Datsun had been building affordable and "sporty " cars since its beginning, however the
early 60's brought with them the first true Sports Cars from Datsun. Introduced at the
Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan released its first version of a modern two passenger, open roadster,
the Datsun Fairlady 1500 in 1961.
The Fairlady 1500 was evolved over the following decade, turning into the Datsun 1600 Sports,
and the Datsun 2000 Roadsters of the late 60's. By the late 60's the 1600 and 2000 had achieved
some sales success in the U.S. and were on a par with the MG's and Triumphs of the day. They
were however technologically behind the times, when compared to the 1963 Corvettes, Jag XKEs
and 1964 Porsche 911's .
It was during this time ('61/'62) that NISSAN began to develop the idea of building a sports
car that would enhance its image, and move it slightly upscale in the growing Sports Car market.
Way back in 1963 Albrecht Goertz signed on as a consultant with Nissan. Dr.Goertz was a German born,
U.S. Citizen, who had established himself as an Industrial Designer, with some automotive design
experience. Dr. Goertz worked on the 1953 Studebaker Starline, then with BMW where he contributed
to the design of the BMW 507. Next he worked with the Porsche team on the 911.
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According to Dr. Goertz, he offered his services as an automotive design consultant to, and was
in turn contracted by, NISSAN MOTORS OF JAPAN in 1963. His first assignment at NISSAN was to work
on a Sports Coupe based on the Fairlady 1600 chassis. The project had been started, and it was
given the model designation of CSP-311 and named the Silivia 1600 Sports Coupe. Introduced at the
Tokyo Motor Show in 1964. It was also shown at the New York Motor Show in 1965. (Note - the
Silivia Sports Coupe was shown once in the USA and shipped back to Japan, never to be imported
into the North American market. Approximately 49 Silvia's made their way to Australia (out of the 554
produced). It was not well received at the Exhibition by the US automotive press.
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Dr. Goertz was then assigned to consult with a NISSAN team working on a sports car for the U.S. market.
Nissan had a joint development agreement with Yamaha on this project. Yamaha was to develop the engine
for the car as well as build the full size metal prototypes.
When Yamaha's efforts, related to the design of a 2.0 Liter engine for this car did not meet
NISSAN's expectaion, the project as shelved at NISSAN.
The Nissan team consisted of four designers and clay modelers who spoke very little English. One
person specifically mentioned by Dr. Goertz was Mr. Kimura, who spoke a little English, and whom
keep Dr. Goertz informed about the status of the car after Dr. Goertz left NISSAN in 1965.
Before he left, he did a couple of important things. The first was getting Nissan designers to build
their cars using full scale clay mock ups, and to get them to think about design in an international
context, not just for Japanese buyers. The second thing he did was help design the Nissan Silvia
Coupe CSP310 1600 of 1964. The Silvia was the showpiece of the Tokyo Auto show that year, and is cited
as another inspiration for the Z.
Enthusiasts hotly contest who actually designed the Z, but Nissan did issue a letter to Goertz in
1980 giving him credit with the concept of the Z, if not the actual design.
A metal prototype of that design was built by Yamaha. Dr. Goertz and Yamaha took the project to
Toyota, and the result was the building of the Toyota 2000GT.
By the mid sixties, Nissan was really starting to make headway with its cars in foreign markets.
As a result, models were being redesigned and retrofitted to meet the unique demands of each foreign
market, but what they weren't doing was building specific cars for those markets. The Z would change that.
A major development in the ability of Nissan to design the 510, and then the 240Z, was the acquisition
of Prince Motors. Prince, unlike Nissan, was a very race car oriented company. They had their own
testing track, had begun the R380 series cars(see racing history), and they had a lot of car enthusiasts
in the mix, something that Nissan was lacking.
Geortz was gone by the time Nissan pulled the idea of a GT car back off the shelf in '67. Mr. K had
never stopped pushing for the development of the Z, even while the project had collected dust. He
and Kawasoe, unlike the other Nissan execs, had to watch Americans speed along their highways in
Mustangs and muscle cars and imported European sports cars, like Alfas and Triumphs. They needed
a sports car, and the Roadster wasn't going to cut it.
The roadster was good car for what it was, but it had an old design, older technology, and had no
room left to improve. What Mr. K decided, with Kawasoe's input, was that Nissan Needed a GT coupe
that looked good, was safe, and could go fast. And that's what he told the new design team that was
responsible for the resurrected GT project.
