History Of Z

An American resident industrial designer was hired as a design consultant by Nissan in the early 60's. This designers name was Albrecht Goertz. As well as the honor and acclaim brought to this genius auto designer by the birth of the Z, Goertz also designed the beautiful BMW 507 of the 50's. He left Nissan in the late 60's and Nissan continued development of the car.

The design of the Z was influenced considerably by Goertz but his early efforts have since been added to and improved by American designers. The engine was designed for the 240Z by adding two more cylinders to the OHC engine from the Datsun 1600. While not as smooth as a Jaguar engine the new Datsun effort competed well with a Mercedes engine. The Datsun 1600 engine is actually a copy of the early 1960's Mercedes 220 six-cylinder engine (less two cylinders and suitably stroked and bored).

To make the 240Z engine (L24) Nissan added 2 more cylinders. The L26 engine from the 260Z is the L24 with the same bore but a bigger stroke. The L26 became the L28 of the 280ZX. The L series engine is well known for its legendary strength and reliability. The engine is a seven bearing design and has an absolutely bulletproof lower end. Legends abound of cars with 500,000 miles on the clock which come in for an overhaul and the lower end is still OK. L series engines very rarely need an align bore of the lower end no matter what the mileage.