Archives for October 2014

Straight from the DatsunForum vault, here’s a nice scan of the 1976 Datsun full-line brochure, exactly like you might have found in a Datsun dealer in late 1975.

Imagine walking into a showroom in September 1975, seeing a sleek zero-mile 1976 280Z in bright red with a gorgeous black vinyl interior, sitting next to a new Lil’ Hustler 620 pickup – and over there in the corner is a new 610 Coupe with the optional rocker panel decals. Turn around and admire the funky but sporty B-210 in bright yellow, and try not to ignore the dark green 710 wagon, just waiting to become some family’s faithful new transportation.

Here’s hoping these images help you with your Datsun restoration, or just take you on a trip back into the history of Datsun motoring. (click images for full-size pics)

Another awesome old document from the DatsunForum archives, scanned here for your enjoyment! (click thumbnails for larger images)

The origin of the Datsun name and the Nissan Motor Company can be traced back to 1911, when Masujuro Hashimoto founded the Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works. What appears to have been his first car, a small 10-horsepower passenger automobile, was exhibited in 1914 and received an award. Hashimoto’s backers were three businessmen named Den, Aoyama, and Takeuchi, and the car took its name from their initials: DAT.

This company ran into financial trouble and was reorganized in 1918 as the Kwaishinsha Company, Ltd., which produced a small, sports-type two-seater that became the “son of DAT,” or Datson. However, the English letter combination S-O-N as pronounced in Japanese sounds like an expression for losing money, and it seems to have been important to have a name for the car that could be spelled in English. At any rate the difficulty was resolved by changing “son” to “sun,” which has a good connotation in both English and Japanese.

Production remained very limited, and after the disastrous earthquake of 1923, which destroyed many of Japan’s automobile factories, the DAT firm found it necessary to merge with the Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo (Practical Automobile Manufacturing) Company as the DAT Jidosha Seizo Company, Ltd. The merger was effective in 1926. The combined company was still small, but in 1932 it introduced a new Datsun line, a small car with a 500cc engine, which marked the beginning of regular, continuous production of motor vehicles carrying the Datsun name.

In 1933, the DAT Jidosha Seizo Company underwent a reorganization and a year after that was renamed Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. (Japan Industries), with a capital of 10 million yen. Between then and 1938, when passenger car production stopped, Nissan made its first standard-size automobiles, introduced mass-production techniques, and shipped out its first few exports.

The “clublife” newsletter is published for the Japanese market on a quarterly basis by Nissan – I guess you could call it the JDM equivalent of NICOclub, but in printed form!

Anyhow, we periodically receive copies of clublife from our Japanese contacts, and I figured I’d share a copy with the members.

There’s a historical timeline, highlighting some notable points in Nissan’s history, some great pics from the Japan Automobile Museum, as well as some event photos from various gatherings around the islands.

I hope you enjoy the scans (click for larger images):