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A Reading of Datsun
History for a Wintry Day
By Daniel Banks
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Well, here we are in late
January (article originally written during winter 2002 for ZCCNV,
updated) finally seeing some snow in Northern Virginia. Many of us have
put our Z’s up in the garage. Thoughts arise of settling into the old
easy chair with a cup of hot cocoa as the snow flies outside and
reading about Z cars. Certainly a wealth of good books devoted to the Z
exists. Most authors provide a bit of history on Datsun and its parent
company, Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. Those interested in Datsun history
wishing to remain centered on the Z car, to learn a bit of the ZCCA’s
history, and especially the story of Mr. K., can find it in the ZCCA’s
1998 publication: “Mr. K. A Man Who Realized a Dream in America.”
If the Z.C.C.A. book piques your curiosity, as it did mine, one can
enjoy a truly epic century-long romp through the auto industry that
reads like a novel. This book, entitled “The Reckoning,” William Morrow
and Sons, by Pulitzer Prize winning author David Halberstam,
simultaneously tracks Ford and Nissan from their beginnings to its 1986
date of publication. Finally, and also available in the used book
markets, is the topic of my article today: John Bell Rae’s 1982 book
“NISSAN/DATSUN; A History of Nissan Motor Corporation in the U.S.A.,
1960 – 1980” McGraw Hill 1982. For those interested in a well written,
United States-centered account of Datsun and its parent Nissan, Rae’s
book presents a definitive history.
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At the time
he researched and wrote NISSAN/DATSUN, John Rae was considered one of
our preeminent automotive historians. Nissan gave Rae wide access
during the book’s preparation. The writing of it represented a unique
opportunity for an academic historian to record what had been the
outstanding first two decades of a foreign company making few if any
mistakes in America. Mr. K himself figures prominently among 33 Nissan
Motor Corporation in the USA (NMC-USA) employees interviewed by Rae for
the book. More than several enlightening quotes from Mr. K. are found
throughout revealing what it took to build Datsun’s presence in America
from scratch. Couple such insight with a cover jacket that includes the
right car, namely a silver 280ZX Turbo, and Rae’s account becomes a
“must read” for Z enthusiasts wishing to learn a bit about the greater
automotive industry. Looking back from late 2004, Rae’s book is
relevant in understanding the roots of Nissan’s present high standing.
So… an especially nice way to spend a few snowy afternoons during the
remainder of this winter.
There is something special
to share with those determined to find a copy of Rae’s book. As
mentioned, NMC-USA supported Rae’s efforts to historically document
their first 20 years in America and were pleased with the result. A
small number of these books can still be found with a special piece of
vintage NMC-USA corporate memorabilia inside. These copies contain a
letter dated November 1981 from the Office of the President, NMC-USA.
Above the blue ink autopen signature of then NMC-USA President Tetsuo
Arakawa appear a few paragraphs where Arakawa presents these copies to
his fellow employees. The authentic letterhead has an embossed Datsun
logo. I have several of these presentation books with the Arakawa
letter in my personal collection. I purchased my second copy of
NISSAN/DATSUN because it was advertised having John Rae’s autograph and
the Arakawa letter. When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find
that the book actually contains inscriptions of importance beyond
either and why that is so appears a bit later in this article.
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Like
any good work of history, one is unexpectedly delighted by interesting
tidbits. For
instance, we are all familiar with what a “window sticker” is. How many
recall, as Rae details, that window stickers were originally called
“Monroney” labels? In the introduction of his book, Rae tracks one of
the 2.3 million cars Nissan would build in 1976. This one was brought
to America from Nissan’s Oppama Plant, itself built in 1962 in
Yokosuka. It was a cocoa brown Datsun 210 Hatchback, serial number
HLB210-167304, and its final destination was Arapahoe Datsun in
Littleton, Colorado. One of the final steps after Arapahoe accepted the
car was when the Vehicle Distributor for the Denver Region of NMC-USA
computer printed the window sticker, then called a “Monroney Label” on
account of United States Senator from Oklahoma “Mike” Monroney. It was
Senator Monroney who sponsored the Automotive Information Disclosure
Act of 1958. Monroney’s bill mandated that a list price appear on the
vehicle. HLB210-167304 had the significance of being the 2 millionth
Datsun vehicle sold in the U. S., to the best of Rae’s ability to
determine that. Rae maintains that Datsun’s accomplishment from a
standing start to selling 2 million vehicles in the U. S. in a mere 17
years represents an unprecedented story in automotive history.
