The Japanese "Land Rover"
In 1947 Rover introduced a rugged, all purpose, very utilitarian four wheel drive vehicle that very quickly took the all-terrain transport market by storm. That vehicle was of course, the Land Rover. It was bullet proof in every sense - including literally, being used around the world in many areas of conflict. It became the hallmark of four wheel drive vehicles. Its durability and simplicity were the factors of success, what it would do or climb grew from simple stories to legends. And with those stories grew a legion of fans. Several people tried to copy the Land Rover principal, but met with little success. These machines were either too complex, too fragile or just too expensive.
Then in 1968 Nissan Motor Co. of Japan unveiled its 'Land Rover', the Patrol. The Patrol had all the makings of a Land Rover beater at its launch and that soon proved to be the case. It was just as strong, just as simple, better equipped and generally cheaper. At the time it was something of a surprise that a Japanese company could produce such a competent vehicle in an area they'd had little experience. But then again, in those days it was the Japanese who took good ideas, made them better, then mass-produced them.
The early success of the Patrol must have been a thorn in the side of Toyota, Nissan's major Japanese competitor. Toyota soon released its all purpose, all terrain four wheel drive, the Landcruiser. The Landcruiser too was an instant success, though its specifications and equipment were slightly more complex than the Patrol or Land Rover. Each of the three vehicles continued to be a big success, though the two Japanese iterations were eating into Land Rover sales. But then Rover came up with the Range Rover - extensively equipped, luxurious and expensive, it brought respectability to the four wheel drive.
Japanese Sports Cars Launch
Two from Rising Sun country: a 150 bhp five-speed Datsun with a claimed 120 mph-plus performance and a new little rotary-engined two-seater from Mazda were launched in 1967 here in Australia. You paid less than A$3400 for the
Datsun, more than $4400 for the
Cosmo. The
Datsun 2000 Sports used the familiar evolved SRL 311U series body developed from the SPL 310 (
Fairlady) through the intermediary SPL 311U (1600 Sports). The engine room saw the new overhead-cam U20 engine swapping places with the old R series pushrod four. The car still sold for A$3370. The
Mazda Cosmo Sports, from
Toyo Kogyo, introduced a motoring idea then completely new to the Australian public - a twin-cylinder rotary engine.
Mazda linked up with the German NSU-Wankel combine in a co-operative development program to produce a volume sports car some years prior to 1967. The Cosmo was the result. It featured a two-rotary piston engine operating in a single capacity chamber of 491cc - giving total capacity at 982cc or 60 cu in. This reportedly powered the car by normal fuel to 105 mph with a 110 bhp output. In Japan the market price of the
Cosmo was higher than the Datsun 1600 Coupe which retailed in Australia for $4380. Because of its highly competitive price the Datsun was initially the most interesting to Australian buyers although the Cosmo stole plenty of its thunder when it arrived, due to cute and distinctive styling and unusual mechanical specifications.
Datsun claimed a monumental 125 mph top speed and 15.4 second standing quarter for its 2000 Sports, which, with its superior appointments, made the car a market prospect that was obviously aimed at taking sales away from the
Triumph TR4A and
Triumph GT6, and it took some glamor edge from the
MGB market and Stewart's then newly-released
MGB GT. What few Australians then realised was that the 2000 Sports offered better performance-for-money (or bang-for-your-buck) than any car then currently on the Australian market. The Datsun 2000 Sports used the then new 20 series engine (an abbreviation of 2000) first introduced in Japan in
1966 on the series 2000 Cedric sedans which were replaced on the Australian market by the 2000 Custom Six series. In the sports this engine was designated U20 - an appropriate updating of the H20 series terminology it was given in the sedan - in line with the addition of overhead cam, twin dual-throat side-draught Solex-type carburettors and some special internal fiddles.
The 99 bhp Cedric Four and the 150 bhp Sports Four shared common 87.2-83 mm bore stroke dimensions. With that extra power the Sports had an excellent power-weight ratio at just over 2000 lb - some 25 lb below the claimed weight of the 1600 Sports model. This all added up to excellent torque characteristics (131.6 lb/ft at 4800 rpm) which were operative throughout the performance range. Datsun didn't take any other aspect of the car's performance lightly either. The five-speed gearbox was considered necessary to make proper use of the additional performance and spread the torque benefit generously. Clutch size (diaphragm was introduced on the 1600 Sports) was considered adequate but oil capacity and radiator capacity in the engine compartment were increased and the suspension slightly adjusted with millimetre fractional increases to the track (no wheelbase adjustments) and the addition of a torque rod for extra horizontal location of the semi-elliptic rear end.
Technically the Cosmo was the most interesting sports car to have ever reached Australian shores up to 1967 - non-production styling exercises like the Chrysler turbine apart. In Japan it was produced on a limited mass production assembly line, with a first-year output of some 30-40,000 units. (The car was released in Japan in May
1967). Toyo Kogyo claimed the design was entirely the work of its own Hiroshima staff - and the bodywork certainly backed the claims. But the rotary was a Wankel patent and the engine was regarded by most as the result of a big company's impetus behind someone else's brilliant unfinanced design. Mazda undoubtedly spent its claimed millions in developing the engine for production, for which most motoring enthusiasts admired them greatly, but some co-operation from NSU Motorenwerke AG was evident.
Notably though, Mazda developed the side-port intake system. It used four-barrel carburetion. There was more than just interesting engine development on the Cosmo. The bodywork was unitary construction with coil/wishbone front
suspension and
De-Dion type rear suspension. Steering was a quick
rack and pinion tied up at the driver's end with a real Nardi wheel. Braking system was by discs at front with leading and trailing rear drums and tandem master cylinder. The car was based on a short wheelbase (7ft lin.) with fairly good road coverage from the uniform 4 ft 1 in. front and rear track width. Overall height of the car is under 4 ft and the weight tops up at just over 20001b kerb. Finish is reputedly of the highest possible standard, with equipment running to full instrumentation, fully adjustable buckets, seat belts, adjustable steering, tinted anti-actinic glass all round, self-seeking radio, town and country horns and so on.
Performance was rated in excess of 105 mph (from 110 bhp at 7000 rpm) with a reported quarter in the high 16 second margin and 0-60 figure in under 8 seconds. The Cosmo followed on in the performance image from the Mazda 1500S sedan which was released mid-September 1967 with 90 bhp engine (78 was standard), front discs, reclining buckets, four-speed floor shifter, and tachometer, all raising the price to A$2600. This engine featured a two-barrel carburettor, and other internal adjustments to give the bhp rating at 5500 rpm. Of the two sports cars, it was the Datsun that had quite a good and largely unexploited market open to it, and the Cosmo a smaller, more exclusive slightly snobbish field of application.
