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.*
