Datsun Fairlady 1959-1962

[Revo]

Related thread: Datsun Fairlady 1962-1968

Very Brief Overview of 1959-1962 Datsun Fairlady

1959-1960 Datsun Sports (S211)

The second Datsun post WW2 attempt in sport cars was the 1959 S211 (The 1953 Datsun DC-3 was the first try). S211 was designed by Yuichi Ohta, it had fiberglass bodywork and used a 988 cc inline-4 producing 37 hp (28 kW). Only 20 examples were built.

1960-1961 Datsun Fairlady (SP212)

Visually very similar to the S211, the SP212 was the first car to bear the 'Fairlady' name, which has been used for all of the top of the range Nissan / Datsun sports cars up to today. The name 'Fairlady' was thought up by Katsuji Kawamata (Nissan's president) after he saw the Broadway play "My Fair Lady" while in the USA in 1959 inspecting local dealerships. The SP212 had a 1189cc 48hp (35 kW) 4cyl. E series engine. This 4 seater car was fitted with a 4 speed gearbox, 'A' arm torsion bar front suspension and steel bodywork. Drum brakes were used all around. 288 examples of SP212 were produced, some of which were imported to USA.

1961-1962 Datsun Fairlady (SP213)

he SP213 is pretty much identical to the SP212, the only major difference being the 1189cc engine, which produced now 60 hp (44 kW) thanks to a new 2 barrel Nikki carburettor and a modification to the camshaft. There was also a slight change to the axles and the brakes. 217 examples were built.

sources: press.nissan-global.com, wikipedia.org, Early Datsun Homepage