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"Go Datsun and you go American!"- Early Nissan USA slogan.
Nissan USA team portrait June 1963, Yutaka Katayama is the guy in the middle
Koichi Iwata of Nissans export division was in charge showing the Datsuns.
He received 35 inquiries about dealerships from just that one show. When a sedan, a wagon, a pick
up, and a roadster were shown that November at LA's International Auto show reviews were slightly
more enthusiastic.
The first Datsuns for sale rolled onto the beaches of sunny California in 1958, with the 1000, or
PL210, four-door sedan. This boxy tall little number came stock with white wall tires, a 60.2 cubic
inch engine delivering 37hp, and retailed at just $1695. You could get it in 2 different lengths, or
you could buy a mini pickup version, the PLG220(only 10 sold in the US). Road And Track reviewed
the car in December '58, and though it gave the cars styling a passing grade, they gave the motor
a "melancholy" grade.
Nissan selected Mitsubishi as its importer and Woolverton Motors of North Hollywood, and by
Luby-Datsun of Forest Hills, New York as its two West and East Coast distributors. US sales for
1958 were barely a squeak at a total of 83.
The first official Datsun dealer was Ray Lemke of San Deigo. Lemke served in Korea and was familiar
with the positive aspects of the tough little Datsun Pick up. Lemke received a Datsun 1000 as part
of one of his consignments from Woolverton Motors. Lemke, a mechanic first and a car dealer second,
was very impressed with the design of the Datsun sedan. Lemke started officially selling Datsuns
on October 8th ,1958. Lemke also has the honor of selling the very first Datsun truck in America.
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1958 also saw victory for a Datsun racing team. A 210 named the "Fuji-Go", won the Australian Mobilgas
Trial rally, with the second team car coming in 4th. The Team was lead by a Marketing exec by the name
of Yutaka Katayama. The win was seen as a huge event in Japan, a country that had had little to cheer
about since the end of the war. Katayama and the racing team became instant heroes and spent several
months touring Japan. It was about this time that Nissan, like many other manufacturers, started using
racing as a test platform for engineering upgrades.
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The 310 bluebird was only available in California in 1959. It had a larger
engine, giving up 43 horsepower. A 310 two-door station wagon and a pick up based on it became
available in early 1960 as did the Nissan Patrol.
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The Fairlady SPL211, and the PL310 Bluebird followed in 1959, pushing US sales to a roaring
1290 units. The SPL211 was based on the earlier 210 sedans platform, and featured a fiberglass
reinforced plastic body, seated 4 and had a top speed of 70 mph. It took its styling cues from
Austin-Healey roadsters.
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Nissan Motor Corp U.S.A. was formed on September 28th 1960, at 137 East Alondra Bvd in Gardena,
California with Yutaka Katayama as Western head, and in Newark, New Jersey with Soichi Kawazoe
as Eastern head. Nissan USA was formed at the urging of Mr. Watasuki of Marubeni America, the man
who had asked Nissan to send cars to America in the first place. The idea was to do things properly,
and to free themselves from Woolverton and Luby. Nissan transferred importation duties from
Mitsubishi to Marubeni America and set up the east and west divisions. Before that, Nissan's First
office was two rooms on the 7 th floor of Mobil oil Company building, which was home to Mr. K,
Mr. Zaitsu the engineer, and an office boy. They didn't even have a secretary! The move to
Gardena was Mr. K's idea, as he put it "cars run on the ground, how can you sell them on the
7 th floor?". 1960 sales: 1640.
Yutaka Katayama's story is very interesting. He was always a bit of an outsider at Nissan.
He was a Japanese Christian for starters, and not a very conservative thinker. He founded the
Sports Car Club of Japan in 1951. He also designed his own rather revolutionary car, "The Flying
Feather", which he used to race around Japans public roads. Mr. K worked in Nissan's advertising
department, but became a bit of a hero in Japan after the rally team he organized won the 1958
Australian Rally. Nissan sent him to America for a number of reasons, he could speak English, he
had been there before for a short time as a student, and most likely because Nissan had given
away his job while he was in Australia and needed somewhere out of the way to put him. America
was considered a gamble, and no conservative execs would give it a shot.
In those early days, Yutaka Katayama actually went house to house in the Japanese areas of LA,
trying to sell Datsuns to Japanese immigrants, and to farmers who saw the rugged little trucks
as a good deal. There is no record that Katayama actually sold a car or truck this way. Katayama
also delivered cars to dealers himself, having another employee follow him to drive him back Gardena.
