Datsun Z cars: From 240z to 280zx

[Music] welcome to Auto chatter today's discussion is about the Datsun Z this car made quite an impact on the North American sports car market and to date there have been several generations of Z car today I'll be discussing the first four from the 1970 240Z to the 1983 280ZX as always facts opinions and speculation will be given please take a moment to like And subscribe and comments are always welcome now let's get into some Nissan history [Music] so let's go back to the swinging 60s Nissan started selling vehicles in the U.S in 1959 but used the name Dotson why part of it was Pride Toyota came and went here initially before coming back and Nissan feared failure in this market too so rather than tarnish the Nissan name we get Datsun early on Dodson offered a roadster called The Fair Lady it was named that because a Nissan exec like the Broadway play my fair lady and thought it sounded good on a car okay these little roadsters were largely influenced by British sports cars and came in sixteen hundred and two thousand CC variants at this point I'd like to introduce Yutaka katayama he was the first president of Nissan motor corporation in the U.S he understood our Market well and convinced the brass over in Japan to introduce products he felt Americans would want Mr K was instrumental in expanding the amount of Dotson dealers Nationwide then too Japanese cars at this time were largely seen as cheaply built toys and most were obviously not designed with our markets in mind from this point on I will refer to Mr katayama as Mr K as he was also known as Mr K loves sports cars but had a vision for something a little more substantial than a Nissan version of a British Roadster his idea was more of a GT car and me wanted it large enough an American could get comfortable inside all the while having power too having a halo car is often used to raise Market awareness of a car brand his concept was brought to life with a Nissan design team in the form of this the fair lady Z and it was coming to America Mr K saw a large problem with it though he knew Americans would not buy a car called a fair lady nowadays the name Fair Lady isn't seem as odd many of us saw the names for years now playing Forza or Gran Turismo or just being more familiar with Japanese models overall but anyone before the PlayStation generation would have scratched their heads naming a car this when the first Fair ladies arrived on our Shores in 1969 Mr K literally had the fair lady badges removed and replaced with 240Z ones Z being the name of the internal project and 240 designating its engine size being a 2.4 liter Nissan brass back in Japan was not pleased with his decision at the time but he probably saved the car in the U.S this car was a huge hit when it launched for the 1970 model year it had a 150 horsepower straight six standard with a four-speed manual and front disc brakes it was just a two-seater but those two passengers were greeted with all the legroom anyone who doesn't play professional basketball would ever need I'm not kidding the legroom was amazing The Styling was fantastic it had some Ferrari in it and some jaggy type thrown in as well a Porsche 911 in 1970 cost about twice as much as a 240Z then and the 0-60 time was about 7.8 seconds for both 240zs were light weighing in around 2 300 pounds that's about the weight of a current Miata soft top today the magazine reviews were blown away by what this car could do but what was the best part it cost about the same as what a MGB GT with a four-cylinder dead Datsun is largely responsible for destroying many of the European sports cars here then from companies like mg Fiat Triumph and opal they simply couldn't compete at the same price range the 240Z came out costing about 3 500 in 1970. which is about 27 000 today people started racing dots and Z's and they were winning the old race on Sunday sell on Monday helped this car as well and Nissan even made a few commercials with Z drivers like John Morton then to let people know the icing on the cake was the Datsuns were reliable and affordable sports car that started every day that was a kind of a big deal especially then the Z showed America that Japanese cars were not just cheap disposable toys the 240Z was sold here from from the 1970 to 73 model years and Nissan could not make enough of them it got to a point where a used 70 model was worth more than the sticker price on a new 71. 70s sold about 17 000 of them 71s more than doubled that hitting forty thousand 72 passed up sixty thousand sold 1073 finished up the 240Z years at 51 000. they had some small changes the four model years though 240zs were sold and uh all the changes were not always for the better tightening emission standards made a 73 model a little less powerful than the earlier ones for example I personally owned a 71 240Z it was fun but she had a little too much corrosion for me to try to restore before I continue a brief note here Mr K retired from Nissan in 1977 from what I read he was basically forced into retirement due to his reputation of being a black sheep of sorts he was inducted into the automotive Hall of Fame in the 1990s and is considered an icon in the Nissan Z Community as he is often referred to as the father of the Z car he made a lot of Z related appearances over the years too unfortunately we lost Mr K in 2015. he was 105 years old but back to the Z chatter [Music] for the 1974 model they enlarged the