Foundation Stock

The first, slowest, and least luxurious Z-car is still engaging.

The past always grows more distant. On steel wheels, without even rubber on the bumpers, Jay Ataka’s Fairlady Z is stark, even by 1971 standards. “They’re not really bumpers,” Ataka says, pointing to how tightly their chromed stamped steel fits to the car’s corners. “They’re just the first thing that gets hit.” This a right-hand-drive, Japanese-domestic-market (JDM) Fairlady, the name under which Datsun and Nissan have sold sports cars in Japan since 1960. What’s unusual is that Ataka’s example is the barebones, no-frills essential version produced for the Z-car’s second year. And powering it is Nissan’s L20A 2.0-liter overhead-cam straight-six. Compared with the L24 2.4-liter straight-six used in the U.S.-market 240Z, the L20A has a smaller 78.0-mm bore and a shorter 69.7-mm stroke but is otherwise practically identical. There’s nothing surprising in this…

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Road & Track (Digital) - 1 Issue, August/September 2022

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