Canby '07 June 9th & 10th

[Icehouse]

Take the truck,we need more trucks to show up and show those crazy cars that the trucks can be done up also...

 

maybe I could tow the 510 with the 620 get 2 in the show that way. :D

[Cookapoop]

If the first number is the year, How come 510's were made in two completely different eras, yet they still contain a "5" at the beginning of the nomenclature??

[Icehouse]

If the first number is the year, How come 510's were made in two completely different eras, yet they still contain a "5" at the beginning of the nomenclature??

 

because they had leftover 5's or maybe those 5's are upside down and backwards 2's. wait it could be new management. Fine you win :rolleyes:

[Bleach]

Nissan just chose a number for each platform in the 60's. I think at first they just called the truck a truck and the car a sedan because that's pretty much all they offered. Then they came up with the brilliant idea of calling the truck a 320 model. The chasis was just a 320. no real reason.

Then the next truck was a 420? no, they skipped that for some reason. It was a 520... then they changed the body just slightly and changed the code to 521. Then 620, 720, then in the 80's everything when to a name. Hardbody and Frontier.

 

The cars were numbered sort of based on the size of the sedan. The 210's and 310's were the small cars. 510's and 610's were the mid sided and the large sedans were the 710's and 810's. The 810 became the 910 but adopted the name "Maxima" about that time. (1981)

 

As for the Z, they were the Fairlady Z in Japan. In the US they were named for their engine size. 240Z is 2.4L, 280Z is 2.8L, all the way up to the 350Z being a 3.5L

The chassis code for those was basically the letter Z

 

The 200SX was a sport sedan and had a 2.0L engine so it took a simular naming covention to the Z. Strangely in the 80's it had a 1.8, 2.0, or 3.0 engine option but all kept the same name 200SX. :D

[RB_Shaggs]

man that is on my birthday but if the truck is done by then i am there..

[mklotz70]

not sure what/if there was any before, but didn't they make a 220 truck. The hinges were exposed on the doors. 320's were hidden.

[Bleach]

ok, maybe that was the first model... I don't know my early truck history that well. Datsunaholic would know.

 

So on the Canby event, is there an official website or page? I want to link to it from my events calendar on my website.

[mklotz70]

http://www.datsunsnw.org/

 

is the official club page...I'm pretty sure it has the info about Canby on there. There's a yahoo forum you can sign up for if you want to stay in the loop with any of the club news.

 

 

I don't know the early trucks well either...heck..there could have been a 120 that never made it over here. Like you said....'aholic would know! :)

[BEEBANI]

I'll definitely be there! I really had a blast last year (even though I only went on saturday). That was the first datsun event I'd been to, and plan to attend more.

[datsunaholic]

Nissan used a pretty straightforward numbering system when it came to models originally, which broke down over the years.

 

Icehouse's '59 210 was part of the "Bluebird" line, which started in 1957 as a 110. The 210 came out in '59, the 310 (which was not mass-produced for export) in '60, the 410 in '63 (the 411 is a minor upgrade to this), the 510, 610, 710, 810, and 910 were all follow-ons to the Bluebird line, though the 710 was a crossover (gap-fill) between the Sunny and Bluebird lines, and was the first "Violet" model.

 

In the US the Bluebird name wasn't really used- they were called the Datsun 1000, 1200, 1300, 1500, until the 510 came out. Because of confusion (1500 and 1500 Roadster) the 510 was born.

 

But, in 1977 Nissan sales were declining so they "re-introduced" the 510 Name. But the car they put it on wasn't even of the same direct line- it came off the "Violet" branch, and was actually an A10 model. That's the '78-81 510.

 

Nissan then made everything confused in 1979.

 

In 1977, Nissan was selling 5 car lines and one truck line in the US:

 

Fairlady (as a 280Z) Chassis code S30

Sunny (as a B210) Chassis code B210

Cherry (as an F10) Chassis code F10

Bluebird (as a 810) Chassis code 810

Violet (as a 710) Chassis code 710

Silvia (as a 200SX) Chassis code S10

 

Notice how they pretty much line up, chassis code to model code.

 

But in 1981:

 

Fairlady (as a 280ZX) Chassis code S31 (1979)

Sunny (as a 210) Chassis code B310 (1979)

Cherry (as a 310) Chassis code N10 (1979)

Bluebird (as an 810 Maxima) Chassis code 910 (1981)

Violet (as a 510) Chassis code A10 (1978)

Silvia (as a 200SX) Chassis code S110 (1980)

 

Notice how they quit lining up, and they started calling cars by names that were former chassis codes that are nowhere near what they used to be.

