Nissan 70
| Nissan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Nissan 70 Phaeton
|
|
| Type 70 | |
| Production period: | 1938-1943 |
| Class : | upper middle class |
| Body versions : | Touring car , limousine |
| Engines: |
Otto engine : 3.7 liters (62.5 kW) |
| Length: | 4750 mm |
| Width: | 1720 mm |
| Height: | 1750 mm |
| Wheelbase : | 2794 mm |
| Empty weight : | 1410 kg |
| Previous model | DAT 41 |
| successor | Datsun DB |
The Nissan Type 70 was the first passenger car model by Nissan . After the founding of Nissan, a new president took over the helm of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, Rokuro Auykama. He was friends with the engineer William Gorham, who had emigrated from North America to Japan at the beginning of the 20th century and who had already brought his vehicle brand Lila Automobile into the Datsun company . Auykama commissioned Gorham to look for a cooperation partner for Nissan in the USA, since only Datsun small cars and trucks (pickups) have been built so far. In addition, Nissan had acquired a large plot of land in Yokohama and was planning to build a new factory, as all models had previously been prefabricated by different suppliers and had to be assembled in the Datsun factory (the factory had recently been destroyed by lightning). Gorham found the company Graham-Paige in the USA , which was in financial difficulties, and negotiated a cooperation agreement or license agreement with them. This provided for the purchase of a complete production plant for the Graham-Paige Crusader and the Graham-Paige Truck, as Graham-Paige was forced to close a plant due to economic difficulties. Nissan had to pay Graham-Paige US $ 390,000 for the facilities and license fees. After the new factory was built on the site in Yokohama, the Datsun 15 was produced from 1935 and the integration and preparation of the Graham Paige license production ran at the same time. From 1937 the Nissan 80 truck was produced and in the same year production of the Nissan Type 70 also started. Due to the Second World War , production of the model ended in 1943 after 5500 copies, while the truck, which is now a Nissan 90 , was a minibus on the basis of the 80 was added, continued production. Not until 1960 was a Nissan car produced again, the Nissan Cedric . Because Nissan was involved in the Second World War, Nissan vehicles were not exported again until the 1970s and domestic models were exported as Datsun, while the Type 70 was exported to Asian countries and China as early as the 1930s .
Model history
The Type 70 was built as a four-door sedan and Phaeton from August 1937. The Phaeton was an open car with a fabric top. The model series competed with the Toyoda AA , which was launched in 1936, and was an upper middle class model in Japan, while the original model in North America belonged to the lower middle class. In addition to Toyota , there were also Chevrolet with its own assembly plant in Japan and Ford as competitors . With a price of ¥ 4000 for the standard sedan and ¥ 4500 for a taxi model with three seats in the rear and two additional emergency seats, the Type 70 quickly became the market leader. Furthermore, in 1938 the Phaeton was offered with a lined fabric roof and a folding windshield, which was mainly purchased by the Japanese army. The petrol engine was coupled with a 4-speed manual transmission. After the war began, the entire production went to the Japanese army and Nissan also made a model with an ambulance body. This secured Nissan good sales, but at the same time, along with other Nissan war products, the name Nissan was linked to the war in Japan, which is why Nissan did not begin to use the Nissan brand for export until the 1970s. In 1943, production of the Type 70 was stopped due to a shortage of raw materials during the war. The successor in the upper middle class segment in the group was the Datsun DB, built from 1948 .
