1988 – The Design Team
In the late 1980s, Nissan was struggling with sales a commissioned a team of designers to take a fresh approach, designing cars based on people’s lifestyles rather than what the manufacturer wanted. The “Pike Factory” produced four limited run vehicles of which the Figaro was the low riding coupe with flow bud designs throughout commonly referred to as Fleur De Lys. Nissan’s own brand appears but very discreetly.
There were a large team of designers who were involved in the final successful design the Nissan Figaro.
Here we provide more details on some of the team involved in the Pike Factory and Nissan Figaro.
Naoki Sakai
Naoki is a designer whose revolutionary ideas have made him an industry powerhouse. Naoki helped develop Olympus’ O-Product, the camera that made the aluminium body a world standard and mobile phones
His role was to lead a lot of the efforts in the Pike Factory, being heavily involved in seeing the cars get to production. After being involved with Nissan’s Be-1, the vehicle that in the late 1980s started the round-and-cute car boom, Sakai was involved with concepts for three more popular cars from Nissan — the Pao, Figaro and Rasheen — as well as the SW-1 motorbike for Suzuki and the model for Toyota’s Will concept car.
Yoshiro Kobata
Yoshiro studied industrial design at Kanazawa College of Art. His dream was to have more people use the things he designed. He thought that automobiles, alongside architecture, would change the urban landscape and started working for Nissan Motor Co.
He designed the Be-1 as one of the key designers of the Pike cars and was heavily involved with the Figaro.
He tells us was the most challenging of the four Pike cars, with several designs tabled by multiple designers until the final car was realised.
Read more about Yoshiro Kobata.
Shoji Takahashi
Shoji also designed the Nissan Pao which like the Figaro had a low volume production run of just 10,000. Also like the Figaro, the Nissan Pao was an instant hit. Nissan had to run a lottery to decide who the lucky buyers of the cars would be. It was manufactured between 1989 and 1991.
The Japanese are very good at spotting classic design signatures and incorporating them into their own modern cars.
The Figaro is a combination of classic cars like the 60’s Mini, the Renault 4, the Citroen 2CV and the Austin A40.
Related posts:
34 years ago today, the very first Nissan Figaro rolled off the production line – Video
1988 – Nissan Figaro Early Concept Drawings Revealed
1988 – Prototype of Nissan Figaro Created
1989 – Public Launch of the Figaro at the Tokyo Motor Show – Video
1988 – How the Figaro was born
1988 – Original Clay Model of the Nissan Figaro
2018 – Nissan Figaro Designer Naoki Sakai Interview
1991 – Nissan Figaro Official Press Release 14th February
