The Early Days Of Japanese Cars In America

[Parker]

Datsun 510s and 240s are classics.

I remember building a 240 with tripple side draft Weber carbs for SCCA autocross back nearly 20yrs ago. Fuck those Webers were a pain. Buddy of mine has 2 510s still. One with an NA 13b rotary with straight pipes. Sounds fucking beautiful.

Why would he put a NA 13b rotary in the a 510? Gutless dorito. Apex seals,etc. If one were going to do something like that stick with the Nissan theme and go SR20DE/SR20DET and KA24DE if it fits. If one wants do a swap and stay Japanese maybe either the F20C/F22C1 from the S2000. Or go German with an S14 from an e30 M3.

[Palumboism]

Yutaka Katayama - The father of the 240Z and 510

Yutaka Katayama's story is very interesting.  He was too outspoken for Japanese management and he made a lot of enemies. America was considered a gamble, and no conservative execs would give it a shot.  Heading up Datsun in America wasn't a promotion; it was exile.  The name Datsun was chosen instead of Nissan because America was a gamble and if it failed they didn't want to tarnish the Nissan name.

In those early days, Yutaka Katayama actually went house to house in the Japanese areas of LA, trying to sell Datsuns to Japanese immigrants, and to farmers who saw the rugged little trucks as a good deal.  Katayama also delivered cars to dealers himself, having another employee follow him to drive him back Gardena.

Datsun dealers were a bit of a nightmare at the beginning. Quite a few Datsuns were sold off used car lots and gas stations, and from economy car "supermarkets". Several Datsun dealers operated out of private homes using the family garage as the service bay.

[Parker]

Better sound and no turbo to worry about. Ive seen plenty of rotary powered 510s over the years. His brother has a rotary powered Cressida? I think its a cressida. One of the rare 4dr drift cars. Fuck thats gonna bother me i cant think of the name. Anyways.. Hes got 2. The other is completely stock except for susp stuff, bushings and whatnot. Gotnit mint condition i guess of an old man in san gabriel

Who the hell puts a damn rotary in a Cressida? Either 1JZ or 2JZGTE or LS it. There. That's it. He just made the car unreliable.  Unless he is doing 2-4 Doritos and turbo he ain't got no power. And all it sounds like is a loud bee.

[Core]

Who the hell puts a damn rotary in a Cressida? Either 1JZ or 2JZGTE or LS it. There. That's it. He just made the car unreliable.  Unless he is doing 2-4 Doritos and turbo he ain't got no power. And all it sounds like is a loud bee.

Just needs a bridgeported 13b and he will be able to pull around 300hp from it which is quite a lot in such a light car. Don't need a ton of power to have fun if you know how to drive.


But I agree jz for life in terms of swaps.

 Sr is ok, I had a 400hp Sr for a while but to make 400 or more you had a very laggy turbo. But don't discount the rotary, they are a different breed of motor and can make a ton of power with boost and can spin very high. Just have to worry about keeping them cooled properly, and fueled as well. 1000cc injectors minimum on any rotary build with a turbo.

Id have a 2.7l closed deck stroker EJ257 over all though, with a rotated gtx3582r turbo setup. Would plop right into my Subaru Legacy turbo. Run that bitch on a flex fuel sensor too and turn it right up when e85 is in the tank

[El Diablo Blanco]

240 and 280 were awesome cars. Some say the 280 before they remodeled hit had one of the best engines ever made. The car would fall apart before the motor ever would.

[Palumboism]

1986 was the year Japanese car sales really started to soar.  Three Japanese models were in the top 15.  

Toyota became the first import automaker to sell 1 million vehicles in America.  Honda also set a sales record of 693,515 units for 1986.
   
Pos    Model                  1986
1    Ford F-Series            
2    Chevrolet Celebrity    
3    Chevrolet CK            
4    Ford Escort            
5    Chevrolet Cavalier    
6    Oldsmobile Ciera    
7    Honda Accord        
8    Toyota Pick-up          
9    Ford Ranger        
10    Ford Tempo        
11    Ford Taurus          
12    Oldsmobile SK            
13    Buick Century            
14    Chevrolet Caprice    
15    Nissan Pick-up      

1986 was also the first year of the Acura and Hyundai brands in America.  Acura recorded 9,280 sales that year and Hyundai sold 168,882 of its Excel subcompacts.

[Palumboism]

The Honda Accord was the best selling car in America in 1989,1990, and 1991.  Camry has held the title of best selling car in America for 18 of the last 19 years.

[Core]

Not his only car. Also has a 240, a turbod 260 (i tbink was a 280motor), an s13 redtop coupe, a turbod sc300 manual, and a vip gs400 daily driver. His brother is a med-tech at a rehab place i did a "fitness program" for & I went over to see the s13 cuz i had one similar years ago before "tokyo drift" ruined everything and trippled the price by the time i got out of prison.

 Ridiculous isn't it for those cars now? Theres a guy near me selling his rb20 s13 coupe for 7500 and its smashed to shit. The deals are out there though I paid 5500 for an sr swapped coupe a year ago, making 400whp on a td06 20g and a built motor with some gnarly cams. Little fucker lost me my license for 3 months! Too much fun.

[Core]

Thats not too bad for rb s13. Ive only seen 1 in person and 1 for sale. I think my 240 cpe was 3500 with s13 front end already installed (with hid driving beams and 3500k hid fogs. Forget the driving #.. Slight bluish white. Close to the audi combos back then. Did the same in my VIP Q45 cpl yrs ago). Kept the KA but ditched the auto and turbod it. Aleeady had an intercooler, just wasnt hooked up to anything. Guess the owner ran outta money. Still love those s13 coupes.

