This 1971 Datsun 240Z isn’t quite a Series 1, but it is an early car with the preferred small bumpers. The seller notes it had been parked in a garage since 1986 before he got his hands on it, and he gave it a full tune up before deciding to put it up for sale. The bodywork appears to be in decent shape overall and the listing notes only minor bubbling for any rust concerns. Find it here on eBay with bids to $17,600 and no reserve.
The 240Z in its most desirable form has small vents just below the back glass. This being a later example has the rear hatch with no vents. The bigger deal, in my opinion, is having the smaller chrome bumpers. The larger bumpers really did a number on the classic Z-car shape, and while I hate to go on and on about the incorporation of the larger safety bumpers, you can see clearly here how detrimental it was to the original 240Z’s design. If this car was riding on factory wheels and hubcaps, it’d present even better in photos.
For an original interior, the Z car is in excellent shape. The bucket seats are quite tidy and of course, the big news is it has the preferred manual gearbox. A surprising amount of these came with automatic transmissions, so it’s not a given you’ll find three pedals inside. The bus-like wood rim steering wheel is another Z-car hallmark, so we love to see original details like those still in place. The same goes for the gear shift knob. The dashboard, like most of them, has some cracks showing.
In prepping the car for road use for the first time in many years, the seller cleaned the carburetors, cleaned the gas tank, installed new brakes and a master cylinder, and threw on some new wheels and tires. I, personally, would have gone with a different style of wheels, but to each their own. The seller confirms the Datsun retains its matching-numbers engine, and that while the odometer shows 3,000 miles, it more than likely is actually 103K miles. That’s no matter, as this 240Z is a driver through and through – and going for good money at the current bid price.
Seats look redone, the metal grommets in the seat back are missing.
Always liked these even tho not a sports car guy. Just above rust bubbles in pic looks like runs in paint. Also door jams don’t look as good as exterior. I say it’s been resprayed.
I worked at a Datsun dealership in the parts department circa 1972 / 76 cool old z car I liked the 510 2 door myself.Lol
It is not a wood rim steering wheel. . . It is plastic made to look like wood!!!!
I had a 1972 with the automatic. You could downshift to slow for curves. Even with the automatic, it was the most fun car to drive I’ve ever owned.
But Datsun valve stem seals tend to start leaking at 100K miles. I had to rebuild mine at 110K.
An old friend who was a Vietnam vet, Army Special Forces, had a hot pink one of these, with a 400 smallblock under the hood, automatic transmission, he called it ‘Pink Floyd’. That little car would scare the crap outta you! His girlfriend was driving it to the store one day and rolled it up a bank, instead of staying on the pavement, and effectively brought the reign of ‘Floyd’ to a bitter end. Thankfully she was ok, but the poor little car slowly rusted away in his back yard 😞 I’d like to do something similar with this lovely specimen, minus the pink paint job, of course…
In 1985 I purchased a 1972 240Z for my wife to drive. Had an automatic tranny and AC. She loved it and so did I when I got the chance to drive it. At speeds over a 100mph, the front end would start to rise up, was somewhat concerning. Perhaps I need a bigger air dam up front? Anyhow, with the automatic tranny, it had long legs. So did my wife, but that’s another story. Would have kept it, {the Z, not the wife}, but the rust was already having it’s way with the metal. Sold it and got a Fiat X1/9 for myself and gave the wife an Olds 98.
Datsun to Fiat? From ‘Glory Days’ to Dante’ Inferno, lol
I have a 1972 240Z, under 60k original absolutely love it.
My mother had a ’71, in the traditional orange color, acquired new, which she held onto for over a quarter-century. That car had been through quite a lot, to include disabling collisions; but she had it repaired and still it kept going. She had even mentioned a number of times over the years that she had been goaded into drag races with other cars, many with names prominent in drag-racing, and beat them all. It was that car that served as my training aid in learning how to operate a manual-shift transmission.
That is one of the very few Oriental cars that I hold great respect for; later models just really don’t have the same prominence as the original 240Z to me. On the other hand, sequels are usually not so good as the originals.
