Hello together,

so far I've only been a silent reader here and haven't contributed much to the community yet.

I would like to change that. 

I myself have had 4 Zs, own a Cherry E10 van and have been infected with this virus for a very long time through my family (we have been driving Nissan/Datsun since the 70s).

That's why I also founded the German platform www.datsun-autowerk.com.

One big task was to describe the Goertz story a bit better and in detail (www.graf-goertz.de) .
I learned a lot from this forum and talked to Alan and Carl.

One thing in particular interested me:
How early did the newspapers start telling this fairy tale?

I came to the following sources:

USA: Car&Driver in 1978 (full article: https://datsun-autowerk.com/dokumente/zeitungsartikel-car-driver-november-usa-1978)

UK: Car magazine in 1970 

And Germany? In the land of the count? So far this was rather unknown.

However, I found two newspapers from 1974 in my archives that report on the 240Z and, according to my research, mention Goertz for the first time.

I'd like to show you photos of them - I think others will be interested, too.

But if you know any other German and/or European sources before 1974, I would be very happy for photos of them!

Many greetings,
Florian
 

 

auto motor und sport - 01 1974

"Für das Styling des 240Z ist Graf Goertz verantwortlich – jener hakennasige Adelige, der in den fünfziger Jahren den BMW 507 zeichnete."

"Count Goertz is responsible for the styling of the 240Z - the hook-nosed aristocrat who designed the BMW 507 in the 1950s."

 

Full article: https://datsun-autowerk.com/dokumente/zeitungsartikel-auto-motor-und-sport-02-1974-de

 

rallye racing – 02 1974

"Schöpfer dieses ganz und gar unjapanisch aussehenden Autos ist der Deutsche AIbrecht Graf Goertz, ein Industrie-Designer.
Er lieferte den Karosserieentwurf für diesen erstmals 1969 vorgestellten Sportwagen."

"The creator of this entirely un-Japanese looking car is the German AIbrecht Graf Goertz, an industrial designer.
He provided the body design for this sports car first introduced in 1969."

Full article: https://datsun-autowerk.com/dokumente/zeitungsartikel-rallye-racing-02-1973-de-gewonnen-im-k-o-system-ein-italiener-aus-tokyo

 

22 hours ago, florian said:

Yes, the Toyota thing comes up a lot, too, unfortunately.

Do you have the book available? Unfortunately, in all these years I have never had the chance to find a copy.

The 2000GT Toyota book by Shin Yoshikawa has got more expensive since I brought mine. I found this one;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364146024429?hash=item54c8cb5fed:g:IPcAAOSw3mpXNJAd&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4OaBR0phfqczh36fQyyL167ViMLn0kKm54coGG8dR2PomHStpAUc5aOINtubbRLfarj5lxyBmPl8aAIeXdYzUQsHjdUwdrIrXBe0sTWrEHL3rM%2BkKTC3jy3%2FLTcCzA4ExzoTinlSSvQNCDQYVlkFt358LtjxsSD74V%2FWpKzJEdJX6ADiBRZOaFKXxVwY2%2BR1cB0Vcx%2Frt%2BZSC9z2YRbWzHxYi%2FqYFQgkRmVDAHIK9cxRr51x48p7XestP9btG4rGl%2FYzStLvz7CPwgAjOSUxbhUwRu1zfB7vvRZDBMjhsbG%2F|tkp%3ABk9SR77iv9b5YQ

and there is another one for sale in France with a $850 asking tag.

 

This weekend i was at a swiss Archive place of automotive history. The source of many Experts which judge historic cars and make the FIVA ID cards (hsitoric vehicle authenticity proof), etc.. A very nice place.
I was suprised however to find a book about Nissan where goertz has signed the cover during a visit. I forgot to take a photo, sadly, but will visit again.
Obviously the experts (in this case they were judges and cars-selectors at all the major global concours d'elegance, so they definitely have some knowledge about historic cars and designers, but the usual lack of japanese cars knowledge) had the opinion that Goerzt designed the 240Z.
I collected a few documents to tell them the truth.
During my hunt for a few things to prove it, i realized that the original signed letter by Nissan has never been broadly published. Only a transcript of it, without theofficial header, signature, etc. So here we go.
It can be found in the german book "Autos die geschichte machen - Datsun Nissan Z-ZX-ZXT"


I wouldn't say the book covers the story fully correct, but at least the copy of the original letter is nice:
Special thanks to Florian for reminding me where i can find it in my documents 🙂

Also Florian has researched a lot on this topic and you can find all about Goertz and the Z (and involvment in other cars he claimed to be his design) on his special readworthy website only about this topic:
http://www.graf-goertz.de/

Nice work on the website Florian! Thank you for the crediting me.