The Nissan S30 was the first of the Z sporty double seater coupes manufactured by Nissan Motors during the period of 1969 to 1978. In Japan, it was sold as Nissan Fairlady Z, while in the rest of the markets it was called the Datsun 240Z, which later was renamed as 260Z and 280Z. This car was designed under the leadership of Yoshihiko Matsua, who headed the Styling Studio of Nissan’s sports cars.

This car was introduced late in the year 1969 and was promoted as a 1970’s model. It featured a L20A 2.0 ltr engine that had a straight 6 SOHC. It also featured a rear wheel drive and had an incredibly stylish body. The engine was based on Datsun 510′s 4-cylinder and produced 112kW.

Yutaka Katayama, who was the president of Nissan’s US operations, introduced this car in America in 1970, almost a year after its launch in Japan. There were several modification and changes made to this car before it was introduced to the US market.

This car and the 260Z had a twin Hitachi single barrel SU like carburetors. However, all the models from the 1973 ones saw changes in the carburetor so as to comply with the regulations on emission.

This car became an instant hit in the American market as it was priced lowly compared to other foreign cars like BMW, Porsche, Jaguar etc and it was one of the biggest success of Nissan Motors in the US market. At that time Nissan sold its cars in the North American market as Datsun.