What’s up with EBay lately? How do you know when something sold or not?
It says that bidding ended at $20,837, so instead of just putting the word “Sold” on the page, they just leave it blank.
Usually, they do list it as sold, but the auction could have ended without meeting the reserve, so the owner held onto it.
Yeah, EBay has changed their visuals, for some reason. If something did not meet reserve, it always said “Reserve Not Met”.
Now, they just leave you guessing.
It says sold when I look at it.
@Paul, I’m curious, where exactly do you see the word “Sold”? I only see where it says Bidding Ended.
I liked these, but they were brand new when I was in high school, so well out of a high school kid’s budget. I don’t know if the twin carbs were SU’s, Stromberg’s, or Mikuni copies of an SU/Stromberg downdraft carb, but synchronizing the carbs was always an issue, as it took a suitable vacuum gage and some skill to set them up properly. The straight six was a honey of a motor, but I wish it had a cross-flow head instead of the head that it came with. Later versions ditched the straight six for a V6, which was a step back, IMHO, and of course I always wished for a DOHC 24-valve head to replace the SOHC 12-valve head Nissan started with.
Hitachi made those SU copies that Nissan used back then. They were still on the almost orphan Z (74 260Z) that I had back then and I always wanted the Mikuni or Weber conversion but alas, funding was non-existent back then. An oddity I had to learn about with those Hitachi/SU’s is that the black knob on top was a small dipstick and you had to keep a slight bit of, I think, transmission fluid in them for the carb to function correctly.
that’s the damper for the piston. Like everything in classic British cars, there are passionate wars on what fluid to put in there. Marvel Mystery oil, 30W, same oil you use in the engine. Auto-transmission fluid, fork oil. It goes on and on. It’s there to slow the rising of the piston on acceleration, so that the mixture doesn’t get too lean.
Thank you for the answer to my carb question! They look like classic SU’s or Stromberg’s, and Mikuni’s were popular on Japanese motorcycles, but I had forgotten about Hitachi carbs. Thank you for the memory refresh!
Hitachi was known for making carburetors for Nissans for years,before Nissan switched to fuel injection. My father had a brand new at the time 1984 Nissan Pulsar NX coupe 5-speed that was equipped. The problem was that he didn’t drive it enough and those carburetors could be problematic if the car sat for too long. The Pulsar sadly went to the boneyard at 72,000 miles when the engine committed seppuku(hole in the engine block-engine threw a rod).
Bought a ’72 coming back from Southeast Asia but never got it off the boat because of a dock strike. Still have a lot of time with them including restoration for customers and competing against them at autocross and race track events. Great cars, but don’t agree on the factory wheels as they are ugly. Ordered alloy wheels for mine before delivery time but had to sell them to another Z driver. Like these wheels but with silver grey spokes.
IMHO, the Minilites or Panasports are the best looking wheels on an early Z.
Libres are my favorite wheels. Tried to find some for my MGB. But got Comics.
I bought my brother’s ’71 240Z in the late 1970’s, blue with a 4 speed. Wasn’t all that great taking off, but would blister through the gears.
It was literally worn out when I sold it for $1500.
I had a ’72 manual loved it especially when I put a set of Pirellis on. But I was driving to work when I woke up as they pulled me out of the wreck. An 85 yo in a Monte Carlo took a left into me. He killed my car but not me.
You’re a lucky man. An 85 yr old in a Delta 88 would have killed you :)
From a computer with Firefox, it sales sold in the corner of the main picture. On the phone app it says sold in green letters above 1971
Thanks Paul. That’s what used to happen to me on a computer with Chrome – SOLD in the lower right corner of the picture. Not sure what happened to Chrome – could just be my system.
I did find another spots that shows that it sold – click on Bid History and at the top it shows “Winning Bid”.
I had to go look. Chrome is rendering the picture section of the web page differently from firefox. I had to go look at Edge. It displays the same as Chrome. So who knows what is right. A bit madding that a standard is anything but.