stuck in a pile of mashed potatoes’. LOL