Originally posted by lesmore49 Yesterday...as I was going to the bakery...I saw a '60's Datsun Fairlady sportscar driven on the street. Unfortunately we were going in opposite directions, as I would of liked to talk to him about this, now rare car up here.
Your first picture looks like the car I saw on the street yesterday, sans all the racing mods and race car paint. Think the car may have also been known as the Datsun 1600 / 2000 .
To me the Fairlady was the first Japanese, British style sportscar, then of course came the 240Z, which I was also very impressed with. The engine in the early 240 reminded me of a larger Brit sportscar...with it's 2.4 liter displacement, inline...overhead cam... engine and the twin carbs.
The first one is a Sports 2000, which came with a 2 liter OHC engine, and twin SU carbs. IN race trim it set the pace for its class.
The SP310/SPL310 (L for left hand drive) Fairlady/Sports 1500 was introduced in 1963, with a 1.5 liter pushrod engine, the first 300 having only one SU carb, the twin SU setup continuing thereafter.
The SP311/SPL311 Fairlady/Sports 1600 came in 1965, with a 1.6 liter pushrod engine, again with twin SU carbs.
Introduced in 1967, and produced through the end of the Fairlady/Sports 2000 run, the SR311/SRL311 was the first with a SOHC engine, iron block, aluminum head, twin SU carburetors. A performance option was available, Mikuni/Solex carburetors, different cam grind, gauges and a special license plate trim.
In 1968 emissions systems reduced power output slightly. The body and other items were revised slightly.
The cars were campaigned by John Morton, Bob Sharp and others. The sticker price was lowest in its class, but it won its class in C Production (Mikuni-Solex carburetors) and D-Production (Hitachi-SU carburetors), in SCCA racing on a consistent basis even years after production ended.
I have raced against similarly prepared cars with my Z, and they give it a good battle.