The Details
Nissan Figaro
What does a prolific car collector with a penchant for American muscle cars pick for his daily driver? Why, a 75 horsepower Italian-inspired Japanese two-seater, of course…
- Words & Photography
- Nathan Duff
- Owner
- George Kabot
- Volume
- 2
GEORGE Kabot may just be the envy of every car enthusiast in Australia. Not only has he owned over 400 cars in the last 38 years (including some very desirable classics), people actually pay him to drop shipping containers onto Toyota Camrys. So it’s easy to see why George has a perpetual smile on his face… and why he’s chosen a car that makes others around him smile, too.
“My dad owned a taxi cab company, so my first car was an ex-cab,” says the movie industry graphic designer, who was born and raised in Wollongong, NSW. “It was a 1971 HQ that had about a million miles on the clock.”
“My second car was a completely raceworthy HX which, considering it had 400 horsepower and I was on my Ps, was a little crazy. I had my one and only accident in that car and that was the last accident I have ever had. I’ve never even had a speeding ticket in the 38 years I’ve been driving.”
400+ CARS
38 YEARS
George’s favorite car from his early years cruising around the coastal strip of Wollongong was a 1967 Mustang convertible GT, which inspired a passion for US muslce. “Driving that car as an 18-year-old in 1979 was just incredible,” he reminisces.
As much as George loved his cars, though, he found he quickly became bored with them. “I wanted to try something new all the time,” George recalls, “so when I moved to the United States in 1984, I pretty much bought every single car I ever dreamt about. I just kept buying and selling, buying and selling.”
George arrived in the US as a fresh-faced 21-year-old on what was supposed to be a short trip to see some friends, but which turned into a three-year sojourn. “I ended up loving it so much I stayed in San Diego and emigrated there permanently,” he relates. “The first car I bought in the states was a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, and it went from there. Corvettes… a C3, C4, and C5. Heaps of Mustangs and Camaros. A 308 GTB Ferrari, Ferrari Dino and a Porsche 930…”
George moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, close to the renowned Kruse International Auction house in Auburn; manna from heaven for a car nut. “There would be 10,000 cars at those auctions,” he laughs. “You could get almost anything you could imagine… it was just amazing. Running a mini version of that in Australia would be my dream.” Interestingly, the first ever documented $1 million sale for a car at auction came from Kruse, for a 1934 Duesenberg Model SJ La Grande.
The time in the US was good to George, who got married, started a family and built a successful career. After 23 years and getting hit by two successive hurricanes in Florida, though, George decided it was time to come home to sunny skies and sandy beaches… and more cars.
George started a graphics company in the US and ended up doing TV commercials for Audi and other car companies, which then led to him to the film industry. Given his love of cars, gravitating towards the automotive side of film production was a logical transition for George.
“I’m kind of unique in the industry,” he says. “Being a graphic designer, I do a lot of the graphics and props for movies sets. I have a dealer’s license too, so I source the cars, customize them and destroy them.
“I also do action vehicle direction. I have driven a lot of the cars in the films, too, because a lot of the actors can’t drive - it’s been a blast. When we did San Andreas on the Gold Coast, we killed about 80 cars for that.” The smile is yet to leave George's face.
~80 CARS
As part of his job, George frequents Gray’s online auctions to source vehicles for films. “I buy the cars cheap and if we need to kill them, it’s no big deal,” he shrugs.
Since arriving home, George had been keeping an eye out for something a little different. “Usually when you buy older cars, they don’t have air conditioning and they are not very comfortable to drive in the Queensland summer,” he said. “I really wanted a car that had all the modern conveniences, but looked like an older car.”
He discovered a Nissan Figaro for sale while trawling through the auction site looking for set vehicles. “I don’t think these guys knew what it was. It was exactly what I had in mind and I loved the look of it,” he says. “I had a little battle with another bloke, but I won it for half of what it should’ve been.”
The Figaro debuted at the 1989 Tokyo motor show and gets its name from the title character in the play The Marriage of Figaro. Nissan had originally planned to produce just 8000 units, but it had vastly underestimated the little car’s potential and ended up with over 200,000 orders. The company implemented a lottery system and increased production to 20,000 units, finishing up with 20,073 units built.
