[Roadsters] Datsun-roadsters -- WSJ article

Wed Mar 18 13:10:37 MDT 2020

😊

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-vintage-datsun-that-quietly-turned-trendy-11584454124

MY RIDE<https://www.wsj.com/news/types/my-ride?mod=bigtop-breadcrumb>n vogue
By
A.J. Baime
March 17, 2020 10:08 am ET

o

o    Richard J. Davidson Jr., 55, a banker living in San Diego and a volunteer at the San Diego Automotive Museum, on his 1968 Datsun 2000, as told to A.J. Baime.

In the 1960s, the first Japanese car models were just becoming popular in America. Datsun made a two-seat convertible sports car called the Fairlady, which competed with the British and Italian roadsters like the MGB<https://www.wsj.com/articles/he-rewrote-his-will-to-get-his-classic-mg-back-11558443661?mod=article_inline> and the Fiat<https://quotes.wsj.com/FCAU> 124. Rumor has it that a Datsun executive had visited the U.S. and had seen “My Fair Lady” on Broadway, and that is how the car got its name.

These Datsun roadsters were among the first Japanese sports cars ever to come to the U.S. Only here, Datsun named them after their engine displacement (such as the 2000, for 2,000 cubic centimeters, rounded up from 1,982), rather than Fairlady.

________________________________
Photos: A First-Wave Japanese Import Shines On
A San Diego banker shows off his rare 1968 Datsun 2000, of the first sports cars from Japan to hit U.S. shores
['There is a great community around these cars and their owners,' Mr. Davidson says. 'There are websites where people pass along knowledge, and car shows that draw dozens of these vehicles.']
[Richard J. Davidson Jr. gave his 1968 Datsun 2000 a paint job and an engine rebuild, so it appears much like it did when it rolled off the assembly line in Japan over a half-century ago.]
[Around the time this car was built, Datsun was cementing its reputation not just in the showroom but on the racetrack. Hollywood star Paul Newman ultimately became a big-time Datsun racer.]
[Another view of the diminutive Datsun 2000, built in Japan to compete against the roadsters from Italy (Fiat, Alfa Romeo) and Britain (MG, Austin-Healey, Triumph).]
[Detail of the car's interior. The original upholstery is vinyl.]
[The fog lights on the front of the car aren’t original, Mr. Davidson says. But they do come in handy, given San Diego’s fog.]
[The car's back end. The license plate is from the 1960s. Mr. Davidson found it on eBay and had it assigned to his car.]
[A profile of the 1968 Datsun with San Diego in the background.]
[This 1,982-cc four-cylinder is original to the car, Mr. Davidson says.]

Richard J. Davidson Jr. gave his 1968 Datsun 2000 a paint job and an engine rebuild, so it appears much like it did when it rolled off the assembly line in Japan over a half-century ago.
LUIS GARCIA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
1 of 9
________________________________

Around 2005, I had a little bit of garage space and a little bit of money, and I decided to fill one with the other. I had seen a Datsun roadster from the ’60s and was surprised at how good-looking it was. I was also impressed that this lightweight car had an engine of about 135-horsepower and a five-speed transmission—pretty rare in the 1960s. I bought my car in 2006 locally from a private owner. It had an older, resprayed paint job, but the parts were all there and it was in decent shape. It is nimble on back roads and I started having fun with it right away.

In 2010, I had the car repainted to its original silver-gray. I knew of the color because you could see the original paint in various parts of the car. And five years later, I had the engine rebuilt. So the car is pretty much stock original.

At the time I bought mine, these cars went under the radar. Most from the 1960s did not survive, because people did not look at these cars as collectible, so when they got old, they disappeared. Only now, in part because they are so rare, are people starting to value these cars more. The prices are coming up. [According to Hagerty, the nation’s largest insurer of classic cars, a Datsun roadster from 1968 in excellent condition averages about $37,900.]

There is a great community around these cars and their owners. There are websites where people pass along knowledge, and car shows that draw dozens of these vehicles—including a couple big shows in California specifically for vintage Datsun roadsters.

Ultimately Datsun stopped making these two-seat convertibles in 1970, the same model year that the company launched the Z<https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-classic-datsun-z-gets-a-hollywood-ending-1528810187?mod=article_inline>, which quickly became a sensation. The Datsun roadsters paved the way for the Z, proving that the U.S. was indeed a viable market for Japanese sports cars.

Write to A.J. Baime at myride at wsj.com<mailto:myride at wsj.com>

MORE FROM MY RIDE
·         The Vintage Datsun That Quietly Turned Trendy<https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-vintage-datsun-that-quietly-turned-trendy-11584454124> March 17, 2020
·         Most People Forgot This Car, But He Never Did<https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-people-forgot-this-car-but-he-never-did-11583245380> March 3, 2020
·         A Singer and Her T-Bucket Make Beautiful Music Together<https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-singer-and-her-t-bucket-make-beautiful-music-together-11582640613> February 25, 2020
·         An Italian Concept Car That Broke All Tradition<https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-italian-concept-car-that-broke-all-tradition-11582043297> February 18, 2020
·         They Used to Need Permission to Drive This Classic British Car<https://www.wsj.com/articles/they-used-to-need-permission-to-drive-this-classic-british-car-11581431337> February 11, 2020

From: Alvin Gogineni <alvingogi at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 12:08 AM
To: dana nojima <noji-1 at pacbell.net>
Cc: datsun-roadsters at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Roadsters] Datsun-roadsters Digest, Vol 12, Issue 27

I just found out I might have access to WSJ through work...will update tomorrow!

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 11:18 AM dana nojima via Datsun-roadsters <datsun-roadsters at autox.team.net<mailto:datsun-roadsters at autox.team.net>> wrote:
Does anybody have a PDF of the WSJ article?

It’s nice to be “Trendy”

Dana

Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10

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Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 11:01 AM
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Subject: Datsun-roadsters Digest, Vol 12, Issue 27

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Today's Topics:

   1. Roadster in Wall Street Journal today (Alvin Gogineni)

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Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 09:04:57 -0700
From: Alvin Gogineni <alvingogi at gmail.com<mailto:alvingogi at gmail.com>>
To: datsun-roadsters <datsun-roadsters at autox.team.net<mailto:datsun-roadsters at autox.team.net>>
Subject: [Roadsters] Roadster in Wall Street Journal today
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Roadster in Wall Street Journal today:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-vintage-datsun-that-quietly-turned-trendy-11584454124<https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-vintage-datsun-that-quietly-turned-trendy-11584454124>

http://www.zcarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-17-at-9.02.17-AM.jpg<http://www.zcarblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-17-at-9.02.17-AM.jpg>
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