Nissan Fairlady Z ..about That Name

[Hola]

Hi Guys,

This is about my 3rd fav car..

(Below is a copy paste)The Purpose of this page is to give some background and understanding to the name "Fairlady" as applied to the Z Car outside the US market.

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The Short Story:

Fair Lady and later Fairlady - The name given to the first line of sports cars designed and built by Nissan Motors Japan after W.W.II, with the specific intent of being marketed in the USA - 1960.

The name "Fair Lady" was given to the new sports car line by Mr. Katsuji Kawamata, President Of Nissan Motors Japan, after he attended the Broadway Musical "My Fair Lady" while visiting the US in 1958. He felt that the name would invoke an image of beauty for the car - because people would think of the beauty of the music and the leading lady in that Broadway Musical.

This is a common and accepted practice within the Japanese culture for selecting automotive names. It is not a usual cultural method here in the US however - so Nissan more commonly used engine size and model numbers as Model Names for the US market.

The More Complete Story: The SPL212 was introduced in 1960. It was a two passenger car with a 1.2 Liter four cycl. engine ( 2 12). The "S" stood for Sport, the "P" was the designation for the Bluebird chassis, and the "L" stood for left hand drive. It is significant to note that "L" left hand drive cars could not be sold in Japan at that time. Thus Nissan's first Sports Car was specifically intended for the US market.

To understand why the name "Fair Lady" was given to a Sports Car, one has to think in terms of the Japanese culture, rather than that of the America culture. The Japanese revere traditions of Art, Music, Philosophy and the study of Beauty. All of these cultural values are considered to be acquired tastes and skills, gained over a lifetime, through personal study and practice.

Here in the US we place a much higher cultural value on personal creativity. Art and Music are considered to be more a matter of inspiration, personal expression and creativity. We therefore place a higher value on personal creativity and expression, than the resulting traditions of the art or music.

While Mr. Katsuji Kawamata, the President of Nissan Motors Ltd., was visiting the United States in 1958 he attended a performance, on-Broadway, of the hit musical "My Fair Lady".

A couple of years later (1960), when Nissan was about to introduce its new Sports Car Line, Mr. Kawamata gave it the official name of "Fair Lady". He had been so impressed with the beauty of the music and the leading lady in that Broadway Musical, that he thought everyone would relate the name of Nissans new sports car "the Fair Lady" to the beauty of the music and the leading lady in the play. Indeed, that is what happened in Japan, the name made perfect sense there and was readily accepted in that market.

The Fairlady (now one word) Sport Car line continued to evolve through the 1960's with the introduction of the Fairlady 1500 in Oct. of 1962, then the Fairlady 1600 in 1965. Along with this evolution of its product lines, Nissan Motors was attempting to increase it's exports to the US Market.

Mr. Yutaka Kayatama, then President of Nissan Motors USA, knew that his customers would not accept the name "Fairlady" for a Sports Car here in the USA, so the Sales and Marketing departments in the US had used the cars model numbers for the most part, in advertising and sales promotion, and with the introduction of the new models for 1965 the badging on the front fenders was changed, on the US cars, from "Fairlady" to "Datsun 1600".

When the new HLS30 Sports/GT was designed and built for the US Market - Mr. Katayama suggested that it not be badged as the "Fairlady' in the US. Mr. K. thought that the car should be named something more aggressive, like "Tiger" or "Shark" in keeping with US cultural traditions and values. That idea having been turned down in Japan, he was willing to accept "Datsun 240-Z". The 240 was a shortened version of the 2400cc engine displacement, and the "Z", which had been the new car's product file designation within Nissan's Design Department.

Mr. Teiichi Hara, General Manager of the Design Department, had given the original sports car plans the file designation "Type Z", as most all of the other characters in the roman alphabet had been previously used.

[sharkster]

is this a honda topic?

[JwesT]

is this a honda topic?

hahahaha... u were the 1st to see it.. everything comes under HONDA for Hola

[streetKIA]

Isnt the first pic a skyline concept

[milinda]

...........and Hola definitely needs to polish his cut and paste skills as some lines are duplicated.

[ashan]

Isnt the first pic a skyline concept

Yep...its e Skyline concept...probably uploaded by mistake...

