In the mid 70s there was a bit of a war going on. Nissan (then called Datsun) was competeing with Toyota in the American market. They knew that the people were shifting over from their muscle cars and large family cars into the smaller Japanese cars. They were moving in to carve up the carcass but there was a question, what parts should they take?
They each had a sports car and they each had a utility vehicle they wished to sell here. It was the Datsun Z car vs the Toyota 2000GT and the Datsun Patrol vs the Toyota Landcruiser. They made a deal that one of them would sell the sports car and the other would sell the Utility vehicle. Guess which combination we got
These cars are near indestructible and I've seen them climb verticle cliffs without a winch. They have a proper straight axle setup which is amazing for off roading and they have as much aftermarket as the Jeep Wrangler. They came with straight 6 motors with a stump pulling 210 ft-lbs of torque at 1800 RPM (remember this was the 70s). The car sold all the way up to 1983 until it was replaced by a newer model, but does this make it cool?
