(first posted 8/8/2018) The Datsun 240Z (Fairlady) was the second generation of a Datsun (Nissan) sports car. The first was the Nissan 1500/1600/2000 Roadster, produced from 1961 until 1970 when the Roadster was replaced by its successor the 240Z. The Roadster also called the Datsun Fairlady in certain markets, for example the home Japanese market. Despite looking confusingly similar to the MGB, the Roadster was actually introduced several months before the 1962 introduction of the MGB–and was not a Japanese clone of the MGB, as some had thought.
Yutaka Katayama, (famously known as “Mr. K”), while president of Nissan America, where Nissan automobiles were marketed as “Datsun” cars, saw the need for an affordable sports car for the US market and internationally, to be developed from the Nisan corporate parts bin to be competitive with European and Italian medium priced sports cars.
The completed project, the 130 bhp 2.0 liter Nissan Z car, went on sale in Japan in October 1969 as the Fairlady Z. Other more exotic DOHC versions were additionally developed for the home market.
Quickly an export version for the US market (price $3526 US) using a 2.4 liter version of the SOHC inline six was developed with twin Hitachi carburetors yielding 151 bhp, SAE gross. This is the US export model tested in the Road & Track article of April 1970.
Interestingly in the same R&T issue was the test of the newly introduced 1.7 liter 85 bhp four cylinder Porsche 914 (list price $3595, but with an “as test price of $4047 “with limited options–but not as completely optioned to the standard amenity level of the standard 240Z). R&T described the 914 as “disappointing”, and the Datsun Z-car was described as setting “new standards in performance and elegance for medium-priced 2-seat GT cars.”
Mr. K hit his design objectives with the Z car and simultaneously upended the sports car market in the USA, eventually putting the European manufacturers into a continual retreat from the medium priced sports car market.
Interestingly this followed a Porsche 911 ad placed to the left, next to the front page of the Datsun 240Z R&T article. Funny that the title, “The Almost Perfect Car”, could be applicable to the Datsun 240Z, especially at Z’s price( $3526)compared to that of the 1970 911 ( Base, 125 bph, 4 speed 911T, at $6,430 list, and the higher level 180 bph 911S, at $8,675). At least with the 911 the purchaser wouldn’t suffer the stigma of a “lower price”–as if that stigma really mattered to most. the Z was a performance bargain even compared to the 911.
I remember very well as a 15 year old going down to the Datsun dealer one Saturday morning and seeing the new 240Z in the crowded showroom. If you saw a sports car in Edmonton back in the sixties its was likely a wheezy British make. Porsche? Nope not many of those back then.
The 240Z created quite a sensation in that little showroom. Many showed up on the streets after the model debuted but as time went on they disappeared.
During my senior year of college, I moved from the dorm into a living situation with the assistant dean of students and his wife who took in two students to live with them. While I was living there, Bruce traded in his ’71 Plymouth Satellite four door sedan for a ’72 240Z . . . . . . with automatic.
I couldn’t believe that he’d buy a sports car with an automatic. Then Bruce told me why:
The dealer (Porreco Datsun in Erie, PA) was getting shipments of 240Z’s in, probably 10-12 cars per shipment. And you pretty much went on a waiting list to get one. And, every shipment came thru with a price increase. Basically Bruce got the last (or next to last) Z off the current shipment, and would have had to pay something like $500.00 more if he wanted a manual on the next shipment.
To Bruce, the answer was simple. “I’ll take the automatic.” After all, he was looking for a cool cruiser, not something to do SCCA autocross on Sundays.
I got to drive it a few times. The one memory that sticks with me is that the electrical system had a couple of VERY loud relays, I think having to do with the brake lights, and you could really hear them clicking on and off as you drove around town.
Not being my car, and having an (yecch!!!) automatic, I never did take it on the back roads to see what it’d feel like. No real idea what he paid for it, but it certainly wasn’t $3526.00. I have faint memories of a figure slightly north of $4000.00 at that point.
We had a local dealer with few scruples when it came to charging over list for the new 240 Z. He also made sure to never have more than one car on the dealer premises at any time. As soon as some starry-eyed prospect bought the “only one” the dealer had, he would have one of his employees travel to his home and bring back another “one and only.”
Fascinating reading. These are attractive, but there’s something slightly off about their look which I can’t quite place. They seem a little too high on their wheels, as stated in the R+T review, and they also seem a little narrow; not sure if that is due to some Japanese tax law or similar which they need to comply with in the home market.
