The UMPH team certainly weren't looking for Japanese cars when they attended Auto Italia in the NSW town of Queanbeyan, just outside of the Australian Capital Territory. However, the example shown here - badged as a Datsun 1600 SSS but known in the Japanese domestic market as a Violet - was too good to pass by. Stylistically, this car’s an interesting critter; it sort of looks like a prototype to the 180B which, in reality, it probably is. 1600 SSSs also feature independent rear suspension, as did the classic boxy Datsun 1600 that Aussies and the rest of the world know and revere, and the 180B and first series 200B lineups that followed. Reference to Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Violet#:~:text=Introduced%20in%20January%201971%20the,simply%20as%20the%20Datsun%20710. ) reveals that the Violet - a name that was never going to sell in the Australian market - also goes by the moniker of Datsun 710, as well as the 140J, 160J, 160U and U180U, depending on its spec
Celebrating Tasmania's Classic Car Culture. #ClassicCars #SportsCars #PerformanceCars #TasmanianCarCulture