Scott's Car Library - Datsun Z Car

The Datsun Z Car

The 240 Z, one of the first popular Japanese sports cars in America, was first introduced in late 1969. It was designed by the president of Nissan USA at the time, Yutaka Katayama or as he is now called Mr. K. Mr. K wanted to design a car that would perform like a sports car, but priced as a economy car around $3,500 fully loaded. It was promised to give the performance of a Porsche for the price of a MGB GT. The 240 was the product of this dream, and the car was an instant success. A 240 would be sold by a dealer to the consumer then the consumer would turn around and sell the car for $1,000 more than was paid to the dealer.

The 240 is still a highly sought after car by collectors. There are even people who have tried to find the first 500 240s that were made. Through their research they have discovered that the first five were crash tested by Datsun. This is something that is not normally done, but Datsun probably did not figure that their new 240 would become so popular and that destroying the first five cars would be no big deal. Cars number six through eight were sent ahead and were put on the car show circuit. Cars nine through fifteen have not been found to date. This is thought to be because the factory usually held the first few cars of a new production line and never released them. The first boat of 240s to America is thought to have had only 20 cars on it (#16-36). Of these first 20 only four have been found, #16,17,20 and 36. Of the first 500 only 74 have been found to date.

240s were produced from late 1969 to the 1973 production year. In 1974 Datsun introduced the 260 Z. The 260 had basically the same body just with a couple cosmetic changes. The big changes were in the engine. It was a bigger engine with more power than the 240s had. However the engines in the 260s was its down fall. With the change in engine design the engineers also changed the carburetors. The carburetors had a tendency to not work properly and could get very frustrating. One solution for this was to put the 240 carburetors on the 260 engines. (Although some people I have talked to still have the original carburetors in their car and have had no problems with them for 20 years.) Because of these problems the 260 line only ran for one year and in 1975 Datsun came out with the 280 Z.

The engineers fixed the carburetor problem, but still kept the power “under the hood.” Again the 280 looks almost identical to the 240 and 260 with just a few minor cosmetic changes. One thing that is different is that the bumpers on the 280 have rubber ends as opposed to the all metal 240 bumpers. The 280 line ran for four years (1975-78) with almost 200,000 sold in the US alone. The big changes came in 1979 when Datsun was assimilated by the parent Nissan.

In 1979 when Nissan took over Datsun they decided to give the Z a completely new look. The new car was the 280 ZX. It had some of the same lines of the original Zs, but was made to be a luxury sports car. Like the original Z’s the 280 ZX had both a two seater and a 2+2 (two doors and four seats) version. Another added feature was the “T-top.” A removable sunroof above each of the front seat passenger’s head with only a little piece of the roof down the center. Some avid Z Car collectors will say that the coming of the ZX was the beginning of the end for the Z Cars.

The 280 ZX only lasted a few years before Nissan decided to change the design once again. This time it was the 300 ZX. The 300 was completely different from any of the other Zs. Nissan completely redesigned the body and the engine. The 300 were produced until 1996 when Nissan discontinued the ZX. Its fall in popularity was probably because of its “luxury” price tag, around $35000 at the end. Even though the Z was discontinued in ‘96, Nissan has come out with a concept Z Car that might be put into production as early as 2000 or 2001.

* I know that I might have put some of my personal feelings into this part of my web site. The reason of this is because my family owns a ‘72 240 Z and a ‘78 280 Z. I have never had many feelings of the ZX and I am sorry if I have offended anyone by this.*

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