Oceania – the region where Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and other countries in that vicinity are located.
It was very interesting when F31club started to go international. Jacy started f31club with the idea of getting information for M30s and Leopards. We started to get Leopard owners from Europe and even Oceania (Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand in particular). When those owners started to ask about the leopard, we were limited on info. All we could do was compare. At this time, I decided to buy the Zenki and Kouki Leopard manuals as I wanted those Leopard owners to know we were trying to help them out and that we were about everything F31. It was a good investment for many of them as they were able to print out the diagrams and what not. I found it interesting that the Nissan Leopard reached those regions, but it wasn’t a surprise as many of those countries actually import Japanese cars.
Yotis (Alex) was from Australia and was the first leopard that registered with F31club. When we were transitioning from the old forums to f31club, I would occasionally go back and email people that were on there. Yotis being one of them. He picked up a JDM leopard and had no idea of what to do with it, so he found the old forums. After getting on f31club, he would also give us some basic ideas of the Leopard as we would only see the Japanese pages and pictures, but didn’t know how to communicate. Alex eventually sold his leopard. Since the Leopard was similar to the R31 skyline, which is big in Australia, someone on the R31 Skyline down under forums picked it up.
Yotis also represented F31club at a few local events and cruises.
ARE31 (Carl) picked up the leopard and joined our forums. He gave us more info and pictures for us to dissect and compare. Since he was part of the Skyline community, he made some basic observations about the 2 as well. He gave us more pictures and permission to use his leopard as a banner for the website. Carl would eventually give it up as well and move on with an R34 Skyline. As of 2017, James Hollis owns this and is also searching for info and parts.
JC was from New Zealand. He jumped on the forums and was excited. He was kind of an interesting young guy. His leopard started to have issues and the problem of having an obscure car eventually caught up to him. He started to have engine problems. So parts and information was tough. Even with the manual, it was still difficult for him because he didn’t know Japanese or could get someone to translate. Also being young and possibly not much money, his leopard sat next to his house for a couple years. He took it apart, but I don’t think he ever reassembled it. That was the last we heard of it.
During this time, cardomain was prominent as a virtual garage/ car social media platform. One guy we found there was Andy. He lived in New Zealand with a light blue Nissan Leopard. I emailed him and told him about F31club. He signed up, but told us he sold the car. He did provide some additional information and pictures. This car became available on various local for sale sites and one guy (zefaaa) tried to buy it and showed the condition of it (below this post)
zed280NZ (Andy) from New Zealand
JC’s friend zefaaa said there were possibly 2 F31 leopards in New Zealand, and JC being one of them. He then posted on the one he was trying to buy. For some reason, he he did not get the Leopard.
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- Mentioning of only 2 Leopards in New Zealand.
I often jumped on many regional forums. I’ve always loved going on to European and Oceania sites and forums because my personal interests in those areas in general. One forum I jumped on was D1NZ.org. I believe this was a pretty big regional forum at the time. Besides Boostcruising.au, this was one I frequented.
I was surprised to see another Leopard, but this time, it was in Tasmania. He posted as Yakuza. He drag raced and went drifting in his Leopard. It was a VG20DET.
Jason eventually sold it and Here are some extra pictures of this Tasmanian Leopard.
ARE31 (Carl) was somewhat of our representative in Australia. So when he saw another Nissan leopard, he talked to the owner and mentioned F31club. Unfortunately, that person did not jump on the forums. Carl did take pictures which was important for us documenting.
While I was searching for ARE31’s old Leopard, I found another leopard. I initially thought I solved it, but this was a zenki. The owner, bpietrala, was picked it up missing the rear glass. He did a good job of rebuilding it in a sense he took everything out and cleaned/repainted/welded many things. He got the SR20DET in. The post did not go any further besides he wanted to sell it after.
Boostbitz’s (Chad) Blue Grey storm Leopard in 2010. I found it on a the SAU forums for sale.
Came across this on the antilag.com forums.
A guy named Jaffa was selling a VG20DET. Had a few pixs, but this was in the mid 2000s. He was located in Perth.
There was another member named sungmu. He lived in Sydney and owned a Kouki Leopard ultima, but he never posted pictures of his car. He only posted 15 times asking about a front lip and engine electrical issues.
While these are the documented Nissan Leopards in Oceania, I’m sure there could be a few more and I hope to connect with those owners.