CarBrandLogos archive · Datsun · 1959

DatsunFairlady / Datsun Sports

Nissan's first real sports cars, named after a Broadway musical.

Photo: Andrew90 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Datsun history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Datsun Fairlady / Datsun Sports, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The name came from Katsuji Kawamata, Nissan's president, who had seen My Fair Lady on Broadway and decided the company's open two-seater should carry the association. Export markets got plainer treatment: they were sold simply as Datsun Sports, with the engine capacity as the model number.

SPL212

Design and engineering

The line began in 1959 with a modest roadster of ladder-frame construction and rear-wheel drive, designed under Yuichi Ōta and built initially at Yokohama before moving to Nissan Shatai in Hiratsuka. It matured through the SP310 and SP311 into the SR311 of 1967 — a two-litre, five-speed, twin-Solex car that was faster than the MGB it was priced against and cheaper than the Triumph and Alfa alternatives.

Datsun S211 001 · Tennen-Gas · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

Around forty thousand were built to April 1970, most of them going to the United States, where the cars raced successfully in SCCA production classes and gave Datsun dealers something to put in the window. That groundwork mattered more than the sales figures: when the 240Z arrived, American buyers already knew what a Datsun sports car was.

Datsun S211 002 · Tennen-Gas · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Units built

40,000

Designer

Yuichi Ōta

Body

2-door Roadster

Technical specification

The Fairlady / Datsun Sports, in detail.

Production: 1959–April 1970; circa 40,000 produced
Class: Sports car
Body style: 2-door Roadster
Layout: FR layout
Designer: Yuichi Ōta
Assembly: Yokohama Plant, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Japan (Tonouchi Industrial: 1958–1960); Hiratsuka, Kanagawa (Nissan Shatai Plant: 1960–1970)
Manufacturer: Nissan