An Uncommon Z-Car

I was sitting alone at breakfast at a motel in Cartersville, Georgia, when a tall gentleman asked if he could join me.  We were likely both there for the Antique Automobile Club of America’s regional meet, so we probably shared an interest in cars.  Bob Speights was a judge for the meet; in fact, he is a Senior Master Judge for AACA.  As we chatted about cars, I learned that he was retired from Nissan and owned a rare car that had been in the company’s heritage collection.  It was a 300 ZX Twin Turbo SMZ.  I had to ask what an SMZ was and learned it was a special edition of the 300, specially modified by Steve Millen, a very successful Nissan racer.  We exchanged information and planned to arrange a time for me to profile his car.

Datsun/Nissan

The history of the Nissan Motor Corporation is a bit convoluted and got a bit confusing in the United States when what we knew as Datsuns became Nissans.  The company’s origins date back to 1914 when Masujiro Hashimoto built the prototype of a four-cylinder automobile he called the DAT.  The car was named after the three men who financed the effort – K. Den, R. Aoyama, and A. Takeuchi.  It was also the Japanese word for “hare,” which gave the car a useful image.