Dont think i could ever put an LS motor i anything other than a 62 bel air 53 chevy coupe.

Yeah they are a timeless design especially with the silvia front end. Would love to get into another one in the future for a weekend fun car, stick a 2jz into it.

[Parker]

Thats not too bad for rb s13. Ive only seen 1 in person and 1 for sale. I think my 240 cpe was 3500 with s13 front end already installed (with hid driving beams and 3500k hid fogs. Forget the driving #.. Slight bluish white. Close to the audi combos back then. Did the same in my VIP Q45 cpl yrs ago). Kept the KA but ditched the auto and turbod it. Aleeady had an intercooler, just wasnt hooked up to anything. Guess the owner ran outta money. Still love those s13 coupes.

Dont think i could ever put an LS motor i anything other than a 62 bel air 53 chevy coupe.

You lack imagination when it comes to an LS engine.
https://www.google.com/amp/jalopnik.com/this-corvette-powered-1976-jaguar-xj-coupe-was-perfect-1792614465/amp

[falco]

Given the 4x4 popularity in the USA, why wasnt the 70 series Lancruisers sold?

[phreak]

This was criminally underappreciated, Honda's 4WD 4-wheel steering Prelude...

[gym**rat]

240 and 280 were awesome cars. Some say the 280 before they remodeled hit had one of the best engines ever made. The car would fall apart before the motor ever would.

My 2nd car was a 240Z. Had a ton of issues with the carbs. Traded it off after a year. My 3rd car was a 1975 light blue 280Z. Bought it in 1978. I put 125,000 hard miles on it in 8 years and it never missed a lick. I went through 3 clutches, 2 batteries, 1 water pump and 1 alternator. I would race any car with it. I was only beat a handful of times. A damn fast stock car.
260Z are pretty rare. I believe they were just made in '74 but I might be mistaken. They also came out with a 2+2 model on the Z cars. Had a back seat. The length they had to add to it really took away from the car IMO.
The pic below looked a lot like mine. Same spoiler and color. I had the black rear window louvre though and wire wheels.

[Core]

Didnt think the4wheelnsteer started till the 92/94 model?

Loved the h22&h23 motors though. Only motors i built more of were b16/b18's. So easy to work on a 14yr old could mod everything in them (& i did lol).

Buddy of mine has a right hand drive prelude of this generation. Super underrated cars a lot of quality technology in them. They have decent lines as well, prelude is a nice car even today the last generation ones are awesome

[Nirvana]

The Honda Accord was the best selling car in America in 1989,1990, and 1991.  Camry has held the title of best selling car in America for 18 of the last 19 years.

The particular car in the photo is probably still on the road too.

[Palumboism]

In 1989, Toyota branched out by establishing a luxury line of vehicles with the debut of the Lexus LS 400 and the ES 250. Highly acclaimed cars, plus exceptional customer service, quickly became the hallmark of Lexus.
 
By the end of 2000, following its tag line, "The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection," Lexus edged out Mercedes Benz by 423 units to become the top-selling luxury brand in the United States, a position it has held for ten years running.
 

[Palumboism]

The Infiniti brand was also introduced in 1989 with the launch of two models the Q45, and the M30.

[Palumboism]

The particular car in the photo is probably still on the road too.

Yep, it's a 27 year old car that doesn't look too dated.

[The Ugly]

'98 HK Cosmo (1 KP Prototype)

[Palumboism]

I didn't just list oil or fuel as primarily the reason, it's still one of the reasons but factor in reliability which is a must for the average American with a car, enthusiasts maybe not so much

It takes time to turn the tide, doesn't happen over night, but the stigma of American cars were they were big piles of crap with quality problems, reliability problems, inefficient, etc

My point is it didn't occur in the 1970's.  In the 70's American's still had faith in American cars and Japanese cars were bought by only a small minority.  The Mid 1980's is when Americans started buying Japanese cars in significant numbers.

[Bevo]

My point is it didn't occur in the 1970's.  In the 70's American's still had faith in American cars and Japanese cars were bought by only a small minority.  The Mid 1980's is when Americans started buying Japanese cars in significant numbers.

It's cause by then it caught on, the reasons I listed  

In the 70's Japanese cars and Europeans like Mercedes, Porsche, Bmw started to get noticed more than ever, not only going by sales number but word on the street/press and at the same time domestics were declining in quality and even worse reliability , people still bought into it cause of their past but when people started waking up and realizing, it was too late for the big 3

So in fact it DID start to occur in the 70's, not as fast, but steadily

[Palumboism]

Still miss my q45. White on black VIP w/chrome ,woodgrain, rear shades, black headlight housings w white hids and yellow hid fogs and a big ol v8.

Love VIP style japanese luxury sedans (no rretarded -14° camber with stretched 30series tires or airbag suspensions though. Lol)

[Core]

Fuck thats hot. BMW and Mercedes eat your heart out.

[Core]

Yep. Except ot was white and not scraping the ground. Nothing "luxury" about feeling every pebble on the road and crawling sideways over speedbumps. Always though the Q infinitis and LS lexus' were the best vip cars. GS a close 2nd/3d

And now thanks to you im looking at getting this totally untouched rust free unfucked s13 coupe. thanks a lot.