The Datsun Roadster is a 2-door roadster / 2-door coupe from Datsun, built from 1932 to 1941, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 495 .
Where it came from
The Datsun Roadster was a lightweight automobile produced by Nissan in the 1930s. The series was a predecessor to the Fairlady sports cars, and was an example of the earliest passenger cars produced in Japan. It shows some similarities to the Kurogane Type 95 four-wheel-drive roadster used by the Japanese Army during World War II.
Under the skin
Power comes from 495 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. 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. 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 Type 12; its successor was the Datsun DC-3; assembly was at Yokohama Plant, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Japan. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57, the DKW F2 — 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 Roadster 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.