Under the supervision of Teiichi Hara, a new design team was formed. Yoshihiko Matsuo, chief designer;
Akio Yoshoda, exterior designer; Sue Chiba, interior design; Eiichi Oiwa and Kiichi Nishikawa,
design assistants. Engineering was the responsibility of Hidemi Kamahara and Tsuneo Benitani.
Mr. Tiichi Hara (who had total responsibility for the design and production aspects of the project)
gave the official project file - started when the new design project was started - the designation
"Nissan Design - Project Z" (losely translated...cjb), as all previous letters had been used.
(the Goertz prototype was designated for example the "A550-X Project"e"). Also the charactor in
Japanese, that resembles the roman letter Z, is called "Mugen", has the meaning of "no limit" or
"infinity"000.
The biggest single influence on the whole design from beginning to end was Yutaka Katayama,
and quite rightfully, he deserves the title as "father of the Z".
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Katayama had had a very close relationship with Nissan designers for a number of years, ever
since Nissan had sent him to America to try and sell cars designed for Japan to Americans who
drove under much more demanding conditions. Kawazoe, Mr. K's counterpart on the US East Coast,
had much the same relationship with designers, and was an engineer himself. They had input on
every aspect of the Z's design. They demanded American scale performance, not just Japanese
performance, they wanted comfortable interiors with room for bigger American drivers, with the
refinements that Americans got in their cars.
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The car that would help pave the road for the Z was the 510. The '68 510 was still a car designed
for both the Japanese and American markets, but it incorporated a lot of the ideas that Katayama
and Kawazoe had been asking for in a car, most importantly a 1600cc engine. Mr. K was in love with
2 cars in the pre-510 and 240z days. The first was the BMW 1600, which was the benchmark he set
when discussing the new 510 with the designer's back in Japan. The other was the Jaguar XKE, which
he saw as the epitome of the sports car. Both these cars he considered to be the ideal for each of
their respective classes. The 510 showed Nissan that America would accept its cars, and lots of them.
The 510 contained most of the main ingredients used in the 240z: L Series overhead cam engine,
MacPherson struts, and independent rear suspension. It also contained a lot of accessories not
usually found on economy cars. The 510 also had the dimensions required for success in America,
and was slowly gaining ground with American buyers. While Z enthusiasts will deny to the death
that the 510 helped lead to 240z's success or influenced its design, there's no escaping the
cars engineering similarities.
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The Z was supposed to have it all; style, speed, technology, and a bargain price. As drivers and
critics alike would discover, the 240z was all that, and more. There were actually 2 different Z's,
the Japanese market 2 liter Fairlady Z(S30), and the US 2.4 liter 240Z(HS30). The Japanese market
two liter Z had a twin cam engine like the one in the Skylines, designed to meet FIA European racing
specs. The 240z HS30 that America got had a bigger 2.4 liter engine that had not at all been designed
with racing in mind. Europe was the land of prestige racing, where Japan saw the US as the land
of the Dirt Track; thus no one considered that the Z would be seriously raced there.
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The Fairlady Z went into production in October 1969, with 2 versions. There was the Japanese market
S30 Fairlady Z with a twin cam L20 6 cylinder producing 130hp. And there was the HS30 240z with a
L24 SOHC 6 cylinder with twin SU's that produced 151 hp. A third Z, the 432Z(PS30)Shared a performance
version of the S20 engine with the Skyline GT-R.
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The production lines started producing Z Cars at their Shatai factory in Tokyo Japan, the first
part of October 1969. Production lines were started very slowly to test and establish the
manufacturing process, and to train the workers. The first few cars produced during this start-up
phase are very seldom delivered for sale to the public. Rather, they may be used for the necessary
crash tests and certification processes required by the U. S. Federal Government or assembled and
disassembled for quality inspections, then reassembled again. Other very early production cars
would start the assembly process, only to be side tracked for correction of some quality or
assembly defect, then once corrected, they were put back onto the assembly line for final assembly.
For this reason some very early production cars have final dates of manufacture a month or two
later than one would expect and engine serial numbers that would appear to be out of sequence with
the chassis serial numbers.
Production in 1969 included chassis produced for both the Datsun 240Z - that is, the HLS30 cars
and the Fairlady Z models S30 and S30S. Additionally a few Fairlady Z - 432's were produced - model
S30SP. Production of the Right Hand Drive 240Z's, the HS30 models, started in Jan. of 1970.
As the story goes, and I have heard it from several people, Z Cars #00001, 00002, 00003, 00004
and possibly #00005 were "production mules" and were destroyed at the factory. Thus they were
never delivered to the U.S. I have not received any confirmation of this from NISSAN of JAPAN
however.
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The birth of the Z Legend 
