James Pumphrey Unravels the Untold Series of Events That Birthed the Datsun 240Z

Like all crazy stories, the Datsun 240 Z story begins in New York in 1960. According to Pumphrey, the new Nissan Z owes its existence to the crossing of paths of two Nissan visionaries, Yutaka Katayama and Yoshihiko Matsuo.

Mr. Katayama was moving to New York to establish a Nissan U.S office. His transfer to the U.S, based on Pumphrey's story, was a corporate move to kill his wild ideas and also shut him up. Little did they know that his move to the U.S would lead to a series of events, giving rise to what we now know as the Datsun 240Z.

Back in Japan, another budding designer’s destiny was slowly brewing. 25-year-old Yoshihiko Matsuo was facing a demotion, working on miniature cars for an amusement park after his blunt remarks about a recently released Nissan sedan designed by Pininfarina.

Later, the sedan fails to take off, and the top executives at Nissan reconsider Matsuo’s comments, assigning him a new project, a redesign of the failed Bluebird. Matsuo nails the project, giving rise to one of the world's first sport sedans, the Bluebird SSS.

As a result of his success with the Nissan Bluebird SSS, Matsuo levels up to the Nissan Sports Car Design Division, and as destiny would have it, meets Mr. Katayama. It’s essential to note that without this meeting, there would be no Nissan conspiracy to begin with.

Matsuo and Katayama shared a dream. They both wanted to create something new and groundbreaking that would put Japan on the map.

Matsuo’s first assignment was to begin the design process of the now-aging Datsun 1600 Roadster. Matsuo and Mr. Katayama had different plans on the side, they were secretly developing what would be the Datsun 240Z.

So, how exactly did Matsuo and Katayama manage to get top Nissan executives to accept the 240 Z? Well, Nissan’s policy ensured their teams worked on several prototypes simultaneously for the top bosses to choose. Matsuo and Katayama's secret project was “Plan A” and the conservative designs that the bosses wanted “Plan B .”

At this point, Mr. Katayama is the President of Nissan U.S, and to make sure his project goes through, assigns more designers to the Datsun 240Z project. With the green light from Mr. Katayama, Matsuo and his assistant Akio Yoshida focused their time on refining the Nissan 240Z.

After Matsuo completes the rad design, Katayama is so impressed he clues in Nissan’s first Design Department Manager, Taichi Hora, who's also stoked by the design and assembles a team for engineering development without running it in with the corporate higher-ups.

But the Datsun 240Z secret project didn’t just sail smoothly. Matsuo had to make several painstaking changes that included raising the roofline and widening the body.

The most important part of this conspiracy happened in 1967, in a meeting with all Nissan executives. This is the meeting that decided which prototype would replace the Datsun 1600. According to Pumphrey, Taichi Hora secretly arranged the prototypes to make the 240Z look like the obvious choice.

Fortunately, Nissan’s president at that time Takasugi Kamimata loves the 240Z, setting the production of the sports car revolution into motion. Nissan unveiled the Datsun 240Z in New York City on October 22nd, 1969, and the world loved it.

The Datsun 240Z went to be the best-selling sports car with more than 100,000 sales in the first three years. The U.S Datsun 240 Z came with a 2.4-liter inline-six-cylinder engine making 151 hp. In August 1971, three 240Z participated in the rugged East African Safari Rally winning first, and second place.

At the end of production of the first generation in 1978, more than half a million 240 Z’s sold, with the U.S taking a huge chunk of the sales.