Moving back in time, Rae carefully details major events of the late
1950s in Datsun history leading to their decision to export to America.
Of course the 1958 Mobilgas 10,000-mile Australian Trial where Mr. K,
then Nissan’s Advertising Manager, led a pair of one-liter Datsun
sedans to victory, figures prominently. And in 1958 there were also the
trial runs at American car shows. Two Datsun “L-210s,” and a truck, all
called “Datsun 1000s” were shown at The Imported Motor Car Show in Los
Angeles during early 1958. One of the cars appeared again at the Texas
State Fair Automobile Show in Dallas, October 1958, and again in
November 1958 at the Los Angeles International Auto Show.
All this exposure was to pique the interest of automotive media in
Datsun, and the result was very positive. The October 1958 issue of
Motor Trend did a fine job of reviewing the Datsun 1000, at the time
the favorite taxi in Japan. Later in the year the December 1958 issue
of Road and Track ran a 2-page story carefully analyzing the Datsun
1000. Rae writes about this coverage in his book. It is probable that
these 1958 issues of Motor Trend and Road and Track magazine represent
the first ever U.S. auto media coverage of a specific Datsun vehicle
destined for import to the United States. Indeed, Datsun sold 83 of
these cars in America during 1958. Motor Trend observed that the
apparently indestructible Datsun 1000 could be counted on to run
mountain roads found outside the big cities in Japan all day. They
wrote: “The Datsun was built to survive this tooth-jarring,
spring-breaking travel that reduces an ordinary car to shambles in six
months.” Road and Track also found much to like in the Datsun 1000, a
car they saw clearly based on Datsun’s successful 1950s tie-ups with
British Austin. However, they did offer criticism. They found the car
had an unexpectedly smooth steering-post mounted shift lever, yet it
was rigged in a pattern exactly opposite from standard for America. And
the emergency brake lever was located to the left of the driver’s seat,
fouling egress. Mr. K, arriving in 1960, would have found a copy of the
December 1958 Road and Track. If he also found such faults lingering,
one can almost see him translating the complaints into Japanese and
sending it back home to Japan with a big note saying: “Correct These
Shortcomings Right Now!” Promoting hundreds of little corrections and
improvements was to become much the persona of Mr. K and those who
built Datsun in America with him. They worked hard and tried to make
few mistakes.
Back to 1958, what about the Australians? Well, both the August 1958
and the October 1958 issues of Wheels, one of Australia’s preeminent
automobile magazines, covered the Datsun 1000. They traveled to Japan
for the August edition and photographed the Datsun 1000s slated for the
upcoming MobilGas Australian 10,000-mile endurance run. Of the
estimated 12,000 taxis in Tokyo fully half were Datsun 1000s. In the
October 1958 issue of Wheels, Mr. K.’s Datsun 1000s have made their
journey to Australia. Wheels magazine was allowed to test-drive Mr.
K.’s cars before the big race. The Datsun 1000 received rave reviews
from these Australians, who clearly loved the cars. In short, the
flurry of articles on the 1958 Datsun 1000 made this Datsun car
historically significant as originating a long history of media
coverage.
Once Datsun got its start, Rae’s book also details some of the ways
entrepreneurial Americans first hired by Datsun contributed to the
effort of selling them in America. One such man was William Cushing,
who has an interesting story. Remembering that NMC-USA was incorporated
on September 28, 1960, Cushing was one of the first hired in 1961 by
Datsun’s Western Sales Manager Ray Hoen to be Sales Manager of the San
Francisco Region. According to Rae, all Hoen’s new hires were
experienced in automobiles and sales. They were given some autonomy to
figure out what worked best in their effort to find reliable dealers
for the new Datsuns. Some Sales Managers went to American Big Three
dealers to see if they would add the Datsun line. Rae records that
Cushing refused to do that. He did not want to dilute the Datsun brand
within the large number of offerings found at a Ford or General Motors
dealer. Instead, Cushing chose Volvo dealers. Volvo had no pickup truck
whatsoever, and Datsun could provide that. Volvo sedans were higher
priced so the less expensive Datsun seemed a good fit. This is all Rae
states about William Cushing but I do know he hung in there with Datsun
for the next 20 years. My special copy of NISSAN/DATSUN contains two
inscriptions. The first reads: “To Bill Cushing with thanks for his
help. John Rae. 12/4/81.” A second inscription appears below that:
“Bill, Many thanks for your loyalty and support over the years. Robert
O. Link.” At the time Robert Link had risen to Senior Vice President of
NMC-USA. My special thanks to Fred Jordan, the General Manager of Ray
Lemke’s first Datsun dealership, for gaining Mr. Link’s signature in
2003!
