D-A-T-S-U-N

[SNOQPY]

to me as much as i love datsuns, they will never be as great as the original bluebird, 240z, 1200 ute 1600 4 door etc. but it would be interesting to see what they come up with if they do. and who suggested airbags. if your gunna own a datsun. you go without.

[greensa14]

I know they wont offer this type of thing, but it would be awesome to have an options list which included things such as airbags, TC, ABS, electronic aids, electric windows. If you wanna try and get the old feel by not having any of this stuff, plus saving weight.

All the requirements for cars to have all this heavy crap these days for "safety" reasons just kills a cars personality if you ask me.

[GTR-N1]

So do you think that they (Nissan) should bring out a cheaper unregisterable track version?

[iseekool]

So do you think that they (Nissan) should bring out a cheaper unregisterable track version?

For the masses - It's not gonna happen.

They have the GTR and 370z for stripped out editions.

[GTR-N1]

Written to-day by Tony Davis from Drive.com.au

Re: History and Future

WHAT WERE THE GREAT DATSUN MOMENTS?

You're laughing aren't you? You think we'll read irony into this question, just because Nissan is bringing back the Datsun brand, we'll use it as an excuse to diminish this noble badge. Well, we're above that here on FUQ (Frequently Unanswered Questions on Drive). Not a long way above it, admittedly, but the Datsun story wasn'e all 200Bs, 120Ys and Sunnys. Thanks goodness.

There really were some great moments.

They started in Australia in fact: in the 1958 Mobilgas Trial, a 16,000Km jaunt around this wide, brown land.

Nissan entered two Datsun 1000s and there were a few small problems. The first was that the 1000 was based on an Austin but built with lower technology - and in an even more hostile industrial-relations climate - than the original.

The powerful vehicle-builders' union demanded the right to choose the drivers and selected them for their political convictions rather than motor-sport experience.

Fortunately, the sub-1.0-litre class was very, very lightly contested. Winning still required finishing, and amazingly, the union men did just that (-the three Toyota "Toyopets" broke down).

Renowned American journalist and historian David Halberstam reported in The Reckoning (a 1986 book comparing the culture of the US and Japan by looking at Ford and Nissan) that the victory was a huge turning point for Japanese car makers.

The team arrived back to "a huge procession into town, and thousands of people along the way..."

As an aside, The Reckoning made the usual 1980s mistake of assuming the Japanese were impregnable and the Americans were, by comparison, stuffed. We now know, in their own way, they were both doing a lot of it wrong.

But back to Nissan. The second great moment was the Fairlady Roadster unveiled in 1961 (though not on sale until 1963). It was at least as good as the MGB and received a lot more development, becoming the quick and quite delightful 2000 Sports by 1967.

In 1964 the Datsun Silvia coupe appeared. It was hand-built, fiendishly expensive (at $4390 in Australia, it was up with the Euro exotics) and the quickly sagging doors weren't suitable for anyone looking for closure. But it was by far the most stylish 'Italian coupe' to come out of Japan.

Of more widespread relevance was the 1600 sedan of 1968. Half the price of the BMW that it was modelled on, and a lot more than half the car, it was tough, handsome, quick and fun. Cheap, too.

With success came hubris - and a series of vastly inferior follow-ups - buy hey, let's stick to the positive script.

The big triumph of the 1970s was the Z-car, which changed many people's ideas about Japanese industry.

In its original and stylish 240Z form, it sounded the death-knell for most low-cost British and Continental European sports cars (and alas, the spectacular Torana GTR-X).

OK, the 1980s weren't so flash. The Datsun name, and the considerable goodwill it still carried, had its oxygen cut from 1982 because executives wanted the car name to be the same as the corporate name.

Makes you wonder why they didn't just change the corporate name to Datsun.

Not long after the new handle was applied, George Fury - who had already bagged a couple of Australian Rally Championships for Datsun - set the fastest lap time for the old Mount Panorama circuit while qualifying the "Nissan" Bluebird for the 1984 Bathurst 1000 (his time was 2.13.850).

He didn't win the race, so saved himself the toruble of being pelted by beer cans for the unpardonable crime of not driving a Holden or Ford. 'Lucky that'.

The first new Datsuns will be back on sale in 2014, although only a cheap sister to Nissans, and initially only in Indonesia, India and Russia.

Cheers!

[GTR-N1]

Notice the corporate name NISSAN on the tower? And how was the 1600 modelled on the BMW?

^^^ It had a reinforced firewall, that should the car suffer a head-on, the engine block was designed like the bimmer to slide underneath

It had independent trailing arm rear suspension similar to the VW, but 16mm rear sway bar like the BMW. BMW added an extra 2mm thickness in 1972 on their E12 series.