Cheers,

-A

[Watchman]

nice article... very informative....

and therr are lots of Jap cars with spanish names right.. whats the storry behind that... i was told that Escudo is spanich fomr something...and pajero, montero also sound a bit spanish...

[Duncan]

Thanks for that Hola.

The Z cars have always been a firm favourite of mine too. I currently have a 300ZX with some serious mods and I love this car. But I always wondered why the Japs gave it such a feminie name (my opinion).

Now I know better

Cheers

[Hola]

hahahaha... u were the 1st to see it.. everything comes under HONDA for Hola

No, i could swear i opened it in Nissan section....U sure...??

...........and Hola definitely needs to polish his cut and paste skills as some lines are duplicated.

Yes the article was a copy paste as i mentioned in the begining

[Shismo]

That's pretty cool. There is a rumour of 450Z with Nissan's VQ45 V8 since the next GTR is goin to be an Infinity. They say it will replce the GTR in their lin up. That'll b very very cool LOL ! 500BHP +

[sharkster]

That's pretty cool. There is a rumour of 450Z with Nissan's VQ45 V8 since the next GTR is goin to be an Infinity. They say it will replce the GTR in their lin up. That'll b very very cool LOL ! 500BHP +

the GTR will only be a Nissan...its official

[Morgoth]

nice article... very informative....

and therr are lots of Jap cars with spanish names right.. whats the storry behind that... i was told that Escudo is spanich fomr something...and pajero, montero also sound a bit spanish...

Pajero is spanish, it means "Wan**r" So a chilean lady told me I believe it no longer goes under that label in any Spanish speaking country due to this reason

[fuzzo]

yeah i heard something similar about the pajero as well... same goes for the chevy nova (spanish for no go) needless to say the car didn't do too well in the spanish speaking countries

[sharkster]

Pajero is spanish, it means "Wan**r" So a chilean lady told me I believe it no longer goes under that label in any Spanish speaking country due to this reason

the 'pajero' is rebadged the 'shogun' in europe

[xXx]

Pajero is spanish, it means "Wan**r" So a chilean lady told me I believe it no longer goes under that label in any Spanish speaking country due to this reason

i used a free translation software off the net, spanish word for wan**r is tonto not pajero. may be its some other language mate. any spanish speakers in the forum????????

[JwesT]

i used a free translation software off the net, spanish word for wan**r is tonto not pajero. may be its some other language mate. any spanish speakers in the forum????????

machan might be similar pronunciation but different spelling??

[xXx]

machan might be similar pronunciation but different spelling??

aaaaaaaaaaah true

[Hola]

Please try writing on a paint and save as a picture image and then post it in this forum

[ucscsades]

I know that 'pajaro' means 'bird' in spanish...the a might have become an e during translation....plus it's pronounced payaro in spanish...can't really explain that one anymore!

and escudo means to protect I believe...

[Hola]

Any idea what tata means? :-)

[xXx]

the 'pajero' is rebadged the 'shogun' in europe

sharky, rather than rebadging its rebranding. pajero is the name of the domestic model. asian export model is called montero and the europian model is called shogun don't know what the american one is called. guys in states over to you.

similarly domestic toyota land cruiser 100 Series is known as 'sahara' and the europian version is called 'amazon'

Please try writing on a paint and save as a picture image and then post it in this forum

what the hell are you talking about???????????

[JwesT]

sharky, rather than rebadging its rebranding. pajero is the name of the domestic model. asian export model is called montero and the europian model is called shogun don't know what the american one is called. guys in states over to you.

similarly domestic toyota land cruiser 100 Series is known as 'sahara' and the europian version is called 'amazon'

what the hell are you talking about???????????

machan where r u from?

[xXx]

machan where r u from?

Me, im currently in england

[sharkster]

sharky, rather than rebadging its rebranding. pajero is the name of the domestic model. asian export model is called montero and the europian model is called shogun don't know what the american one is called. guys in states over to you.

similarly domestic toyota land cruiser 100 Series is known as 'sahara' and the europian version is called 'amazon'

sorry bud...thats wat i meant

[JwesT]

Me, im currently in england

ah i guessed so... when u said shogun and amazon