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Above we see the Title
Page with the signatures of author John Bell Rae and Senior Vice
President of NMC-USA Robert O. Link. This copy was originally given to
William Cushing and has been dated 12/4/1981.
Mr. K signed the rare copy
of Rae’s NISSAN/DATSUN on 6/15/2002 at Z.C.C.A. Chairman “Mad Mike’s”
Barbecue in Dallas, Texas just before the 15th Annual Z.C.C.A.
Convention in San Antonio!
Robert
O. Link signed his photograph at his home in San Diego on November 11,
2003, over 20 years after its original presentation to Cushing.
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As the 1960s progressed Rae
details how the American Big Three manufacturers again and again
dismissed the threat of foreign competition. General Motors stated the
answer to cheap transportation or a good second car was to buy a used
GM. There was chronic underestimation of demand for economical,
well-built smaller cars. Time and again, Rae details how initial denial
yielded to promotion of overseas subsidiaries as the Big Three pushed
their “captive” European makes in the American market. Always behind
the curve, cars such as Ford’s Falcon, General Motor’s Corvair, and
Chrysler’s Plymouth Valiant would eventually appear. Rae observed that
these offerings tended to quickly grow in size and option out of the
small economy car class. Perhaps an ultimate example of this appears in
an April 1968 Motor Trend story billed as a review of developments in
performance-oriented compact cars. What really attracted American
buyers were “compact” cars like the Chevy II Nova SS, Dodge Dart GTS,
Ford Falcon Futura, and Rambler American Rogue. These “compact” cars,
admittedly performance leaders, all came with V-8 engines ranging from
200 to 325 horsepower. These beasts were fun, and remain valuable
collector cars today. At the time, however, Mr. K. steadfastly observed
that Americans would simply never be able to build good economical
small cars.
Another interesting aspect of Rae’s book is his chronicle of how
NMC-USA dealt with the 1960s and 1970s era of safety and emissions
standards. Ralph Nader’s 1965 “Unsafe At Any Speed” skewered GM’s
earlier Corvairs. The ubiquitous VW Beetle was attracting bad press
because of safety claims against its front mounted fuel tank, solid
steering shaft, rigid transaxle shafts that were prone to jacking, and
flat plate in-your-face windshield. Early 60’s Beetles were singularly
ill suited to protect occupants as road speeds increased on
Interstates, though an accusation they were extraordinarily worse than
other same-year equivalent cars may be difficult to support. Ralph
Nader’s Center for Auto Safety published a widely read 200-page
pamphlet in 1971 entitled: “The Volkswagen: An Assessment of
Distinctive Hazards.” This rhetorically powerful, yet flawed document
had a major impact on public awareness of safety issues. Most of
Nader’s claims against the Beetle and the VW Microbus rested on a
manipulative and partial presentation of results from several prominent
research institutes. See for instance John Tomerlin’s article “Ralph
Nader vs. Volkswagen” appearing on pages 25 through 33 of the April
1972 issue of Road and Track for instructive debunking. In his book,
Rae details how the National Highway Transportation and Safety
Administration enacted early laws requiring padded and recessed
instrument panels, impact absorbing, collapsible steering columns,
4-way flashers, dual brake systems, and uniform tire specifications.
During the period 1969 through 1972 Nissan spent $8 million on
Experimental Safety Vehicles and another $60.8 million on safety
research and development. Nissan employed 2000 engineers devoted to
safety issues alone, in part because Japan adopted American legal
safety standards at the time. Nissan’s results were so good, according
to Rae, that even Ralph Nader commended NMC-USA.
