1972 Nissan Fairlady Z432 R

The Nissan Z-series is a model series of sports cars manufactured by Nissan, in seven generations since 1969.

The original Z was sold from October 1969 in Japan as the Nissan Fairlady Z  at Nissan Exhibition dealerships that previously sold the Nissan Bluebird. It was initially marketed as the Datsun 240Z for international customers. Since then, Nissan has manufactured seven generations of Z-cars, with the most recent—simply known as the Nissan Z—in production since 2022.

The relatively recent emergence of JDM or Japanese Domestic Market vehicles into the collection of fine automobiles has been celebrated for adding variety and color to the landscape. Early or special JDM vehicles demonstrate the exceptional design and build quality for which this market became renown. There is, perhaps, no JDM model that speaks more to this than a genuine performance ‘432’ variant of the Nissan Fairlady Z.

This car is the high performance Model Z432 on which S20 engine of an inline 6-cylinder 4-valve DOHC and 160ps is mounted. This engine is same as that of the third generation Skyline 2000GT-R (PGC10). “432” comes from the engine configuration of S20, i.e. “4 valves, 3 carburetors, and 2 camshafts.”

Sections of the bodywork were stamped out of thinner-gauge steel, and all the glass apart from the windshield was replaced with acrylic. There were no creature comforts, no heater, no radio, no clock, no glovebox, and no sound-deadening. All the stainless-steel garnish was missing from the windows, not so much a decision to remove weight as about only adding the essentials. Some road-car owners optioned heaters just to clear the front window on a wet day, but the R was as bare-bones as it gets.

To the unfamiliar eye, the Fairlady Z 432 looks like a standard Datsun 240Z, though from a performance perspective, the Z 432 is in a league of its own. Its speed was due to the Nissan Skyline GT-R S20 engine that the engineers had shoehorned under the bonnet.