Precious Metal: 1970s Datsun 240 Z

Coupe targeted America's driving passion

Oct 16, 2009

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Japanese automakers weren't new to North America in the 1970s, but the decade marked the beginning of their rise to power on these shores. Toyota and Honda became known for their tiny and tinny Corolla and Civic models, especially when the oil embargo of 1973 triggered overwhelming demand for small cars that Detroit couldn't meet.

Cheap transportation wasn't everything, though, and in 1970, Nissan got drivers hooked on Japanese sportiness with the 240Z.

Nissan arrived in the U.S. in 1958, when it sold 52 cars under the name Datsun. It had begun building cars based on the Austin 7 in 1933. and in 1955 rolled out the Datsun 110, its first original design. The company also realized it could economically use sedan platforms to underpin sportier models, which led to the DC-3 roadster, launched in 1952.

Several sporty roadster models followed, but as the 1970s drew closer, the company wanted a car that would combine performance, comfort and reliability at a reasonable price. Enter Albrecht Goertz, the designer responsible for the BMW 503 and 507.

A sporty coupe design was already coming together, but the project was hobbled by several factors, including demographics. Cars were still relatively rare in Japan, and some of the designers didn't even own one. The interior had been created around a 5-foot-8 cardboard dummy, with little comprehension of how the car should look and feel; no one really understood the American passion for driving. Goertz took the car and gave it much better design proportions, but he couldn't convince Nissan that the interior had to be larger.

The car was a hit at the 1965 New York Auto Show, but when the company gave it to Bob Sharp, a Datsun dealer and race car driver in Connecticut to evaluate, he knew it was too cramped for the American market, and sales plans were dropped. Only 554 were finally made, most of them sold as "Silvias" in Japan.

Goertz was already working on a two-seater successor in 1964, code-named the 2000 GT, with the European proportions of long hood and short tail, and with a Yamaha engine. This time, he won the battle over interior space, but when the engine wasn't ready in time, Nissan dropped the project and didn't renew Goertz's contract. Yamaha took the plan and the name to Toyota, which sold 337 Yamaha-built Toyota 2000 GTs, about 50 of them in the U.S.

None of that mattered once Nissan took its design to the next step. The 1970 Datsun 240Z used a 2.4 L six-cylinder engine, with a somewhat optimistically advertised top speed of 201 km/h. Most importantly, its $3,526 price undercut many European rivals.

The company sold 16,215 in the U.S. the first year, and more than double that in 1971: the Japanese had arrived.

Toronto Star