Space to further review Rae’s book being at a premium, let’s finish by
noting that Chapter 14, “RACING, RALLIES, AND SPORTS CARS” contains a
wealth of information, especially on the Z car from its introduction
through 1980. I think we would enjoy reading here, in its entirety, the
statement then NMC-USA President Yutaka Katayama made upon the release
of the brand new 240Z for the American market. Rae includes Mr. K’s
statement as it originally appeared on page 3 of the October-November
1969 issue of Datsun News. From your perspective reading these lines
almost 35 years later, see if you do not agree on Mr. K.’s prescience
at what the Z car was really destined to become. Here is the quote in
its entirety from Mr. K that appears on page 262 and 263 of Rae’s book:
“With the introduction of
the Datsun 240-Z, Nissan will have enjoyed the accomplishment of
covering the American market from the Pickup to the Personal Sports Car.
We are proud to have been able to cover all purposes of motor car use,
and for our Datsun dealer network, the new 240-Z affords an opportunity
to create an exciting new image.
240-Z represents the imaginative spirit of Nissan, and was designed to
please a demanding taste that is strictly American. It meets all the
requirements of sports minded drivers, fulfilling their desire for
superb styling, power, and safety and providing them with the most
thrilling and enjoyable ride available in any car.
Our new product reflects the rapid advancement of our company, and its
development will be unique in automobile history. We have studied the
memorable artistry of European coachmakers and engine builders and
combined our knowledge with Japanese craftsmanship. The result is an
exotic, high performance car exclusively for America. It will be the
beginning of a new romance for true car lovers who believe that
motoring is more than just a commute.
We adopt this new 240-Z as an aggressive innovation in automobile
building and take pride in having been totally responsible for its
concept.
Nissan offers this spirited car with affection – its heart is Japan and
its soul is America.”
Soon after its 1970
introduction, and with the 1958 automobile magazines originating
coverage of the Datsun automobile only 12 years earlier, the Datsun
240-Z became a media favorite.
Road and Track magazine, in 1971, named the Datsun 240Z one of the 10
Best Cars In The World, and the Best Sports/GT, $3500 - $4000. The
following paragraph appears by a photo of the Datsun 240Z on page 35 of
the August 1971 issue of Road and Track:
“The DATSUN 240Z is such a
remarkable car relative to its price that it has become nearly
mythical. Yes, it really is a handsome, exciting, 2-seater GT coupe
with a single-overhead-cam 6-cyl engine of 150 horsepower, a nice
4-speed gearbox, independent suspension all around, good finish, good
brakes, an impressive list of standard equipment and a list price of
under $3600. We are aware it is not a perfect car. All things
considered, with its fine combination of performance, comfort and
sportiness it must be considered one of the most significant
automobiles in the history of sports motoring.”
When Rae’s book went to
print in 1981 over 500,000 Z cars had been built, shipped, and sold in
America. As Rae noted, a 1976 Datsun B-210 became the 2 millionth
vehicle sold in the United States over a 17-year period that began from
a standing start in 1960. Here is another 17-year statistic Nissan can
be proud of. On October 30, 1980 Nissan announced that they would build
their first American factory in Smyrna, Tennessee as a sister to their
Zama plant in Japan. Groundbreaking took place on February 3, 1981, and
the first vehicle, a compact pick up truck, rolled off the line at
Smyrna on June 16, 1983. Smyrna was formally dedicated on October 21,
1983. 17 years later, on November 27, 2000, a yellow 2001 Nissan
SuperCharged Frontier 4X4 Crew Cab rolled off the line at Smyrna. This
Crew Cab was the 5 millionth vehicle Smyrna had manufactured in the
United States. In 2003 Nissan’s 2.6 million square foot plant in
Canton, Mississippi opened and at that time the combined United States’
capacity of Smyrna, Nissan’s Decherd, Tennessee engine plant, and the
Canton, Mississippi plant will be 1,000,000 vehicles per year.
Again, I will have copies of these classic 1958 magazine articles from
the very start of Datsun in America for everyone at our February (2002)
ZCCNV meeting so come on out and attend!
Finally, my Z saw its shadow the same day as some rodent in
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania named “Phil.” (Those creatures bite, you
know…) My interpretation, however, is that springtime Z car driving
weather is due to arrive any day now. Let the groundhog wait another 6
weeks… I ain’t!
Dan Banks can be reached at the following email address. Please share
your comments!
dlbanks54@comcast.net
Dan Banks
Z.C.C.A. Historian
Z Car Club of Northern Virginia, Secretary
1990 300ZX Twin Turbo, Z.C.C.A. Gold Medallion #15
1971 240Z HLS30-22151 (2/71)
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