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PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 3:07 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
Posts: 1180
Location: Ansonia, CT
Check out this article on the Datsun 240Z

http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/t ... made.html/

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 8:57 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14778
Location: CT
John, you posted this article a year ago and it's already got over 7,000 reads ~ the 10th most-read post in the whole 20 pages of General Z Discussion forum!
But this will be the first reply!

#1. Don't become confused at the author's figures of 16,215 240Zs being made during calendar year 1970. The first actual production year was the 12 months btwn Oct69 (when Rick's #13 was released) and Sept70. During that time scarcely more than 10,000 240Zs were sold, 7,000 of them here in the USA and 3-4,000 of them shared by the rest of the world. While it's true that more than 35,000 "1971" 240Zs were sold, that count included the final 3 months of 1970, when the cars might be registered either as 1970s or '71s.

#2. I agree with the author about the rest of his article, but I take exception to his statement that the Z is "ONE" of the world's best Sports/GT cars. In terms of popularity determined by sales, the Z is hands-down *THE* most-popular sports/GT ever made by anybody.

The Z has set world records which remain unbroken. They were the very first sportscar to ever sell 500,000 units in the first 10 years of production, and again the first to sell 1,000,000 units in the first 20 years. No other sportscar in the world can make that claim, and there are dozens of makes (Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, MG, Triumph, Austin Healey, Fiat, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Cobra, Maserati, Lamborghini, etc) who have been in business for decades longer than the Datsun Z, and *STILL* haven't reached our initial production numbers! In fact, the only two car models which have met our production and sales figures were the VW bug and the Ford Mustang. Neither of them are true sportscars and the VW has been selling bugs since WWII.

So if sales figures are an indication of success, the Datsun/Nissan Z car is the world's most popular SportsGT car in automotive history. 8) :thumbs_up:

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:51 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
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Not to be biased either :wink: , but I couldn't agree more with you Frank.

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 9:07 pm 
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Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:22 pm
Posts: 441
Location: Clearwater, FL
Hi Guys:
Old subject - but I had a few minutes.

Sorry but this Article is so screwed up - it’s sad.

FIRST PAGE:
1. The Yamaha Design Center offered design assistance and more importantly rapid prototype build services (too any customers). Toyota did not pick up, nor carry forward anything from the Yamaha/Nissan joint project. Toyota sent their own Design Team to work with Yamaha so the Toyota Design Team could get rapid prototypes done outside of Toyota. Other than the fact that both Nissan and Toyota had Yamaha working with them -there is NO Connection between the Nissan Design and the completely different Toyota design.

2. Yes, the Toyota 2000GT was a Flagship or Halo Car - never designed for mass production. The 240Z was designed for production (somewhat limited as it was). There is some truth to the story that the Toyota 2000GT did give an incentive for a new Nissan Sports car to Nissan.

3. Who the hell is “Bernard Goertz”? Do you suppose they mean Albrecht Goertz? Well he did work with the Nissan designers that worked on the Joint Yamaha/Nissan project. How much influence he had on that project is not really known. Nonetheless, the Datsun 240Z was designed in-house a couple years after the failed Joint Project with Yamaha. One would have to stop just a little short of saying Goertz had absolutely Nothing to do with the design of the Z Car. The reason one has to stop short of that - is that two of the three people that worked with Goertz at Yamaha - did work on the Nissan Design Team that did produce the 240Z. Just how much Goertz influenced their work in the future - ? is conjecture at best. (but the A550-X at Yamaha looks a lot like the final 240Z no way around it).

So when an article starts out this far off track - you have to take it with a large grain of salt.

Mr. K. never ask for a “halo” car - he always ask for a modern Sports/GT that was affordable by anyone. Affordable was a design criteria!.

SECOND PAGE:
quote:
But by the end of the ‘60s, the company was starting to pick up steam. Its small trucks were popular on the West Coast, and its compact 510 sedan (released 1968) was having success in SCCA competitions and drawing comparisons to the more expensive BMW 2002.
- - - - end quote - - - -

Who is writing this stuff? Ah.. did you miss the fact that by the end of the 60’s - Nissan had over 1000 DATSUN Dealers in the US. Miss the fact that the Datsun Roadsters were cleaning up in SCCA D and F production? Completely missed the fact that the Datsun 2000 Roadsters - ate Carol Shelby’s Toyota 2000GT alive in C-Production. The Toyota 2000GT was such a flop - even Caroll Shelby couldn’t get it to the Run-Offs with any success.

THIRD PAGE:
quote
Datsun sold a respectable 16,215 Zs in 1970, but as muscle cars became more and more constricted by safety and emissions standards by the year, Z sales continued to rise, selling 148,115 cars in the U.S. alone through 1973.
- - - end quote - - - - -

That 16,215 number is I believe taken from Nissan’s Sales/Service Dept. reports. These are cars sold and delivered to customers - and the reports are for tracking warranty and dealer reimbursements. These reports come in and came be recorded after the facts in the field. So it is more or less meaningless. The total given of 148K sold in the USA/Canada is most likely pretty close to reality.

Frank is right - by Sept of 1970 only about 11,000 Series I 240Z’s had been produced.

What we do know at this point is that from Oct. 69 though the end of the month Dec. 1970. Nissan produced at least 18,124 (that is the highest VIN with a 12/70 DOM we have found so far). Nissan also produced another 2409 in Jan. of 1971.. bringing the total up to 20,533 Series I models. (that we know of so far). The Series II aka Late Model 1971 started production in 02/71 with VIN HLS30 021001.

By the end of calendar year 1970 - very few Left Hand Drive Datsun 240Z’s were scattered around the world. Nissan figures show 3. Australia got 319 Right Hand Drive 240’s and GB got 2 in 1970 (but RHD units are not counted in the USA/Canada numbers).
FWIW:
Carl B.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:41 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
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Location: CT
I'm grateful for living in this era for several reasons ~ Great music when we were kids, great cars and races all my lifetime, survived the toughest Bootcamp in Marine Corps history, lived long enough to enjoy YouTube, dated the most-wonderful women on earth, and both Carl Beck and Mr K lived during my lifetime.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 4:07 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
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Location: Ansonia, CT
Abe Lincoln too! :lol:

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John Kish
1971 240Z - original owner


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 6:14 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14778
Location: CT
:roll: :lol:

Don't press it John, at least *I* was born AFTER the last dinosaur died. 8)

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 11:33 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:16 pm
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Location: Ansonia, CT
T Rex was a good bud. He will be missed.

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1971 240Z - original owner


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