280zx

In Japan, it was exclusive to Nissan Bluebird Store locations.

From the November Issue of Car and Driver. When Datsun introduced its model to the press, the joke of the meeting was that these cars would be competing head-on with Buick and BMW by Christmas—not because of a massive overhaul in the Japanese company's marketing philosophy, but rather because of the plummeting value of the dollar relative to that of the yen. Datsun would not be building Buick-style cars; it would simply be offering its weight-watcher compacts at Buick prices. But driving the new ZX coupe suggests that Nissan has been anticipating exactly this sort of repositioning in the market all along and has already dialed in the appropriate correction. The new Z-car ZX-car? It's longer, lower, and wider than the old version; quieter and more vibration-free on the inside; calibrated for a mashed-potatoes ride underneath; and just itching to be dolled up with all sorts of packages and gadgets, which the option list cheerfully offers. All of this probably makes perfect sense from a hit-'em-where-they-ain't marketing point of view.

280zx

Datsun then Nissan has produced plenty of a great Z cars over 54 years and seven generations. This bloated piece of metal and velour, aimed squarely at the American market, wasn't one of them. Once upon a time there was a long, low and exciting coupe called the Datsun Z. In just a few years, Nissan's best and brightest transformed a light, stylish, nimble, quick and affordable coupe into the ZX, a heavy, ugly, lumbering, slow and expensive one. It was half the price of the ageing E-Type Jaguar, but considerably more than half the car. Likewise its handling. The revamped Z, released in , signalled what was to come. But the ZX of March totally lost the plot. The early Zs' admirable interior and exterior restraint gave way to chrome galore, chintzy body decorations and seats covered in the sort of velour you'd find in a crook nightclub. It was also the first fuel-injected Datsun sold in Australia. The bonnet seemed to go on forever. It's hard to say why, since it hid an inline six-cylinder engine which produced just 98kW and was expected to propel nearly kg, usually via a three-speed automatic. The dramatic success of the slushbox option the majority of Zed's were now thus equipped , plus power windows, mirrors and featherweight assisted steering, showed that the Z was pitched at a very different buyer. One reason for the switch from lean-and-mean to obese-and-serene: with 80 per cent of Zeds going to the US, the car had been increasingly tailored to that market's, er, unique tastes.

They really didn't know what," Goertz says. Still, 280zx, it's only in the package-and-gadget department that the ZX truly breaks new ground.

It looks like the era of inexpensive Japanese sports cars from the s is coming to an end. Amid the plethora of classic European race cars and grand touring machines rolling through various auctions held during Monterey Car Week, a wedge-tastic Datsun ZX fetched nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Wait, what? But we aren't talking about the OG Datsun sports car fetching a quarter mill. We're talking about the ZX, though admittedly, this particular car checks all the boxes for collectors. It's a 10th Anniversary model, of which only 3, were made according to the auction description. Of those, only were red with black, and this one reportedly stayed tucked away for pretty much its entire life.

The litany of the Datsun ZX's apparent crimes against humanity and the sports-car community at large have long been writ. The largest of these was that it went soft, losing the war on the waistline spread, and thus the purity of its sporting intent was tainted. Chasing the personal-luxury trend, settling on the lowest common denominator, moving out of the realm of pure sport and into the softer, more nebulous grand-touring market, selling out, getting fat, becoming domesticated, call it what you will: The ZX was no Z, and the hordes who remembered the Mr. K-led sporty days of Datsun were shocked when the comparatively squishy ZX was foisted upon them. T-tops, glittery faux-targa bars and comfort-tuned suspension were an affront to the spirit of the original Z. To be fair, Datsun was quite up front about the ZX's new mission as more of a GT car than the pure sports machine that the original Z was. But even though the body was all new, and far more aerodynamically efficient than the old one, it was hard to shake the notion of that shape as something other than the pure genre-busting sports car that won the hearts and minds of the budget-oriented '70s coupe market. Ask yourself which was more shocking at the dawn of the '80s: the ZX getting trounced by the new Mazda RX-7 in buff-book comparison testing, or it being compared with such grand touring stalwarts as the Pontiac Grand Prix in new-car tests? Even the arrival of the Turbo in had some enthusiasts wondering whether any real progress had been made over the past decade.

280zx

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Amid the plethora of classic European race cars and grand touring machines rolling through various auctions held during Monterey Car Week, a wedge-tastic Datsun ZX fetched nearly a quarter of a million dollars. View 18 images Nissan Z. If you look closely, you'll see that the dimensions of the original Z and the Porsche are about the same. Latest Reviews. When the back end of the ZX goes up, the rear wheels toe out and move more positive in camber. Previous Next. It was a rectangular opening bounded on the sides by the inner edges of the fenders and on top by the hood. Five daggy cars that are making a comeback in Sun 3 Mar 0. In this, Goertz is absolutely correct. Dick Roberts, head of the competition department, was very pleased indeed with the new body shape. The first not exported to the U. Would Goertz have done it that way? If you look at it, there really wasn't a hell of a lot you could leave off. CarAdvice 25 Years of Drive.

From the November Issue of Car and Driver.

Interior changes were minor but included new seat trim styling. The ZX's body was redesigned with aerodynamics in mind. Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive. The end result was a sports coupe at once 69mm shorter with a shorter wheelbase by mm , wider 33mm and with a height reduction of 7. By the end of its production life in , power had increased to kW but torque had been diminished, down to Nm. This is a significant change from a body-structure point of view, but it doesn't necessarily affect handling. And best of all, its extra length and weight in no way make it less fun to drive than the two-seater. A remake of the ZX for the s captured just a little of the former glory but by then the price was stratospheric. A total of of these cars were built - - in black and gold, and in the red and black. The T-5 was only available in and after which Nissan USA phased in the use of local automotive components - the Turbo had only been available with an automatic. Western Australia. In profile, the ZX brings to mind the Ferrari Daytona. Many parts, including the rear-axle and the power steering came from the Datsun luxury sedan. While the fastback of the old Z-car dropped away quite rapidly, the roof angle of the new car is shallower, and its high tail combined with a long, thrusting nose gives it an unmistakably Ferrari-like silhouette. Trending CarAdvice.