Based on the Micra platform, the Figaro was produced at Aichi Machine Industry, which Nissan referred to as the Pike Factory. Other notable examples to roll out from the Pike factory included the S-Cargo, Pao and BE-1. Today, it produces other quirky vehicles for Nissan family such as the Juke and Cube.
The Figaro came with a laundry list of optional extras, but was only available in four colours, each representing one of the four seasons. These included Lapis Grey (Winter), Emerald Green (Spring), Pale Aqua (Summer) and Topaz Mist (Autumn).
Power came via a 1.0-litre turbocharged engine that produced just 75bhp. The performance was never going to blow your hair back; you needed to put the roof down for that. Stylistically, it’s hard to pin down exactly where designer Naoki Sakaiv drew his influence from when designing the Figaro. It appears to be a mishmash of design cues from early 1950s and ’60s French and Italian cars such as the Citroen 2CV, Renault 4 and the Fiat 500. A hint of caricature and cutsie Hello Kitty vibe blends surprisingly well.
“I get stopped at the traffic lights, people wind their windows down and yell at me ‘What is that? That is so cool!’” laughs George.
As we close in on the Figaro’s 28th birthday, the retro-inspired car is, in fact, now retro. It’s like one of those confusing time travel movies; once you suspend logic, it all makes a little more sense. Ironically, the sales slogan for the Figaro was ‘Back to the Future’. It could be argued that Biff Tannen may have had further cause to taunt McFly had he strapped a flux capacitor to the boot of a Figaro.
The largest cluster of Figaros outside of Japan is in the UK, thanks largely to noted musician and car aficionado Eric Clapton, who saw the car while on tour in Japan. He arranged to have a couple shipped back to the UK, and demand soared when Clapton was spotted around town in the unusual Nissan. In fact, 4500 units were shipped there to capitalise on its popularity.
Enamored with his new wheels and a determination to see his own country, George and his wife partook in the Aussie tradition of a road trip. “It’s not going to just sit in Brisbane,” he says. “It’s going to go and see the countryside.”
5,300 KM
To make the trip a little more comfortable, George changed the shocks, did a tune-up and swapped out the original wheels. “The 12-inch polo wheels they come with are just too small,” he says. Instead of putting on a set of modern wheels, though, George poked around the internet and found some period Nissan wheels from the 1980s. “They made a tremendous difference on the freeway - they dropped the revs and improved the ride,” he reports. “These cars are really built for the city and they are geared that way, too. It revs at 4000rpm at 110km/h, but you can’t even hear it. I even managed to sneak it up to 140km/h on the open road.”
Part of the plan on the trip was to try and meet up with some fellow Figaro owners. There are around 35 dotted around the country, so are still an unusual site on the road. “I drove 5,300km and I didn’t see another one. I don’t think too many of them have done trips like that,” he says.
“Everywhere we went, people gave us the thumbs up and really enjoyed the car. There is something about the car that puts a smile on people’s faces.”
George’s easygoing nature and youthful enthusiasm about life, cars and everything in-between is a perfect match for the tiny, yet practical Figaro.
“It’s why I love this car; it doesn’t create envy,” he explains. “It’s not a brand-new Lamborghini or Ferrari… it’s a car that anybody could own. I don’t know how many times I have heard people say ‘oh my god it’s so cute, I want one’! My wife just laughs her head off.”
It may well be the antidote to the road rage contagion seeping into everyday motoring life. It’s hard to get worked up about something that looks so cute. It’s like trying to get angry at puppy.
1.0 TURBO
75 BHP
Although George loves the Figaro, his incessant creative nature is starting to ebb into conversations about the future of his Figaro.
“I’d love to get another one and make it like a NISMO car,” he admits. “Put in a souped-up motor, do the suspension, drop in a five- or six-speed. I saw a Nissan motor advertised with the CEO holding the motor in his hands. It’s so light and small, but it's capabale of producing 400+ horsepower. I would just love to put something like that in there.”
George is referring to Nissan’s DIG-T R, which is a three-cylinder 1.5-litre engine that weighs an astonishing 40Kg and produces 400bhp. Power to weight is rated at 10bhp for every kilo - that’s F1 territory. Holy Figaro!
George will buck the trend of trying and flipping with the Figaro, as hard as that is for this avid enthusiast.
“It’s not the end of the road, but you know what, I have driven all the others,” he muses. “I’m still a Porsche fanatic, so there will be another Porsche in the future, but for right now, this is the perfect car for me. I would never sell this.”
