Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works, Tokyo, Japan 1914 - 1918

Kwaishinsha Motorcar Co., Tokyo, Japan 1918 - 1925

DAT Motorcar Co., Tokyo, Japan 1925 - 1926

DAT Automobile Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan 1926 - 1932

Jidosha Seizo Co. Ltd., Yokohama, Japan 1933 - 1934

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Yokohama, Japan 1934 - 1944

Nissan Heavy Industries Corp., Yokohama, Japan 1947 - 1949

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Yokohama, Japan 1949 - 1983

Prior to 1914 there were no Japanese motor manufacturers. When three entrepreneurs financed Masujiro Hashimoto, who had served his apprenticeship in America, to build a car it was named after their initials. Messers Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi therefore became the DAT.

Fortuitously Dat was also Japanese for "hare" although with a top speed of only 25mph this must have been a matter for some hilarity.

Their first car was a 4-cylinder sidvalve engined car of conventional design which by 1915 had become the Model 31 with a 2-litre engine. The Model 41 of 1916 had a 2.3-litre side valve engine delivering a modest 20bhp through a three speed gearbox and a top speed of 25mph. This model remained in limited production up to 1926 by which time it must have been seriously outdated.

The only other Japanese motor manufacturer at this time was the Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo Company of Osaka which made the 3-wheeled Gorham and the Lila. In 1926 they merged with DAT and all car production moved to Osaka. The Lila 10hp 4-cylinder car continued to be made instead of the DAT. The new company did however make 2-ton trucks for the Japanese army.

In 1932 the DAT company was acquired by Tobata Imono, a large Japanese industrial group, whose president, Moshisuke Ayukawa saw an opportunity to make a small car more suitable for the narrow Japanese roads than the imported American cars.

A very small 495cc engined car was developed with an output of 10bhp and a top speed of 35mph. It was initially called the Datson, as the son of DAT, but this was changed to Datsun as "son" in Japanese means "loss". The first years production was only 150 cars but rose to over 6,000 by 1936.

This little car was very similar in concept to the Austin 7 and there has always been conjecture as to whether there was any connection between the two. A Datsun was imported into the UK by Herbert Austin, who would have been very interested to make sure that his patents were not being infringed, but as no action was taken it must be assumed they were not.

In 1933 the Osaka factory was sold and the company moved to Yokohama and changed it's name to Nissan. 1934 saw the first modest export of about 40 cars to Australia and Spain. The Datsun name was retained for the 1935 car which had it's engine increased in capacity to 722cc and 16bhp but there was very little change in overall appearance of the cars.

In 1937 a larger 6-cylinder car of 3.7-litres was introduced called the Nissan 70. It was based on the American Graham-Paige tooling which had been acquired from the ailing American company. The engine was also used in the Nissan commercial vehicles.

The last pre war model was the 4-door Nissan 50 which had a 1,468cc engine delivering 35bhp.

Very few of this model were made in 1940-42 as, by this time, the Japanese manufacturing industry was concentrating on preparations for war.

After the war the Japanese economy was in very poor shape and there was no money for any but the cheapest cars. The 1947 Datsun cars used the same prewar engine of 722cc in an ugly utilitarian body, and the braking was still by cables . The bulk of the production of 4,421 was light trucks, but by 1948 this had almost doubled to 8,467.

By 1951 there was a distinct improvement with the DB2 model, which had a larger 860cc engine giving 20bhp and 2-door all enveloping bodies. Hydraulic brakes were now standard.

The first 4-door Datsun was the Thrift of 1951-52 and there was also a sports model with the engine tuned to give 29bhp. This was an attractive little car which was similar in appearance to the pre-was MGs.

Although the body styling was modernised in 1955 as the K110 with a convertible option, the 860cc engine remained unchanged until 1958 when it was replaced by the 1,189cc unit based on the Austin engine. In 1959 there was a sport convertible model added to the range.

Nissan had signed an agreement with Austin in 1952 which allowed them to build the Austin A40 Somerset under licence and later the A40/50 Austin Cambridge of 1955-59. They were sold in Japan as Austins and by 1956 were being made at the rate of 200 a week. The majority of Nissan production was commercial throughout the 1950s.

By 1958 Datsun were exhibiting at the Los Angeles Imported Car Show and in 1960 they established their first overseas venture with the American Nissan Motor Company. There was a move away from the Austin based cars by 1960 and the first small car was the Bluebird which used a Nissan built engine of 1,189cc, although still based on the Austin design. It featured a 4-door body and coil spring independent front suspension. In 1961 the Austin Cambridge was replaced by the Nissan Cedric, with a choice of 1,488cc or 1,883cc engines and from this time Nissan began their promotion to one of the world's leading motor manufacturers.

The Company seemed unsure whether to call their cars Datsun or Nissan and the whole range became Datsun in 1966 only to become Nissan in 1984. In the meantime they had expanded the model range to include a 1,973cc 6-cylinder version of the Cedric in 1966 and the 3,988cc V-8 engined President. There was also a sports coupé of 1,595cc called the Silvia, an open sports car known as the Fairlady and saloon models called Gloria and Prince Skyline. The last 1960s model was the little 2-door 988cc Sunny.

Production figures of Nissan cars rose steadily from 1963 when the millionth car was produced to 1969 with the 5-millionth. They were now well on the way to becoming an international company with manufacturing plants in Mexico, Peru and Australia.

The first Datsun to embrace the transverse engine and front wheel drive layout was the Cherry of 1970. It was another small car with an overhead valve engine of 1,171cc, but the chassis featured all round independent suspension and disc brakes on the front. The engine was quite lively and developed 52bhp. There were saloons with either two or four door bodies and an estate car. In 1973 the range was extended to include a 2-door coupé. This range was popular in Europe and sales expanded to 110,000 in the UK and 67,000 in Germany by 1984.

There was a 2.4-litre six called the Laurel from 1977 which retained the conventional chassis and engine layout, but it was not really able to make much of an impact in competition with the Mercedes and Jaguars.

The Sunny, Stanza and Bluebird were all ultimately converted to front wheel drive and the new small Micra introduced in 1982 followed the trend. There was also an 8-seater multi purpose vehicle called the Prairie launched in 1982, which established a new trend towards this type of vehicle now widely adopted by most manufactures.

On the first of January 1984 all models were called Nissan.

Datsun 240Z

For the sporting motorist the most exciting Datsun was undoubtedly the 240Z. The design was conventional with a straight 6-cylinder single overhead camshaft engine of 2,393cc, rear wheel drive and independent suspension all round. The engine gave 150bhp and drove through a 5-speed manual gearbox. The integral, fixed head coupé 2-door body was styled by Albrecht Goertz.

This car arrived on the American market at a time when the Austin-Healey 3-litre had been withdrawn because of the safety legislation. The timing was perfect and the result was the world's best selling sports car. It was attractively styled and had a top speed of 125mph and the 240Z has become a classic. It was replaced it in 1973 by the 260Z which was heavier and slower, but up to 1978 there were a total of 622,649 sold. The 260Z was available as a 2+2 with a larger engine of 2,565cc and 162bhp and could reach 120mph.

The larger 280Z was introduced in 1978 and in 1979 the turbocharged 280ZX. The Targa top version came along in 1981.

The 240Z did wonders for the Datsun image and more recently the factory have offered a scheme to refurbish these old models.