hi to all, i'm a former triumph owner, hopefully again, and in recent
years have supplanted my LBC lust with twin carb 240's and 260's. they are
*very* british-inspired. as far back as 1961, Albrecht Goertz had an idea
that the japanese were about to move and he offered his services to
nissan. his design credentials included the BMW 507 Coupe, and the Porsche
911. he met with resistance, but told them they should design it for two
occupants 6 ft tall, aiming for the american market. he came up with a
prototype, then in 1966 nissan started pursuing it seriously.
according to Goertz, he was responsible for the basic design, according to
Nissan, it was their committee. either way, they had more than a nodding
acquaintance with the GT6, XKE, and Ferrari 250 style-wise. the prototype
was a 2-liter twin-cam six, influenced by Prince Motors (acquired by
nissan at the time, sounds british?) and built by Yamaha. nissan and
yamaha got mad at each other, and the joint venture dissolved. the
prototype was dropped by nissan and ended up at toyota, where it was
reengineered and appeared in limited numbers as the toyota 2000 GT.
though i've not seen it, datsun had a 1959 4-passenger convertible called
S211 (988cc, 34 hp , hmmm) that is supposed to resemble an Austin-Healy of
some sort. i think one of their first versions of the motor that would
become the 2.4 six was in 1961 at the toyko motor show. the Fairlady 1500
was a roadster with strong MG design and engineering influences.
a note on 1970-73 240 6's, i've noticed that the bore and stroke is the
same as their venerable 1600cc 4 cylinder, which was stuffed into bunches
and bunches of roadsters, 510 sedans and little pickup trucks. makes sense
to have different current production motors share pistons and probably
other parts where possible. there were 420 japanese-only versions of the
240z, with 2 liter 6's, four valves per cylinder, three carbs, and two
cams. this was called the Fairlady Z432, it produced 160 hp at 7k rpm. a
competition version of this car called the ZR432, and several were used
by the Japanese Highway Patrol.
for the 240's released to the world in late 1969, the performance car
market was corvettes, E-types, and the italian thoroughbreds, starting
about $4k US and going up (way up) from there. at the other end of the
price range, were TR's and GT's, MGB/GT, and opel GT. if you considered
the pony cars, you had the Camaro and the Mustang; these were between $2k
- $4.5k US. the first 240 was stickered at $3526, aiming squarely at that
market. they turned out to be bulletproof, snappy w/7K redline, and they
cornered. there were a half-million sold in the various incarnations,
until the US pollution things started sapping it down; performance really
started going out of it with the 280ZX's introduced in 1979 (which is what
the majority of the planet thinks is a datsun Z). having become a fatter
and mushier plush grand tourer instead of a (psuedo?) sports car, it's
price escalating away from the enthusiast and more toward the upscale guy
wanting a "sporty looking" car but had electric windows, velvet seats, and
nifty climate control. though a turbo was offered in 1981 that offered
quite a boost (pun intended) over the recent years, it was only a half a
second quicker than the original through the 1/4 mile, and was much
heavier; eventually with the 300zx's a thousand pounds heavier than the
early cars. though some of the late model twin-turbo 300zx's are quite the
fire-breathers, i hear.
sorry this wound up so long, and i hope i haven't infuriated the list with
japanese stories, but this is by far my favorite of the 4 car-type mailing
lists i subscsribe to; more real-world people and useful real-world car
discussion. and the engine question was asked. i only love Z's because i
first loved Jag/Triumphs/MG/A-H. and i'm trying to talk myself into the 72
spit/project that is a bargain...
scott9@mail.coin.missouri.edu
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