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The Nissan Leopard is one of Nissan's introductory lines of luxury sports cars. The Leopard line began in 1980. They have been built on the chassis' of the Nissan Cedric and Nissan Gloria.

The first generation Nissan Leopard was called the F30, while second generation Leopards were called the F31. Japanese F31 Leopards were only available in coupé form. In the US, 5000 Leopards were imported and 2500 of those were converted to convertibles by ASC.*

• While it is probably true about half of the M30s in the US were converted to convertibles, there has been evidence that there are more than the originally rumoured 5000.

In the USA, the F31 was called the Infiniti M30. It was the only convertible offered by Infiniti at that time. The third Generation was called Y32 Leopard. It came only in saloon body style and followed the shape of the U13 Bluebirds and Nissan Altimas. The fourth and last generation of the Leopard was the picture you see below. It was based off the Y33 Gloria and Cima chassis. All Leopards are rear wheel drive.

A 1996 Nissan Leopard

A shot of the same model from behind

A view of the interior

The F31 Leopard was to Nissan what the GZ20 Soarer was to Toyota. Whereas the Soarer had the 1G-GTE twin-turbo 2L straight six, the very similar-looking Leopard coupé came with the options of a VG30DET, VG30DE, VG20DET (post 1988), pre 1988 VG20ET, and VG20E. Early 2.0 turbo versions had the single-cam(per bank) VG20ET, but from August 1988, the quad cam version appeared, the body was also face lifted at this time. Available in top spec form was the 3 litre VG30DET engine which produced 190 kW. Only the VG20ET and VG20DET engines had an intercooler, and only VG20E engined examples had the option of manual transmission. Compared to the Soarer, the Leopard is probably more angular, but with neater detailing around the lights. The lights are also flush, without the strange proportions of the Soarer's glass. The VG20 V6 is not quite as smooth as the Soarer's 1G-GTE straight-six, and actually has a lower rev limit. It produces surprisingly good torque in turbo form, and is generally quite a reliable unit.

The F31 Leopard was made famous in Japanese TV Drama series "Abunai Deka"(w:ja:あぶない刑事),a car for 2 policemen heroes:"Sext" O-shita (Kyohei Shibata) & "Dandy" Takayama (Hiroshi Tachi).

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