Nissan Fairlady Z S30

Nissan S30 Fairlady Z / Datsun 240Z: the one that started it all

Every Z we cover on this site, the twin-turbo Z32 300ZX and the Z33 350Z, traces back to this shape. The S30 landed in 1969 and ran to 1978, and it is the car that put Datsun on the map in America. Long bonnet, fastback tail, and the driver planted well back over the rear axle with a straight-six sat ahead of him. In Japan it wore Fairlady Z badges. Everywhere else it was the Datsun 240Z, and it sold like nothing Japan had built before. Cheap to buy and quick enough to embarrass a lot of pricey European metal. It was also prettier than the spec sheet had any right to make it.

The engines, from mild to proper

The whole range runs Nissan's L-series single-cam straight-six, a tough old lump that will take a hiding and keep going. The export 240Z got the L24, 2.4 litres, around 150 hp, and that is the sweet spot most people chase. Later export cars grew to the 260Z (L26, 2.6) and the US-only 280Z (L28, 2.8 with Bosch fuel injection to clear tightening emissions laws). Home-market base cars often ran the smaller L20 2.0, because Japan taxed you hard on engine size. Honest engines, all of them, but not the reason collectors lose sleep.

The halo: Fairlady Z432

Here is where it gets special. The Fairlady Z432 (chassis code PS30) skips the L-series entirely and drops in the S20: a 2.0 litre twin-cam, 24-valve straight-six lifted straight out of the Hakosuka Skyline GT-R. The name spells out the recipe, 4 valves per cylinder, 3 carburettors and 2 camshafts. Roughly 160 PS at a screaming 7,000 rpm, all of it built for the racetrack. Nissan sold about 420 of them, Japan only, and there was a stripped-out homologation special called the Z432R that binned the sound deadening and ran thin steel and acrylic glass. Fewer than 50 of those are thought to exist.

What to watch when you buy

Rust is the killer, full stop. These cars rot from the floors, the sills, the front chassis rails, the battery tray and the rear wheel arches, anywhere water sat for fifty years. A tidy-looking car can be a horror once you get it on a hoist, so budget for a proper inspection before you fall in love. Values have climbed hard. A genuinely clean, honest 240Z is real money now, and the Z432 is blue-chip, with the R sitting up around the price of a house. That kind of money brings out fakes, so matching numbers matter enormously. Plenty of tribute 432s float around wearing an S20 that never left the factory in that shell, so if you are spending big, get the chassis and engine numbers verified against the records before a cent changes hands.

My honest take: buy the best original 240Z you can afford, not the cheapest one you can find. A rusty bargain will cost you triple to put right, and the cars people fawn over at shows are the straight, unmolested ones, not the ones with a fresh respray hiding sins. Get one sorted and you own the seed the entire Z line grew from.