Nissan Heritage Center

Nissan Heritage Center Revs on the road

It’s a unexceptional-looking building next to a unexceptional-looking factory near Yokohama, Japan. Yet inside is an enormous collection of various Datsuns and Nissans, the automaker’s history carefully lined up in rows.

The building is hidden in a warehouse inside the Nissan Zama factory.

First car inside the door is the diminutive Datsun 12, a car that looks like it would fit in the bed of a modern Nissan Titan pickup. At the far side of the display are race cars–one called the “Monster Bird”–with up to 800 horsepower and the winner’s laurels at such races as the 24 Hours of Daytona.

This a 1933 Datsun 12, the first of the automaker’s products, debuted in October that year. The DAT reflects the first letters of the last names of the founders. Originally the name was DATSON, but SON sounds like the Japanese word for “loss,” so the name was changed to DATSUN. This car, which is not unlike the Austin 7, had a 12-horepower, 748-cc four.

We’ve put together a “stroll” though the collection, not surprisingly concentrating on the sports and race cars.

Couldn’t resist this one, a 1950 Datsun F4146 fire truck with a 722-cc engine.

We all know the Z car from its first launch as it became a big part of the U.S. sports car scene. This happens to be one we didn’t get, a Z432 with the Skyline twin-cam engine.

Start of the Datsun sports car legacy, the Fairlady SPL213. Just 217 were assembled in 1961 and 1962. The 1189-cc engine had 60 horsepower and 67 lb-ft of torque. And, yes, the name comes from the musical “My Fair Lady,” which had impressed Katsuji Kawamata, the president of Nissan Motors. U.S. execs knew better than to use that name in the States and changed it to Datsun 1600.

And, thankfully, another Z car never used in the U.S., the 240-G version used by the Kanagawa Prefecture Highway Police. Wouldn’t that have been a sight in our rearview mirror?

A Nissan it would have been nice to own in the U.S., the 1991 Figaro. The automaker assembled 20,000 Figaros, which had a 987-cc four and a 3-speed automatic transmission.

A very pretty Nissan we never got, the Silvia. Count Albrecht Goertz was involved in the styling and only 554 were built, much of that by hand.

A car Nissan should have built. While Honda was developing the NSX to take on struggling Ferrari and Porsche in the mid-1980s, Nissan was working on the MID4…mid-engine with 4-wheel drive. They even got to a second-generation version, seen here, the MID4 II with 330 horsepower and 4-wheel steering. Mission scrubbed…darn shame.

Left: Nissan MID4 Right: Honda/Acura NSX

There’s nothing fancy about the Nissan Heritage Center, but the rows of cars chronicle the automaker’s history and are detailed on an extensive website.

Nissan Heritage Website

An almost CanAm car, the 1968 Nissan R381 was powered by a 5460-cc Chevrolet V-8 with a Hewland gearbox. Built for the Japan Grand Prix, it was nicknamed the “Monster Bird.” That rear wing is actually two wings, the left and right sides being individually adjustable.

1969 Brussels Motor Show

Before it became part of Nissan, Prince was into racing and determined to beat Porsche. It developed the R380I for the Japan Grand Prix and did the trick in 1966, beating Porsche 906s.

This R380 was built by Prince before its merger with Nissan. The car’s claim to fame was setting 7 international speed records. In the ultimate form–now as the Nissan R380A-III–the car had a 250-horsepower GR8 inline twin-cam six.

Nissan rallied the Fairlady Z with success, this car winning the 1971 Safari Rally driven by E. Hermann / H. Schuller.

At first Nissan bought chassis for its Group C racers, but then created its own for the R91CP. The reward? This car won the 1992 24 Hours of Daytona driven by Masahiro Hasemi, K. Hoshino, and Toshio Suzuki, a first for an all-Japanese team.

To enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997 and 1998 in GT1, Nissan had to build a road car on which its race car could be based. So it created the mid-engine R390 with a twin turbo 3.5-liter V-8. Nissan built 2 road cars and eight race cars. This is one of the two street versions, the other is in private hands.

Looking like a machine straight out of Gran Turismo is the 1998 Skyline GT-R BCNR33. This Pennzoil NISMO GT-R had a turbocharged twin-cam inline-6 with 500 horsepower.

For 2002, Nissan raced the BNR34 version of the Skyline GT-R in the Japan GT Championship.

Appreciate

John Lamm

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