Filed Under: News
So it is that night follows day, it is inevitable that Japanese cars are destined to become classic’s joining the illustrious names of Riley, Lanchester, Morris and Sunbeam, one could go on naming the marques that have disappeared over time, like the Japanese all had very humble beginnings.
In the 1960’s no one would have said the Japanese would become a force in the automotive industry, Toyota, Honda Nissan and Mitsubishi are now household names, like the Romans they came they saw and they conquered, unfortunately British car makers failed to take notice, as we know no it was to their cost and the thousands of workers who were thrown on to the scrap heap.
One day I knew the day would come that one would and should write about Japanese cars, despite my love for Volvo and the desperate affair with the Montego, I actually had two cars from the land of the rising sun, the first a Carina ii from Toyota, to say it was a breath of fresh air compared to the Montego, we did 40,000 miles on motorways during that time nothing fell off, it never missed a beat, the day it was collected by the lease company was a sad one, but YTC looked the same as it had arrived, strange as it may seem I saw my old Carina heading for Rosslare one morning, unfortunately I was heading home after dropping friends at the port, it looked like it had found a good home.
Have you been to Rosslare lately, the bar upstairs in the terminal building has gone as has the restaurant/café, the little newsagent in the corner no longer there,if you are thinking about going by train they have even moved the station as far away from the boat as they can, it is not even welcoming,sorry about that.
After the Carina came the Honda civic, again we did our stint on the motorways, another 40,000 trouble free miles, neither car could be faulted.
So where do we start, well the first cars were built for the home market, not for Europeans or American’s, apparently there is a substantial difference between the build of the Japanese to us Europeans, words like obesity and well built come to mind, it seems the marketing people didn’t get it quite right, it has been said in some quarter’s that the American’s had an even worse problem fitting into the early Japanese cars, of course I wouldn’t associate myself with such comments.
We will start with Datsun though we might get in some of the Nissan’s but as it is only a name change it is not a problem. The late 60’s motor magazines tended not to mention any car manufactured in Japan, and some of the classic encyclopaedia manage to mention only the sports cars, the bread and butter cars that ordinary folk buy are largely ignored.
I discovered that the Datsun Bluebird was so well made it was almost indestructible, which ended up being the cars downfall, you might like I ask why so, Hot Rod Racing, apparently so many ended their day’s being smashed to bits in the name of sport, so much so there is a shortage of Bluebirds, if you are one of the lucky ones who owns a Bluebird look after it, during the course of my wanderings there is an abandoned Bluebird in clonea near Dungarvan, it is sitting in a field at the back of Gordons Shop opposite Clonea Strand Hotel, I asked if the car was for sale, the owner became somewhat agitated at being asked, and despite using all my charm I was told No so there. At least I did try and more to the point why leave a relatively rare car out in the elements, near the sea, strange old world.
I will start with Datsun’s assault on the sports car world, the Datsun Fairlady produced between 1962 and 1969, probably not many sold but, however the Fairlady had an engine of 1499cc which gave only 71bhp, it’s ability to do the 0-60 took more than 15 seconds, 1963 saw an upgrade to 85bhp and the following year we got a 1596cc engine, in 1967 a overhead camshaft engine of 1982cc gave 135bhp and blistering performance, top speed now exceeded 108 mph and the 0-60 time of around 10.3seconds, 40,000 models were produced.
It would be a sin to not mention the iconic 240Z, the car that is reputed to have changed the sportscar landscape for ever, for the money what else did 125mph had 0-60 time of 9 seconds, it sold round about 150,000 units, the engine is a 2392cc 6 cylinder overhead cam producing 151bhp which is fed into a five speed box, at one stage it was the best selling sportscar in the world.
After the 240 came the 260Z built between 1974 and 1979, this topped 120mph and had near enough the same 0-60 time as the 240, the power unit was originally a 2565cc engine which produced 139bhp, Datsun upped the power twice first a 2.8litre and the carbs were dropped in favour of Bosch jetronic fuel injection which boosted the power to 149bho then the next increase was in 1977 when they squeezed 170bhp out of the motor, you can imagine a car with this sort of performance sold well in fact nearly half a million 260z’s were made.
Back to the Bluebird or it’s other title the 180B, this was not actually top of the range but was considered to be an \upmarket saloon which could carry five people in relative comfort, power coming from a 1770cc overhead cam engine pushing out 95 bhp connected to a four speed all syncro box giving the Bluebird a top speed in the region of 103mph, the downside being petrol consumption is around 24-25 mpg.
However for your money you got split circuit servo assisted braking with a disc drum arrangement, at the front end, independent coils with Mcpherson struts and at the back coil springs with trailing arms, tyres 165×13’s, it runs on what was then two star petrol, and like most Japanese cars creature comforts were well taken care of, cloth upholstery, front seats that recline, tinted glass, push button radio, electric clock, heated rear windwo, even hazard flashers and reversing lights, all standard.
Funny things crop up researching these cars, apart from abandoned Bluebirds, apparently Datsuns were assembled in New Zealand, but not the Cherry Coupe, though 120 of them were because someone sent the wrong kits, lets hope they appreciated the rarity of the 120.
We will at a leter stage complete the Datsun line up, the 120 Sunny, the Violet and the Laurel and the 260 Estate and of course the two cherries the saloon and the coupe, of course it depends what part of the world you live in as to the name so we will stick to Ireland and the UK
I was looking up Toyota, who according to to-day’s news have another recall problem with the Lexus, that one particular model is on the 8th generation, is it any wonder they dominated the car industry.
Well thanks again and remember drive carefully we need you.
Regards Ted tedlay@gmail.com
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