Also wondering about JDM, does anyone know the story about the elongated nose and covered headlights which I’ve seen on Fairlady Zs, but not 240Zs? Was it originally planned that way, and then altered to comply with US and Euro regulations?
These were attractive, affordable cars in those first years (at least when Datsun dealers weren’t gouging the hell out of customers), not yet having acquired the reputation in the mid-to-late seventies as the ride choice for the disco crowd when they got fat and slow. Fortunately, Mazda took up the mantle and effectively resurrected the Japanese sports car formula in 1979 with the RX-7, then did it again in 1989 with the Miata.
The only real issue that I could find with these was essentially the same as any Pacific Rim car from the era: the tin worm. Specifically, the 240Z evidently had some sort of foam insulation pad (heat and/or sound deadening) located underneath the cowl which retained moisture making that area particularly susceptible to rust.
Likewise, these didn’t take kindly to performance modifications. All of the OEM parts and systems were engineered to work in harmony so when any part was replaced with a higher-performance one, it had a negative impact on other systems that were not similarly modified.
Agonynine-
“The Japan-only HS30-H Nissan Fairlady ZG was released in Japan in October 1971 to homologate the 240Z for Group 4 racing. Differences between the Fairlady ZG and an export market Datsun 240Z include an extended fiberglass ‘aero-dyna’ nose, wider over-fenders riveted to the body, a rear spoiler, five speed transmission, limited slip rear differential, “lap timer” version clock, acrylic glass headlight covers and fender-mounted rear-view mirrors. The Fairlady ZG was available in three colors: Grande Prix Red, Grande Prix White and Grande Prix Maroon. The “G” in Fairlady ZG stands for “Grande.” Although the ZG was not sold in the USA and was never sold outside Japan, in order for it to be eligible for competition in the U.S., Nissan sold the nose kit as a dealer’s option, which is known as the “G-nose”. With the nose added, these 240Zs are often referred to as 240ZGs, outside Japan.”
https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/nissan/240z/1972/386360
Aah, thank you, Lokki, makes sense. In my memory of the Tamiya catalogue from years ago I’d never noticed the “ZG” designation or the extended arches, only the different nose. Along the way I must have seen pics of those with the optional nose kit and confused the two.
https://www.hiroboy.com/thumbnail/1200×1200/userfiles/images/sys/products/112_Datsun_240ZG__12010_13684.jpeg
The thing that always gets me about the “Z” is that Nissan could cranks out 151 reliable horse power from 146 cubic inches, but Dodge could only wheeze out 90 something HP from 170 cubes! Or was it less than that even…..
Remember too that European sports cars were strangulated by emissions regulations over there; we simply did not have ‘clean’ combustion chambers.
That and careful design/assembly of just this one model destroyed the Eurosports market in the US.
Our riposte was the TRbloody7..!
Back in 1971, one of the guys in HS showed up in a new Dark Green 240Z. I was smitten then, and still haven’t gotten over it. The big thing I remember about the Z is that it was the first car I remember for selling for substantially over MSRP. Initially, some dealers just loaded the cars up with accessories- but our local dealer just went directly to the next point and turned it into a $5000 car via additional dealer markup.
In the Fall of 1970, after graduating from college, and now with my first substantial full time job, I went to buy a sports car. I wanted a Datsun 240Z, but was put off by the extra charges added to the list price, an approximate $500 dealer mark-up above list and an additional $250 Dealer rust proofing charge, then the additional sales taxes to pay on the greater sum. There was no negotiating with the dealer, it was take it or leave. I left for the Buick Dealer.
The local Buick dealer was eager to deal and ultimately there was a difference of about $1300 between the reduced price Opel GT and the price inflated 240Z before taxes. At that time in 1970 for me, $1300 was a huge amount of money, and that difference put me into an Opel GT despite my wanting the Z. Reality won. I would be razzed about the “inferior GT” compared to the “more desirable” Z by my buddies, but in actuality I came to really like the GT until it had to be traded away almost 6 years later.
Both the Z and GT were notorious for rust. I saw 2 year old Z’s with rusted through fenders and rusted through cowling near the windshield base here in the salt belt while my GT was still appearing solid. Eventually years later the GT’s rocker panels and the floors failed , giving way to the relentless power of salt.
