The Datsun 17T is a Truck from Datsun, built from 1938 to 1944, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 722 cc Type 7 I4.
Where it came from
The Datsun 17T was a small truck produced in Japan from 1938 until 1944. It was also used by the Japanese armed forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in World War II.
Under the skin
Power comes from 722 cc Type 7 I4. It shifts through a 3 speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2005 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Datsun 15T; its successor was the Datsun 1121; assembly was at Yokohama, Japan. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Volkswagen Beetle, the Lincoln Continental, the Audi 920 — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Datsun catalogue sit the 280Zx and the 310.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Datsun 17T has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.