While in Japan for several years, the Fairlady Z was quite a common car on the road. But, I thought it was the Amercan import version of the 240, 260 and 280Z. Now, I guess the 350Z is the American counterpart. Is that true?

the "fairlady", in my understanding, is their version of whatever the Z car is here...i have also seen a 300zx called a fairlady...and a 240 and 280...then again, a great many of the 240s and 280s are also silvia's.so perhpas they are more of a trim level than a model line?

The Silvias that I saw were not Z cars. More like a 2 door coupe, and not the same body as the Fairlady.

hmmm...ill have to drum up some pictures...the modern silvia almost looks like a RWD grand am....wider...lower..and alot ballsier..

I guess the ones I saw were the 180 and 200SX cars. Maybe they have changed them. Here is a pic of an 03 S13

http://www.nissansilvia.com/forums/uploads/post-2-1114158358.jpg

yes yes...youre right...SXs...my error...i have been hunting for pictures for a little while and checked in and you had one..i also thought that the 240sx was also a silvia...the shop where my dad works made this style 240 into a silver with some "jdm" parts...looked more like "parts that didnt fit right" it ended up looking like this one..except it was red, and the hood didnt meet the headlight lines right...

local://upfiles/4/2CEC184BE1B9416686D07BC1A1CF92AF.jpg



local://upfiles/4/B2124A8D8792423CA681A38572B38E35.jpg

Not too sure if this fits here, but here is some good infomation about engine swaps for these guys, and some back-up for my argument about rear wheel drive muscle power. http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/tech/0309scc_hybrid/

mmmmmmmmmm....Rear wheel drive power...[8D]

Yeah, I'd rather push than pull. But if I could push and pull at the same time, that would be nice.. It just takes more HP to do both at the same time.

a Z is any Z model nissan, the fairlady name is the japanese common name for the car like betty or something here. and it has stuck over the years. the 300z was the most popular ones and stayed around for a long arse time. and the new 350z is here to stay for even longer.

ok..so what exactly does the fairlady name signify? on all of the video games i have played, and SC mags, they call the JDM 350s Fairlady Z...

it is basically just the japanese name for the car, like a toyota corolla in japan is also called ae86, the chassis code and the other name of the car which is a doreno(spelling)

hmm..like my bmw 525i is an E36 overseas?

Heres the way I understand it

The Fairlady was available in Japan since the mid sixties and in 69 Nissan(Datsun was the North American name) began exporting it. The President of Nissan(forget name) had a favorite movie"My Fair Lady" and named the car after the film. His North American advertizing execs told him that name would not fly over here so the changed it to the 200Z.
here is the history of the "Z" car


Yutaka Katayama "Commonly known as Mr. K by Z-car owners" founded Nissan Motor's U.S. Subsidiary in 1960. Mr. K is also widely known as the "father" of the Z car.
In 1969 Nissan Motors embarked upon a market for a new type of sports car. Nissan's product planners imagined an agile, compact "GT", whose performance and comfort would outrun its price. Nissan engineers began work on a prototype which would become the Nissan 240Z.

Then in 1969 the 240Z went on sale in the U.S. on October 22nd. It features a 2400cc six-cylinder, 150 horsepower engine, and delivered a Zero - Sixty time of under NINE SECONDS!! The price tag on this outstanding sports car was only $3,526.

Go to this site for a more detailed view.

http://www.geocities.com/zcarzcarzcar/ZHistory.html
The Z is a specific model like a corvette or civic. A silvia's equivilant in North America is the SX model line.

so if i understand this correctly its just a different name for the 350z in Japan??? if it is in that case are there any differences in horse power output or anything??? or is it just the same car different continent???

Ok, to clear things up for you guys.....

Fairlady - is the Japaneze version of the "Z"s, from the 1970 240Z ( 2.4L 6 cyl ) 260Z ( 2.6L 6 cyl ) 280Z & 280ZX ( 2.8L 6 cyl, the ZX model came available with TTops ) all the way til they stop making the 300ZX in 1993.

Sylvia ( 180SX or 200SX ) - Is the Japanese version of the American 240SX ( 2.4L 4 cyl ), the american version has flip up headlights and the Japanese version has stationary headlights

350Z isn't available in Japan, cause it's actually the Skyline, which is the Infinite G35.

All of which are rearwheel drive

The Skyline and the Infinite G35 are both the same. I spent 2 years in Japan and tried to understand the difference between the two. Basically it was all just the same thing, different name.

The American 350Z is the same thing as the FairladyZ, the only difference between the two is the name on the car. Where 350Z is in America, it says FairladyZ in Japan. The 350Z is not a Skyline at all, it's two totally different cars.

America's 240SX is available in Japan as the 180SX, and the "performance" edition is called the Sylvia. Both are available there.

TTZcar is almost right. I owned a 1964 Datsun Fairlady, AKA SPL-310, Datsun Roadster, Datsun 1500, Fairlady Roadster. It was first imported into the US in 1962. Looks a whole lot like the MG B. Story goes it debuted at the Tokyo autoshowbefore the B made its debute so is't not a knockoff. From 62 - 64 they were three seaters; the 3rd seat crosswise behind the drivers seat. Engine was a iron block, iron head 1500 cc 4 banger. About 3000 were exported to the US.

From '62 - '63 they were badged as Fairlady. In '64 they Datsun1500. In '65they changed the body style a little and eliminated the 3rd seat. It morphed into the 1600 and in about '68 or '69 the 2000. It is the father of the 240 Z.

The confusion comes from Datsun (Nissan) never fully dropping the name. They may have even kept it in Japan like someone says.

What a chain of debate on what is a Fairlady Z. As far asdifferences are concerned there are somein each but you'd be hard pressed to figure themall out. I don't believe the engines are different in most (exceptions like the older 240turbo Z's)but they are different when it comes tothe newer ones that are limited to about 200 kph (Japanese law)emissions and sometimes crash reinforcement...oh yeah, and that annoying as hellbell that goes offwhen you're driving faster than 120 kph. That's related to another Japanese law that the highest speed limits on theexpressways are 80 kph. I can tell you that driving one in the states with speed limits like 75 mph that gets annoying. There may also be differences in the rear diff in some cases too. They also did make 350 Fairlady Zs in Japan (not Skylines, they are different) and I think they still do for now. The 300 Fairlady Z's they made all the way up to about 1999 in japan versus 1996 in the states. All the silvias are not Z's and are not Fairlady's. 180SX or 240SX = S13 or S14. I owned a really nice 1992 S13 that I really wanted to import but couldn't get it done in time.