I've recently talked with some other Z guys in Finland and i was stunned by that information that 260Z was one year model only in USA market. Story of 260z in europe lasts till 1978! Some of you might have already know this but i didnt, so i wanted to share this info.

So basically if you want 1977 260Z, you got to import it from europe I have to find out what kind of equipment etc. it has compared to 280Z, did it have flat tops all the time or what.

I've been wondering for a while "why there is so many 260Z in here" but now i got my answer.

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

And our Australian members tell us the 260 never made it Down Under at all ~ they just went from the 240 straight to the 280!

Marketing was so strange back in the 1970s!!!

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1970 240Z

So now here I am, a 40-year Z owner and (forgive the expression, John
T) a bona fide Z Nut of the highest order. And this is the ABSOLUTE
FIRST TIME I have ever heard of such a thing. Not disputing it, you
understand, but it gets the gears turning in my head: Did the 260's in
Europe keep the light bumpers? Did they get 260 badges throughout
the run? Did they get (as Rev said) EFI on an L26 engine? Did they
get all the year-by-year minor changes and color code changes that the
American market 280's got, but on a 260 body? Were the odometer/
speedometer displays in miles or kilometers? etc., etc., etc.

Same kind of thought process that was inspired by Frank sharing about
the Aussies never getting a 260Zed at all, just a jump from 240 to 280.
I love this Club; I'm learning new things all the time. AND I NEVER GET
TIRED OF LEARNING FROM Y'ALL! So please, don't quit teaching me!

All Z Best,..........................Rick (and Kathy, of course)

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All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

The way I understand it, the CARBURETED 260Z was available in Europe through the 1978 model year. They did not get the 2.8 engine until the 1979 ZX.

The FUEL INJECTED 280Z was sold in North America from January 1975 to August 1978. Fuel injection enabled Nissan to meet increasingly stringent US emission requirements. The larger displacement and the EFI helped to recoup some of the lost power from earlier models.

The North American 260Z was sold from August 1973 to January 1975. Interestingly, the "small bumper" 260Z was built until September 1974 when the "large bumper" 260Z was built for the remainder of the year. The larger crash bumpers became federally required beginning 9/74. The 280Z continued that body/bumper style through the 1976 model year.

The European cars had smaller bumpers with NO "bumperettes" and parking/turn signals mounted ABOVE the bumper to meet European specs.

Please fill in the blanks or make corrections! Carl??

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John Taddonio
1970 240Z
1977 530Z
1984 300ZXT
zcarnut@hotmail.com
FB: Zccr zcarclubofrochester

Ya know, Carl Beck probably knows all this stuff and just hasn't been asked to share it. Some of us (about 500 of us) have been asking him to sit down and write a book on the Z carz while he still can. I mean, the man probably knows more about Zs than any other English speaker in the world, and he's not gonna live forever. Heck, he's already over 30.

Not sure how we could petition Carl to write a composition of everything he knows about the Z, but we should do SOMETHING to get him started on it.

Frank

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1970 240Z

All the European Zs were equipped with km-gauges. Those gauges are very rare and id like to get one into my hands.

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

Thanks, guys, especially John T, for your input.

I agree with what John wrote about the American editions, as I was
selling them and then running a partZ department to support them
back in the '70's (it seems like so much Ancient History by now!).
(Does that make John, Frank, and me, professors of Ancient History
in some convoluted way?)

But it'Z the European and AusTRYlian editions that I'm so weak on.
Betcha Alan from England would be jumping in if he were still around!
There must be a few more knowledgeable folk who know about this
kind of thing, but I don't know how many (if any) frequent our site.

~Rick~

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All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

Isn't the 260 the same chassis as the 280? VS the lighter less ridged 240 chassis. So basically if they just put fuel injection in it and throw the 280 badge on it, there ya go, sounds like a cost effective way for the market. I also thought that this was the same in Australia and Japan, they still had the 260 up till 77-78.

Charlie Osborne (Zedd Findings) told me that canadian classic Z's would have km gauges. Last time I spoke to him he had one left. Ask him.

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T. Link
Germany
1971 240z (HLS30-16506)