Brand new Datsun 1200s unloading at Teeside in 1970.
Brand new Datsun 1200s unloading at Teeside in 1970.
The first wave of Datsuns arrived in the UK during 1968, with the entire model line up consisting of just four models, the 510 Bluebird, B10 Sunny and 130 Cedric… with the C30 Laurel arriving shortly after. These models all sold in tiny numbers, so you would naturally expect these early Datsuns to be the …
The restoration of the site is ongoing and as well as adding new stuff, I’m revamping some old posts, with a little text editing (largely to fix all the horrible grammar and spelling!) as well as updating many of the images. A lot of the old articles were written in the days when people were …
A hotrod Datsun 220? Drag racing campers? An electric E10 Cherry pickup? Gas turbines? Rockets?! Clearly it was all happening for Nissan Commercial vehicles in 1971…
Plenty to see in this Nissan promo film for the early 1970s. Nissan were riding high on a decade of success both in the marketplace and on the race track, and they weren’t afraid to tell the world all about it. Plenty of excellent period shots of the Tokyo Motorshow, the East African Safari Rally …
Back in the early 80s, the US car industry was really suffering. The trickle of imports from Japan in the early 1960s had turned to a torrent by the end of the 70s. Domestic car sales were taking a beating and with US auto workers starting to be laid off, a backlash was forming. Despite …
While the newly resurrected Datsun brand is, for the time being at least, unlikely to appear in Europe, it seems to be progressing well in developing markets. Obviously to promote the brand Nissan are looking to the heritage of the Datsun name and this is bringing with it some glimpses of interesting archive material…
Nissan Planète Automobile is an amazing new publication from French publisher E-T-A-I and something I would regards as an essential purchase for any diehard Datsun fan. The author, Bernard Vermeylen, has covered a colossal amount of ground in this history of the marque, from the company’s early days at the beginning of the 20th century, …
Nissan’s Type 70 arrived on the Japanese car market in 1937 and was quite a departure for the company as it was considerably bigger and more luxurious than anything they had previously sold. Clearly they were pretty proud of this new car and produced this charming silent film, which remarkably for 1937, was in colour! …
In the early days of British sales, Datsuns were advertised heavily in the motoring media. Combined with a excellent value and reliability offered by the cars, this promotion led to the staggering success of Datsun UK in the early 1970’s. The level of their achievement can be seen if you consider the sales statistics. Datsun …