Datsun dealers were a bit of a nightmare at the beginning, with a bit of circus sideshow thrown
in for good measure. Quite a few Datsuns were sold off used car lots and gas stations, and from
economy car "supermarkets". These supermarkets were multi-brand dealerships, carrying an incredible
hodgepodge of cheap foreign and domestic cars, most whose names are now remembered by only the
extreme auto enthusiast. Nissan had only 3 exclusive dealerships on the list in '61, including
Wally Tucker Datsun, the only surviving exclusive dealership (Lemke was still a multi-brand dealer
at this time). Other dealers included a guy who was an undertaker who sold Datsuns on the side,
and a guy who sold one Datsun a year to his wife to keep dealer status, though he eventually
started selling trucks to farmers and built a real dealership. Several Datsun dealers operated
out of private homes using the family garage as the service bay.
Nissan Mexicana SA de CV came into existence in 1961, Nissan Canada was formed in 1964, and Nissan
popped up in Australia in 1966. Datsuns were also manufactured outside of Japan; first in Taiwan by
the Yue Loong Motor Company in 1959, then in Mexico in 1966, and in Peru in 1967. Australia also
built Datsuns, but I don't have a date on that. Nissan began sales into Scandinavia and mainland
Europe in the early 60's, first concentrating on countries that didn't manufacture thier own cars,
then moving into places like Germany and France.
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In 1961 Nissan USA pulled the plug on the Datsun 1000 for the now 60 dealer strong US market. The
310 Bluebird became the pl311, the roadster became the spl213. However, the roadsters next evolution,
the SP310, appeared that year at the Tokyo auto show to much critical acclaim. Only about 500 of the
s200 series roadsters were produced, with sales of the model in the US continuing till early 1962.
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The 62-63 model year saw very little change in the Bluebird, other than chrome modification and
renaming it the pl312. It's interesting to note that Nissan USA was promoting the Bluebird as a
safer import, basically because it weighed hundreds of pounds more than the competition.
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The roadster became the all new Sports 1500 spl310 in 1963, a redesigned 3 seater, that became
a 2 seater halfway through its production run. It ressembled the newer roadsters much more that
it did the previous 200 series cars.
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Albrecht Goertz signed on as a consultant with Nissan in 1963, staying till 1965 primarily to help
develop a 2000GT sportscar in a joint venture between Nissan and Yamaha. The project was scrapped
after Yamaha's engine didn't live up to its billing, but if you look at photos of this car, you can
see where some of the design inspiration for the 240Z came from.
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And then came the Bluebird 410 in September 63. This car had its body penned by the famed Italian
design house Pininfarina, it shared some components with the roadster, but was a "unit body" car.
The engine was the same basic design as the roadster, with different carbs. You could get the 410
in either 4 Dr or wagon for the low low price of just $1616 4 door, or $1816 for the wagon.
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January 1966 saw Nissan's merger with Prince. Prince was a company with incredible engineering
skill, but with less focused business and management practices. They had already come up with a
couple stellar automobiles, including the original Skyline and Gloria sedans, and the r380 sports
prototype. This merger was "suggested" by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, known
as MITI.
MITI isn't like the ministry's or government agencies we're used to in North America or elsewhere.
MITI had great control over the direction of Japanese industry, and importantly, who got what in the
way of raw materials. If your company was seen as a good solid performer, you got favor from MITI.
If your company was seen as a risk, MITI would let you sink, or more likely, merge you with someone
who was successful.
MITI was very instrumental in the Japanese auto boom of the late 60's and 70's, and was also the
driving force behind Japan's switch from heavy industry to electronics. When I say that MITI
"suggested" the Nissan takeover of Prince, it was probably more of an order.
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Prince's influence would go a long way towards Nissans goal of getting away from its Austin-like
image. Not only did Nissan get a new factory out of the deal, they also got Princes test track and
grounds. Princes engineers had taken an deep hard look at the Mercedes engines of the early 60's,
and had come up with some nifty little SOHC engine designs of their own. Princes engineers where
also really good at putting together light strong body shells, something that would become invaluable
with the development of the 510 and the recently resurrected Fairlady GT project.
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The first incarnation of what would be the model for Nissans very successful L series engine
came out in October 1965 in the Cedric Sedan as the L20 engine. This was a Prince engine that
had been developed just in time for Nissan to take over the company. It was then combined with
the existing Nissan U20 Austin based engine design. The new combined engineering team at Nissan
put a Prince Mercedes based head on a modified and stroked roadster 1600 block and came up with
a SOHC engine capable of 150 horsepower. The new engine signaled a whole new era of technology
at the company. Nissan even set up an official competition department in the US to supply parts
for American race team's running roadsters with this engine. Nissan/Prince combined speed shops
were also instituted in Japan.
The 1600 and 2000's were by the far the best roadsters Nissan produced
1967 was also a good year for the fairlady roadster and the Bluebird 411.
The Bluebird RL411SSS featured a twin SU 1595 cc R series engine pumping out 96 horses, front disc
brakes, and an optional 3 speed Borg Warner automatic, plus tons of extra bits and pieces not found
on the standard 411.
You could pick one up at your local Nissan dealer for $1846. The Fairlady 2000 SR311 was also
launched in March that year.
That is the point, where the Z story begins
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