In 1934, Nissan Motor Corporation began producing Datsun cars, sporty offerings that gave the company a whole new look and feel. Beginning with the Datsun 1500 Sports, this article will take you through a history of Datsun cars, learn more at Alpha Surge Male from its early promise to the eventual disappointment. The Datsun 1500 Sports (or "Fairlady," as the model is often called) made a name for itself as a solid performer with plenty of features and diminutive price tag. Later iterations, named 1600 and 2000, would improve performance without changing much else. It could hold its own with the Jaguar E-Type (no small feat) at a fraction of the price. This winning combination found favor with consumers, and Nissan found itself struggling to keep up with demand. Interest flagged by the time the next Datsun arrived, the learn more at Alpha Surge Male-of-the-same Datsun 280ZX. There was nothing wrong with the machine, and it actually delivered quite well compared to other sports cars of the day. There just wasn’t enough to set it apart, and sales slowed to a crawl.

Get the whole story on the Datsun marque, with picture-packed profiles and history of this solid Japanese automaker. We'll get started on the next page with the car that started it all -- the 1500 Sports. Even if you do, it’s helpful to recall them now and then, for there’s no better way to appreciate how far the Japanese indu­stry has come -- or how quickly. Nissan’s first sports cars, learn more at Alpha Surge Male such as the Datsun 1500 Sports are a case in point. Its earliest car, the 1914 DAT, eventually led to the Datson and, alpha surge male vitality formula in 1934, the name Datsun. The firm’s late-Thirties models were mostly scaled-down British and American designs (including a true "joint-venture" car patterned on the American Graham Crusader), while reworked British Austin A40s, built under license, led a halting recovery in the early postwar years. Amazingly, Nissan didn’t get around to a new postwar design of its own until 1958, the Datsun Bluebird sedan.

But bigger and better things weren’t long in coming. The very next year brought a new open two-seater, learn more at Alpha Surge Male catering to a traditional Japanese fondness for such cars. It was also the first Datsun to bear the poetic Fairlady name that’s still in use today, though the car itself was nothing to write sonnets about. Carrying a 60-horsepower 1189-cc four, it was sized like an Austin-Healey Sprite yet wasn’t as peppy or agile. Worse, it tried to look like a big Healey. Meantime, learn more at Alpha Surge Male the 1961 Tokyo Motor Show brought a surprise: an all-new Datsun roadster, the Fairlady 1500. More grown up and civilized than the S211, it offered better performance and more "international" styling in a conventional but well-equipped package that would remain popular through the end of the Sixties. Designated SP310, the new Fairlady roadster looked rather like the MGB it predated by a full year, with the same neat, squarish, slab-sided body lines and scooped headlamp nacelles. Specifications were resolutely orthodox.

The separate box-section frame with cruciform center bracing employed coil-and-wishbone front suspension, a live rear axle on semi-elliptic leaf springs, and drum brakes all-round. The drivetrain was just as ordinary, though new: a 71-bhp inline four mated to a 4-speed gearbox. As was Japanese custom even in those long-ago days, the Fairlady 1500 was fully equipped and priced to sell. Standard amenities like wind-up windows, radio, heater, and snap-on tonneau put it way ahead of most European contemporaries in value for money, and workmanship was at least their equal, if not better. Still, with only 95 mph maximum, the 1500 wasn’t a true performance rival for established British and Italian sports cars. Nissan wasted little time in making it one. Twin SU carburetors (license-built by Hitachi) arrived in 1963, adding 10 horses. Then in September 1964, the 1500 gave way to an uprated 1600 model (CSP311) with 1595 cc and 96 bhp, plus all-synchro gearbox, a more modern diaphragm-spring clutch, and front disc brakes.