You might have seen the Galue on Top Gear when James May went to Japan to drive a sumo wrestler to his event. And while that was entertaining in a James May sort of way, the Galue in that film was the Galue III, which is a Fuga. No I’m not swearing in Japanese, but the Galue III was based on a Nissan Fuga (called a Teana or Maxima elsewhere). I am however NOT going to talk about the Galue III, because while it looks interesting it has no tuneability.
On the other hand, the Galue II (let’s forget the Galue I, based on the Nissan Crew) was based on the Y34 Nissan Cedric/Gloria chassis. And on top of that you can easily swap out the LEV VQ30DD that resides and place in a VQ30DET. With this engine it will be a FR sedan that sort of looks like the old Jaguar Mark II, but with a tuneable VQ30DET residing under the bonnet waiting to be let out of its cage. It also has a Mcpherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension, which although not ideal is still pretty decent, not that you want your wardrobe to be drifting round corners weighing in at 1600 odd kilograms.
The Deluxe version featured electric seats, tv/navigation system, auto climate control, auto headlights, 6 stacker CD, SRS airbags, LSD, ABS and wood-grain interior. All of which contributed to its luxury image, albeit still very Nissan-esque. But the main draw card is still the exterior, with its chromed large rectangular front grill, small projector headlights and thin Cadillac-like rear brake lights. The body is sculpted reminiscent of not just the Jaguar Mark II, but also the Rolls Royce Phantom, Rolls Royce Silver Spur and many other cars of the era. Personally I’m hoping that there is someone out there in Australia, crazy enough to import one of these babies and tune it. Maybe a few rounds at the pub will be enough to convince them?
Page 1 Page 3
The Mitsuoka Galue II in pictures on page 3
