(first posted 7/28/2018) Time to crack open the next Road and Track of my huge stack that a reader sent me a couple of years ago. We’re now into July 1976, and the main article is a comparison of the Porsche 924 with the Datsun 280Z and Alfetta GT. You probably won’t be too shocked at the outcome, but it makes for good reading to get there.
Maybe missing page № 2?
I remember this from when I was a teen. I really would have picked the 280-Z as the best because of its comparatively torque-y six and zero to 60 times, lower sticker price and reputation for reliability, as well as the quiet ride.
Yeah, none of the three would have been a paragon of trouble-free motoring (and this was the seventies, too) so, in the interest of maintaining at least some funds in one’s bank account, I’d have chosen the Z-car on that basis, alone.
How did a Vega Cosworth page end up here?
Thought the same thing.
Just a mistake. Honestly, I didn’t mind reading about the Cosworth, either, since it kind of fits in with the sporting nature of the other cars.
924 – “Reseda Green Metallic”? I think so.
So ’70s and boy do I like it now. Anything German and green from the ’70s is good.
….
That Sonderklasse is ideal. There were some nice greens on the VW Scirocco too.
I don’t think so. If memory serves well, Volkswagen’s “Reseda Green” was a non metallic paint (most standard Porsche colors were VW colors in fact). The 924’s green metallic paintwork might have been “Viper Green Metallic”.
I remember that issue – it was one of the things that made me decide that a used Opel by Isuzu might not be such a bad car.
Having owned a 280Z, I think it would be a toss-up between the Porsche and the Nissan. The Nissan would slightly edge the Porsche due to the torquier/more powerful(?) engine. Yet, I think I would always regret not picking the Porsche.
The Alfa? Absolutely gorgeous, but so fragile.
Porsche and Alfa are completely different from the Datsun 6cyl. Testing a 6-cyl, 2.7 litre vs two 2.0Litre shoe boxes does not make much sense. However I would have preferred the Porsche over the others, just because of best rust prevention. Very few things are more annoying like a rusting sports car. There is a good reason why those Porsches are still around, while Datsuns and Alfas have long vanished.
I had a 77 JDM Fairlady with the 2.0 version of the L series six – it was just a great car. I bought it used from a friend and it had maybe 60K miles on it, but it never failed to start and never had a major repair. And it was a blast to drive – the six had great torque and a nice rumbly nature. I doubt the other two in this test would get beyond 60K without some expensive repair.
Funny. This was the first car magazine I ever had. That, and a copy of Hot Rod. Mom thought they would be a nice surprise and brought them home grocery shopping. Thanks, really.
Give me the 280Z hands down.
Yep- knowing what we know now, there was only one correct answer. The Alfa carried the name and the natural Italian unreliability. The Porsche wasn’t a Porsche at all, but an Audi with a big price tag. The Nissan didn’t have the name, but by gosh it had the goods.
Say what you will about Jeremy Clarkson, he hit the starter smack on the solenoid when he said:
Alfa Romeo: as good as an automobile can be, briefly.
Still, a DOHC hemi-headed fuel injected all-aluminum engine (with replaceable steel sleeves) along with a five-speed transaxle, and four-wheel discs where the others still used rear drums – in 1976.
Really fun to drive, and with the V-6 still pretty competitive in vintage racing today. Brilliant, exciting cars.
Their only real flaw was that (as several of my friends found out) one morning you might find the car gone with only a reddish pool of iron oxide as a clue to what had happened.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJ8WrKnLUs
Please post page 2 and also the remainder of the Cosworth Vega test, please
Page two has been added.
Which Cosworth Vega test? Can you please link to it?
I have no link, the 4th picture is a scan from a Cosworth Vega Road test, I think it’s from the 1976 Sports & GT issue.
I see; I never posted the Cosworth Vega.
This one was all mixed up; it’s fixed now. And I will post the Cosworth Vega right away. Next day or so.
I was a kid in the Chicagoland area in the 70s, and I’m pretty sure a Datsun Z car was my first exposure to extreme rust on a car.
I mean, all full of holes on cars that had to be only a couple of years old at the time. And not just at the bottom places which is typical for this area, but disintegrating hoods, roofs and hatch lids.
I have no early memories of any that weren’t
rusting away. It really made an impression on me. The only vehicle that seemed to rust away almost as fast was the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Interesting (and brilliantly-written) test; I’d never have put the three as direct rivals, back then.
Well, not the ALFA with its higher roofline – seemed more of a coupe than a sports car, if that makes sense.
I’d have wanted the ALFA, of course. But I quickly realised that they were a pile of trouble and even rustier than the FIATs…
I came to appreciate the NSU TT – sorry 924, as it evolved over the years.
In my corner of the world, the 924 was regarded as “the secretary’s Porsche”. Things began to change a little bit, after the 944 evolution had been done. The Datsun Z was ignored almost completely. Folks were not willig to spend that amount of money on a Japanese car, then. Unfortunately.
And the Alfa Rusteo – did they ship it with a sweep up set or had a special order to be done ?
This sector was set to be obliterated by the arrival of the Mazda RX7 in 1978. The Mazda was lighter, more agile, and very close to the Datsun in straight line speed and acceleration while being much less expensive. The magazines went ga-ga, and the waiting lists and gouging took off.
Reading those initial reviews, they really underplayed the complete lack of chassis sophistication that made the Mazda so cheap in spite of its rotary engine. The cars it competed with had some combination of independent rear suspensions, archaic but expensive de Dion rear suspension, rack and pinion steering, rear transaxles, and fuel injected engines. The Mazda had none of these things. An inverted RX7 looked like a mini-pickup. The engine had a carburetor that was also tasked with mixing oil into the fuel, and the steering was by recirculating ball with a Mack-truckesque four-turns-lock-to-lock steering ratio. Even West German sedan ‘sneeze factor’ steering ratios were quicker. The reviewers were not bothered by the primitive chassis of the RX7 at all.
It is possible that it was the RX7 that forced Datsun and Porsche to turbocharge the 924 and 280Z, as more performance was needed to get people to pay more for their GTs once the RX7 arrived. Alfa Romeo and then Porsche eventually offered 2.5 liter engines that made their cars far more satisfying to drive, only for sports car sales to cool dramatically by the ’90s.