engine to 2.6 liters to help make up for the U.S emissions that were stricter now it's called a 260Z this was actually a weird year for these as the early ones had 240Z type bumpers and the later ones adopted new five mile an hour ones but both are 74 models the car got a little heavier as a consequence of the bumperest largest and I don't think the car looked as good overall 260Z was the first Z to get a two plus two model don't think for a second the two extra unfortunate Friends riding back there would be happy though I didn't really care for the proportions of this body style myself compared to the two-seater in the U.S the 260 is a one-year car but sold a little longer than normal likely because 75 models would have catalytic converters and other stricter emission requirements Nissan sold a little over 50 000 Z's for 1974 in the U.S d260z had an MSRP starting around 5400 which is about 34 000 today I owned an early uh good-looking bumper version of a 260Z before selling it for a new 350Z in 2003 it was a beautiful low mileage example had painted in pearl white for 1975 we get the 280Z these had Bosch fuel injections standard with a now larger 2.8 liter inline 6 and they had more power helps make up for some of the weight gain and no more choke lever to pull when starting it still a 280Z although similar to the original 240 weighed quite a few hundred pounds more now topping around 20 hundred pounds 280zs were also available with a five-speed manual for the first time on a z starting in 1977. 280zs were sold here through the 1978 model year moved about 50 000 of them a year and 78 hit over sixty thousand MSRP started around 6400 in 1975 which is about thirty six thousand dollars today [Music] foreign 1979 we get the Disco fantastic 280ZX I think they added the X at the end to designate it as more of a luxurious Grand Tour than a sports car must have been a Japanese thing as the first Celica Supra we got for 1979 was called a Celica XX overseas for the new 280ZX Nissan basically carried over the same 2.8 liter engine and drivetrained but the platform was all new it shared some components with Nissan's large 810 sedan that we would later come to know as the Maxima MSRP on a 280ZX then started around 10 grand which is about 41 500 now the car bumped up quite a bit in price but now it's a personal luxury Coupe as opposed to a light Nimble sports car that it was years before 280zxes had t-tops for the first time available leather seats could be had as an option now headlight washers power windows and locks Auto climate control and more was now all available you could even get a digital dash in them or hear a pleasant female voice telling you a door was a jar or lights were left on for 1980 they made a ZX10 car it was a 10th year anniversary edition a loaded trim model that still has a cult following to this day a 280ZX was heavier but Nissan had a solution for that in 1981 the 280ZX turbo comes out and it's packing about 180 horsepower automatic only its first year an 81 model could hit 60 in about seven and a half seconds making it the fastest Japanese car you could buy in America than a Turbo ZX in 1981 started at seventeen thousand dollars which is a little over 56 000 today and actually slightly pricier than a Corvette that same year 82 280ZX turbo models tested even quicker getting down to around seven seconds flat to 60. this was faster than a Ferrari 308 gtsi or a Chevy Corvette the malaise era of performance thin was a sad time when a dachshund was one of the fastest new cars you could buy not counting Exotics two plus two models were still available and you could get a turbo with it made sense since it was heavier 280ZX was one of the first Datsuns where the badge on the back said Dotson by Nissan Nissan in 1979 started a transition in the U.S to change the Datsun name back to Nissan 280ZX sales were the best the car would ever see to this day over 86 079 models were sold the other model years for the 280ZX were not quite as high but pretty much matched or exceeded any year Z's prior I owned an 82 turbo 280ZX in the two-tone paint Scheme the 280ZX was sold here through the 1983 model year the Datsun Z cars made a huge impact for Nissan and perception of Japanese cars in general in the United States the 240Z was the right combination of performance price and looks the car was reliable and decent on fuel which was important in the early 70s when the first OPEC Fiasco hit the US making gas prices Skyrocket the Dotson lineup was strongly established by 1973 and it was there to capitalize on the fuel crisis today Datsun Z cars are starting to get expensive they didn't really start shooting up in value until semi recently maybe because quite a few of them were made and they tend to run forever the biggest enemy with them is rust I found a clean 240Z today may run anywhere from the mid-20s to 70 000 now 260Z and 280Z models tend to be worth a little bit less even 280zxes are starting to fetch a few bucks now especially the turbos those days where you could pick up a nice Dotson Z driver for a couple Grand or less or long gone anyway I plan on a sequel later where we will explore the newer Z cars all the way up to the current one but for now thank you for watching and don't forget to like And subscribe until next time chatter out

Channel: Auto Chatter

Views: 8,460

Keywords: #Nissan #Nissan Z

Id: H0RRYWxdzyk

Length: 14min 43sec (883 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023