One to Buy: 1 of 37 Vintage Z 1250km 1970 Nissan 240Z
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Although the Toyota 2000 GT had broken new ground for a Japanese manufacturer, from a commercial it was an absolute flop with barely 350 units manufactured during a little over three-and-a-half years in production against expectations of 1000 sales per month!
In many respects, the car Toyota should have built arrived twelve months before the 2000 GT was killed off: the Nissan S30 Fairlady / Datsun 240Z.
Remarkably, somewhere around 200,000 examples of the S30 Fairlady / 240Z were built between 1969 and ‘73 as the handsomely-styled GT became an icon of the era. Prior to its arrival, Japanese auto makers had been best known for bland eco-boxes, but the Z car’s arrival led to a rapid re-assessment of what could be expected from Far Eastern manufacturers.
To commemorate 26 years since production of the original Z car had ended, in 1996 Nissan North America instigated a programme that it hoped would see around 200 240Zs completely dis-assembled and restored to as-new condition.
Dubbed Vintage Z, each vehicle would get a subtly uprated engine and some other minor tweaks, but otherwise the specification remained true to the original. Completed cars would be sold as new vehicles through Nissan dealerships compete with a twelve month / 12,000 mile warranty.
Unfortunately, this time round demand for such a premium priced 240Z was subdued and just 37 examples of the Vintage Z were produced, two of which were retained by Nissan. Inevitably, this makes finding a Vintage Z to buy a rare proposition, however, currently on offer at the Shinoda Automobile showroom in Tokyo is one of the 35 customer cars.
Having covered just 1250km since it underwent the Vintage Z treatment, this remarkable 240Z is probably the best of its type to exist.
