The kenmeri Skyline famously was debuted in race regalia at the 1972 Tokyo Motor Show, only to have Nissan pull the plug on the motorsports program it would have competed in due to the Oil Shock of 1973. It may never have seen trackside glory in Japan, but there was never a car the Aussies didn’t try to throw at a racetrack.
Now part of the Shepparton Motor Museum for legendary cars that raced at Bathurst, this particular Datsun 240K (as it was called in Australia) won second in its class and seventh outright against a slew of Holden, Ford and Chrysler V8s. It is a particular favorite of the host, but in the background you might see other cars we’ve highlighted before, like Allan Moffat’s Mazda RX-7, George Fury’s Group C DR30 Skyline, and Fury’s 810 Bluebird which once held the Bathurst lap record for six years. Watch the video above, but if you want to skip ahead to the Datsun part, you can skip right ahead to 20:40.
What a great episode Fletch, thanks for posting this Ben.
The Datsun 240K truly was a marvel at Bathurst 1973…previously the Prince Skylines had raced in the 1960’s but were constrained as production car rules required the diff ratio they were imported with to be the one they ran with, and this was highly unsuited to mixing it with the V8’s down Conrod Straight…needed something with ‘longer legs’.
The 240K was also limited with its modifications as it too ran with in production car classes (ie not ‘improved production’) and therefore required the standard twin carby set-up. Had it run the GT arrangement with tripple carbies then Datsun/Nissan may have seen its first victory 25 years earlier than Godzilla.
The simple truth for Japanese cars in the 1970’s at Bathurst is the lack of high powered models being offered in their show rooms (ie we didn;t sell the required volume of the ‘GT’ models). The desire from dealers and team owners to take the Japanese offerings and make a real tilt at Bathurst was as strong as any Australian manufacturer or team.
The 240K had to run a downdraft carby on a GT manifold, which is the standard for the C110 skyline. They never had triples from factory, or SU’s for that matter.
And as the car ran in Group C rules in those early years there weren’t many technical freedoms sadly. Still. 7th outright in 1974 isn’t a bad result from more than 50 starters
Oh, and it still pulled 140MPH down Conrod Straight