Probably no other car had anywhere near as big an impact on the production of inexpensive sports cars as Datsun’s 240Z. When it was introduced in 1969, the intent was to compete with European sports carsand initial pricing was comparable to the MGB-GT and well under the price of a Jaguar, Porsche, Triumph, or Alfa Romeo. At the same time, labour issues in Europe, new safety and emissions regulations in the US, and the aging of the underpinnings of many of Europe’s entry level sports cars led to a drop in build quality, while at the same time the Japanese built Datsun 240z was proving itself to be more reliable and well built for the cost, with better performance than its competitors. As a result, the 240Z sold over 116,000 examples from 1969 to 1973 and lead, in many ways, to the collapse of the British car industry, as well as pushing Fiat and Alfa Romeo out of the US market. The Z cars weren’t immune to the US emissions regulations and to help combat them, the 240Z was replaced with an almost identical 2.6 Liter 260Z in 1974, which suffered from some emissions-related flaws making them the least desireable variants, and then in 1976 the 260Z was supplanted by the also largely identical but much better performing fuel injected 280Z, which, however, gained ungainly oversized bumpers to meet crash regulations.