Purpose
Malpass' 280Z Garage: Dedictated to the restoration and preservation of the Datsun Z line of sports cars. While it was a ground-breaking automotive design in its day; today the Datsun Z is often unrecognized.

History
in 1963, Nissan hired Albrecht Goertz—a well known designer with credits that include the BMW 507, the Porche 911, and 53 Studebaker.


BMW 507

Goertz was assigned to work on a sports-coupe based on the Datsun Fairlady 1600 and Silvia 1600. Although, the Silvia 1600 was shown at the 1965 New York Auto Show, and was not well received in the US.


Datsun Silvia 1600

The Mr. K Era
Yutaka Katayama, a.k.a. "Mr. K," was Datsun's the North American Marketing Manager in the mid-1960s. Mr. K was greatly influenced by US culture. Based on the lack-luster US interest in the Silvia, Mr. K put Goertz to work designing a sport car targeted for American drivers.

Early engineering problems with the Yamaha power plant led to the project being shelved. Goertz left Nissan as a result.

It is interesting to note that Goertz took his design ideas to Toyota and produced the 1966 Toyota 2000GT.


Toyota's '65 GT at Speed © Toyota

...Looks a little like a Z, huh? Back at Datsun, Katayama revived the Z project and finalized the design as we know it today.


Dave Malpass' 1975 280Z