Not exactly. They had to identify the car and the adr's it complied to. Whatever the car was called got stamped on the compliance plate, regardless of what intake manifolds, or spring rates it had. If it was called a 240K SSS, or 240K XYZ that would have been stamped on the plate. There were no Legal rules at to what could be called a GT, Car companies can pretty much call a car whatever they want. They could have made a 120Y GT if they wanted.

What im interested in is what make a 240K GT different to a GL, not whether it had a little badge on it proclaiming it to be a GT. And is seems like your the right person to ask.

So, any pics of the intake manifold? how many turns on the springs? What other differences are there between a GL and a GT.

So the first batch of 240K's were GTs? Were they badged as GT's or GL's?

And they have 4 speed gearboxes?

That might explain why my shifter only goes up to the number 4.

Maybe this would be better starting a new thread on the 240K GT, and letting 240kconvertible have his thread back.

You're right, a new thread is much better idea!

In the case of Oz cars there wasn't a problem with the ID as each car had the option codes on the build plate.

Those determine what the car is from a legal standpoint

eg ALL Ford Falcon GT's are build code JG33 for a 4dr and JG66 for a 2dr, Chrysler had E38, E49 to id engines etc

The Japanese cars didn't have this level of detail in the ID plate so Freds C110 GT has the same code as Joes C110 hardtop (both are KHGC110). Thus the insistence from Federal Transport that the manufacturer ID it by description in the ADR plate.

Whether there was much (or any) difference between the physical cars wasn't in question since that was up to the manufacturer.

The legal eagle points out that this was the beginning of the 'truth in advertising' efforts in Oz.

Anyway, what we are really interested in is the first batch of cars.

Recollections of the dealers around at the time together with the published articles indicate that all the 2dr hardtops were GT's and the 4dr sedans didn't have anything other than 240k.

No-one seems to know exactly how many cars were in the first batch or whether there were even any 4drs in it!

I've searched high & low without success. Customs would have the info somewhere(!) but have no idea where and are not prepared to help. Nissan just don't even answer queries on anything earlier than about 2005.

One former dealer tells me that he saw the cars at Datsun Australia before release and can't recall any 4drs. He is of the opinion that there wasn't a lot of them as the major line was the 180B.

Published reports from the time only refer to the GT and give no indication of quantity or body types other than the tested 2dr.

A small clue has surfaced in that there were only three ships from Japan off-loading in Sydney and one more in Melbourne during the period the cars had to arrive.

The vessels are all pretty much the same size and stevedores familiar with transport then reckon there wouldn't have been more than about 80 cars as deck cargo and at most around 100 as hold cargo (in each vessel).

Since it's unlikely that the batch would have been split across ships (they were a 'toe in the water' after all) and the K is pretty much as big as the hold access could take on those early ships then we have a possibility that the first sanple batch was less than 80 even if all the deck space was used.

Compared to modern ships those things were toys!!

So we can only assume that what we have is a GT unless we are lucky enough to have the ADR plate tell us.

As there is at least one car I can document as having that plate with the description (see attached) then the probability is that Nissan DID use the description including GT on those cars.

It also helps that the first batch could not have been ADR plated later than March 73 as Nissan was by then already telling motoring writers that the cars were going to be GL's.

So if it's not a 2/73 or maybe 3/73 ADR plate then Nissan themselves were publicly stating that they were not GT's, they were GL's.

What physical differences were there?

All GT's seem to have had MPH speedos and imperial gauges, although early GL's also were Imperial

Intake manifold (see attached)

Electric fuel pimp on GT, mechanical on GL

Front springs (GT 6.75, GL 7.25 turns)

Rear springs (GT 7.75, GL 8.25 turns)

Dampers ('shock absorbers')

Badges (front, rear, sides and door trim)

Whats the earliest GL badge look like? I've only ever seen the rectangular GL badges, which doesn't appear to be what's on the car in the background. Could be a European Datsun 240K GT.

It wouldn't be the first time Nissan have sent out photos of a Foreign market car to the Aussie press.

The rear panel name plate is DATSUN on all cars marketed in Australia including the early GT batch. The SKYLINE name wasn't used on the C110.....in Australia.

Fixed!

My Japanese references (from 1973-1983) refer to first selling time for the C110 series domestically was 47.9*, which translates to 9th month of 1972 .

*Begin at 1925,(beginnings of the reign of Emperor Hirohito) add 47.

Whats the earliest GL badge look like? I've only ever seen the rectangular GL badges, which doesn't appear to be what's on the car in the background. Could be a European Datsun 240K GT.

You're correct Craig, they're GT badges. It is easy to see.

Were there two different GT badges on the earliest cars Alfa? Maybe Nissan changed the location of the badges a little also?

The badge on the rear car is taller than those on our car relative to the adjacent Datsun badge and extends significantly below the Datsun badge, which ours also does a little but to nowhere near the extent of half the GT badge height.

Also, ours (and a NOS badge I have with its package and correct part number) has the entire height of the right half in white and the entire height of the left half in blue.

The badge on the rear car appears to have a dark section right across the lower 30% or so..

I think this just adds more confusion without really giving any more data on cars badged, labeled. ID'ed and sold by Nissan in Australia as GT's.

So far we have just two provable cars left - Kents and ours, both of which have ADR plates fitted by Nissan in accordance with the laws applicable at the time of sale stating that they are a "Datsun Coupe GT".

I recall at least one claim that a car with a much earlier chassis number (something like 000173) existed with GT identification but to date that hasn't re-surfaced.

There is the possibility of another GT in lower north SA which a friend is tracking down and reputedly another in a shed south of Adelaide that the owner doesn't want anyone looking at (yeah, right!).

Jim, I think you'll find that the document you have referred to doesn't actually state that the first car was sold in Sep '72 but that the planned date of first sale was to be then. Of course we might be looking at entirely different sources too, and yours may be more accurate!

Edited November 1, 200816 yr by aarc240