1976 Datsun 280Z in Finland

The Last of the Datsun S30

When the 240Z landed in 1969 it made European sports cars look expensive. By the middle of the decade its market had moved: emissions rules tightened, insurers turned hostile, and buyers wanted air conditioning. Datsun followed the shift rather than fighting it.

Why the 280Z Got Fuel Injection

The 280Z arrived for the 1975 model year as the North American version of the S30 — Japan kept the Fairlady Z name throughout. The L26 was bored out to 2,753cc to create the L28, and Bosch L-Jetronic injection replaced the carburettors. The orthodoxy held that the 240Z was the real thing and everything after was compromise — but a good L28 is torquier, more tractable and far better mannered from cold.

Red 1976 Datsun 280Z from the rear three-quarter outdoors, daylight showing unbroken reflections along the flank

What the car genuinely lost was lightness. Impact bumpers and sound deadening added well over a hundred kilos. It went soft, the way successful cars do, and it is the reason the shape survived long enough to be revered. The 280Z outsold the 240Z comfortably, which is exactly why the good ones are scattered so thinly — built in numbers, and only now being sought out properly.

Red 1976 Datsun 280Z front three-quarter in daylight, long bonnet and low nose of the S30 shape

Finished in Red: A 1976 Datsun 280Z in Finland

This car is a 1976 280Z, finished in red and now resident in Finland. It still wears Japanese registration plates and a JAF badge in the rear glass, so its earlier life was spent a long way from the Nordics — a JDM car that has travelled, rather than a European-market survivor.

The photographs were taken after completion. The reflections running down the flank stay unbroken from front wing to rear arch, which is the hardest thing to achieve on a body with this much curvature and this little factory consistency in the panel gaps. Finnish winters are unkind to steel of this vintage, which makes a car finished to this standard in that part of the world worth recording.

Engine bay of a 1976 Datsun 280Z with the L28 inline-six on individual throttle bodies, replacing the L-Jetronic manifold

Individual Throttle Bodies on the L28

The engine bay departs from factory specification: individual throttle bodies with a fabricated intake and adjustable fuel pressure regulator, rather than the stock L-Jetronic manifold. A common route for an L-series six, and not one that pretends to be period-correct.

Polished intake runners and fuel rail on the L28 six of a 1976 Datsun 280Z

Details, Badging and Interior

Inside, the dashboard carries its original Datsun 280Z badge and the instrument binnacle is the familiar S30 arrangement. Chrome bullet mirrors — period aftermarket, and divisive. A JAF badge in the rear glass, correct 280Z scripts front and rear, and a Z-embossed filler cap.

Original Datsun 280Z badge moulded into the dashboard of the 1976 car

Headlight surround and bonnet of a red 1976 Datsun 280Z, foliage reflected in the paint

The 280Z was built in far greater numbers than the 240Z, and for years it was simply used — driven, modified, raced. That makes a genuinely finished example rarer than the production figures suggest, and increasingly sought after. Well-kept survivors surface rarely, which is why any classic Datsun 280Z for sale in this condition is worth a second look.