 

The truck line is really straightforward.

 

There was a 120- it was built form 1955-56.

 

The first imported truck in the US was a 220 model, in 1957. There weren't many- 3. In 1959 mass imports started ("mass" meaning dozens) of the 221 model, and 222s and 223s were produced from 1960-62. The only real difference between each was the engine- "C" in the 220/221, "E" in the 222, and E1 in the 223. None of these sold well. Nissan didn't start shipping trucks to the US by the thousands until 1964.

 

The 320 came out for 1963- and as mentioned, the obvious difference was hiding the door hinges.

 

Nissan skipped 420 for unknown reasons, but it was probably superstition or numerological reasons. In any case, we missed out having a Datsun that we could point to on 420 day.

 

The 520 came along in 1965, though technically was supposed to be a '66 model. The 521 was just a revamp of the same chassis, expanding the width and length of the engine compartment for the US market L-series engine.

 

620 and 720 followed, then the numbering sequence shifted due to the change in manufacturing to "global"- the US got the D21, but a D20 was produced for non US/Canada markets.

[Icehouse]

Okay Doug since we are on datsun history I have a question for you. Was there a 2 door 510 sold in japan? There was a small dicusion a while back on the510realm. Some dude was trying to tell me there was. I always heard they made the 2 doors for the U.S and Cananda. Something about Americans and how they loved 2 doors. That's what makes my 68 so rare, it was a show room car only. I emailed the datsun history page but never go a resonce back.

[datsunaholic]

Obviously there were 2-door Coupes, since that's where the few surviving ones that are now in the US came from.

 

I cannot say for CERTAIN, but I know Australia didn't get the 2-door sedan. I'm fairly sure there were RHD 2-door sedans made, but they were pretty rare as the lion's share of 2-doors came here. They were pictured on their local sales brochures.

[Icehouse]

I mean the like our 2 doors, there coupes had a more angled back window.

[datsunaholic]

I know- I was saying that I haven't seen any evidence either way other than the Japanese sales brochure that showed all 4 models. I've seen RHD 2-door Sedans in promotional photos. But it wasn't clear WHERE they were. Since neither Australia/NZ or the UK got 2-doors at all, that pretty much leaves Japan. I don't think it was South Africa. Almost no 510s left in Japan, so haven't seen any recent.

[Icehouse]

I will keep researching this and report back if I find out any hard evidence :)

[ggzilla]

> maybe that was the first model truck

 

The first Nissan truck was in 1933. Nissan incorporated in 1933.

 

Oh, and when Nissan USA moved to "named" models, the chassis numbers stamped on the body and on the ID plate still said "B110", "S110" and so forth. The names were just marketing names. For example, 1970 Fairlady and 1970 240Z were both ID'd and referred to in the service manuals as S30. S30 is the Nissan chassis/model proper. In the other Datsun forum I sometime visitm, since we have a international crowd to avoid confusion we try to use the chassis numbers.

 

Another example: "Datsun 210" is a marketing name for the B310 chassis, while "Datsun 310" was the name the N10 was sold as in american. It can even get *more* confusing than that...don't get me started.

[Bleach]

ok ya, on the Z I was aware of that. We somtimes talk about the S30, S130, Z31, Z32, Z33 but I didn't want to get into all that.

I guess for the trucks I was thinking of the first US imported Datsun trucks from 1959 on.

 

My Fairlady's VIN is S30-000931

 

I thought the slanted back 2-door Bluebird was the 2-door 510 in Japan. oh well, I don't know much aboot dimez

[Trevor]

it would take nearly 10 hours to get there.

i dont think im in. :/

[Bleach]

it would take nearly 10 hours to get there.

i dont think im in. :/

 

What about L.A.? you should go to the Z-car Nationals on April 29th.

[oregondime]

im goin

[Trevor]

What about L.A.? you should go to the Z-car Nationals on April 29th.

 

that sounds better.

where in LA?

[Bleach]

I'll start a thread on that event with info

[Trevor]

I'll start a thread on that event with info

 

let me know when you start that thread..

i dont see it yet.

[roadsterman]

hey jeff should i bring a datsun to a datsun meet for once or just go in my motorhome again hahahaha

[ppeters914]

maybe I could tow the 510 with the 620 get 2 in the show that way. :D

 

Or pack 'em all down like this:

 

 

Leigh is on Step 4.5 of the Roadster Twelve Step Program. :D