Who knows, maybe my lesser expensive GT did last longer, in my hands, than what I could have expected with the Z. However, as much as I liked my GT, I still always wanted the Z. Probably we always want what we can’t have, what we dream about, in place of actual reality. My GT was a good car with many fond memories, but, there is always, the but….the path not taken, then to dream about.
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Enjoyed reading that review, and the design analysis reminds me of what Robert Cumberford did in Automobile Magazine when I used to read it more frequently some years ago. Overall they had a lot of good things to say about the car, and of course it exceeded those projected sales.
Nissan actually bought some of these back, restored them and sold them again through their Vintage Z program 20 years ago. I wanted one badly.
Kudos for getting it right. Not may people know that the Datsun roadster was not a copy of the mg. I like to read the Datsun Roadster write up in the archives. The first paragraph makes me laugh every time.
I almost had a 240z several times over the years. The only one I actually drove was a bright orange 1973 that was “restored” at the local high school and belonged to an english teacher there. It was on the back of a local car lot for sale by consignment. This was a true 100 footer of a car. Bright orange paint over 40 grit sandpaper and bondo spreader marks further down. It pulled so hard to the right I had to steer left to keep it straight. The rear half shafts made a sound like bongo drums under acceleration and the whole car shuddered like it was kicked in the ass everytime I got off the throttle. Under hard braking it tracked straight since the brakes pulled equally hard left as the car was pulling right. Clutch was buggered too as I recall. All the action near the top and very grabby. It ran very strong though. When I returned to the lot the salesman asked how much I thought it was worth and he would pass the offer along to the owner. I told him I give him $400 for the motor and he can keep the rest of it. He chuckled and said he would have only given 3 but if you make it 5 can we call it a deal? and I said only if you split it with me. We laughed so hard our sides hurt. I had never been in total agreement with a sleazy car salesman before or since. I believe the owner wanted $4000 obo. This was stupid money back in 1987.
The real funny thing is that I belong to a Z-car club, have never owned one, have only driven a loose collection of parts that resembled one once and have never been in one as a passenger.
This road test was copied and distributed by Datsun dealers with their sales literature and I used to have a copy of it when I was kid. It really was one of my dream cars when I was a kid, but then I also liked the 914.
It is with some chagrin that I give this car it’s due. Really a bargain AND competent on the track against my other fave car from that time, the 911. The compression on these could be pushed up into the stratosphere compared to 911 which was limited to around 10:1 even with twin plugs. They were easy to drive allowing a guy to stuff it into the turns unlike the finesse required with the 911.
This is as close to owning one of these great cars as I will get
I remember a lot of fuss being generated by these but at the age of 11 did not really understand what the fuss was all about. I love your story about the dealership experience. We all have experienced a car that was appealing in the abstract but that was made much less so in a particular salesman’s office.
Got my driver’s license in December 1969 and bought my father’s 68 Cougar from his company. The builder of our house in San Diego lived down the street also owned a Datsun dealership and I cleaned his swimming pool. He offered me a brand new 240Z by jumping me to the top of the very long waiting line list and I would get it at his cost.
I declined the offer and today the 68 Cougar is still with me in the garage. Now would the 240Z, under the same loving care, now be in the garage? Which would have been the better car to have in the garage today in 2018? Would I have been the envy of every single person my second half junior year in high school?
How did Nissan produce several well-styled cars in this time period, and then so many very unfortunate ones later in the 70s?
LOVED THE ’69 Z. THE STOCK WHEEL COVERS LOOKED CHEAP AND UGLY. ONLY THING SPOILING THE LOOKS, FOR ME
Sadly, I never bought one of these when they were $600 for good running original paint ones all over So. Cal. .
-Nate
Great stance.
Interesting the closest competitor is seen as the Opel GT, the Holden Torana GTR-X was a similar concept developed by GM-H on the Torana 6 cylinder chassis, more wedge shaped than the Opel GT and more in size with the Datsun 240Z, it was a wonderful ‘what if’ that was axed at the 11th hour. Actually the Torana GTR-X story would make an awesome CC article.
Loved the Werner Bührer illustrartions R&T used to have…
https://www.deansgarage.com/werner-buhrers-illustrations/
I’m untrained in ID, but have always wondered HTH they do that – especially that well.
Though Herr Bührer does seem to recommend turning the Fairlady into a bit of a Frua design…
Here some more about the Datsun/Nissan Z cars: