A Pristine 1971 Datsun 240Z Just Sold for $310,000 Because the World's Gone Mad

Today's Nissan might be struggling, but certain members of its back catalog certainly are not. A very green and extremely clean 1971 Datsun 240Z just sold for a whopping $310,000 on Bring a Trailer. 

The car's story is outlined on the video below but here are the highlights: It was sold new to Indiana then-Datsun dealership owner James Munson who gifted it to his son, Ronald, who passed away last May. It just sold with only 21,750 miles on its original 2.4-liter straight-six. 

For those without an encyclopedic knowledge of vintage Japanese sports cars, this engine made 150 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque when it was new. Power goes to the rear axle through a four-speed manual gearbox. The quaint hardware and lack of miles are interesting but we suspect this Datsun's real selling point was its immensely desirable Racing Green on brown interior color scheme. In fact, the Japanese were still using the color combo on its special edition sports cars as recently as last year.

From the posting, the current seller acquired the car in December and has since changed the oil, adjusted the carburetors, replaced the fuel filter, gapped the spark plugs, gave it a good detail, and, most importantly perhaps, slapped on a new set of 175-series Vredestein Sprint Classic tires. The seller also notes that paint meter readings were taken still showing two to five millimeters of color and that the aforementioned detailing job did not involve any compounding or sanding. This is a museum-quality Datsun if we ever saw one. 

Is it worth $310k, though? Maybe. Maybe not. But if you ask us, it's still a better way to spend 300 grand than that ridiculous widebody Urus. 

Got a tip? Send us a note: tips@thedrive.com