Datsun 240Z

Tony Fall has recreated the Datsun 240Z which he rallied and now drives on British Championship events

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Fancy owning a motorsport legend for road and track use? Paul Davies looks at true classics that made their name on stages and circuits, and still provide a fine drive today

Former works rally driving legend Tony Fall remembers when he first saw a Datsun 240Z: “It was 1970 Monte Carlo Rally, Rauno Aaltonen and I were driving Lancias, and we’d both fallen off the same mountain. We met in the ravine at the bottom and Rauno said, the Japanese want us to test a new rally sports car.” The two drivers repeated every stage of that Monte to test the new car, which Tony described as “a sort of streamlined Austin-Healey”. The verdict was not particularly favourable, and the engineers returned to Japan to put things right. By the RAC Rally, just nine months later, it was a transformed car. Fall’s 240Z did not finish the 1970 RAC, but Aaltonen was 5th and Fall 10th on the following year’s Monte. The same year Edgar Hermann won Kenya’s Safari Rally outright, with Shekhar Mehta second, and Fall won the Welsh International. A second Safari victory came for Mehta in 1973, and the results rolled in. The tough 240Z established itself as one of the all-time rally greats, particularly suited to the more arduous events - the rougher the better. Despite being a bit on the heavy side, but with a tuned engine peaking at a then respectable 250bhp, it wasn’t bad as a race car either, posting numerous successes in SCCA racing in the USA - where Pete Brock’s BRE cars reigned – and in Japan and Australia, as well as the UK. Spike Anderson’s Samuri Racing ‘Big Sam’ (which used two different ex-Safari bodyshells in one season!) was the 240Z to catch on the British circuits, with Brit driver Win Percy winning the 1974 Mod Sports Championship. Nothing about the 240Z was rocket science, but it had the right mix. The 2.4-litre engine was a single overhead cam, in-line, six developing 151bhp, the gearbox a five-speeder, disc brake were fitted to the front, and the suspension was independent all round. It was a modern Big Healey, and the USA in particular took it to heart, making it the best selling sports car of its time. The 125 mph Zed lasted four years, to be succeeded by the plusher and slightly less sporty 260Z, which sold in even greater numbers. Sadly the 280Z of 1978 was a different car altogether. Thirty years on, there’s been something of a Datsun revival. Tony Fall has cloned one of his rally cars, Big Sam has been found, and drivers have posted useful results in the British Historic Rally Championship, Dominic Frattoli being most consistent, and Rob Collinge has repeated history with wins on both the 2003 and ‘05 East African Safari Classic. In the HSCC’s 70’s Road Sports Championship Charles Barter was a class winner in 2006. If you fancy a man-sized sports car with a rock solid pedigree and competition potential, the 240Z could be for you!