Nissan Model 70

The Nissan Model 70 was a large passenger car built by Nissan in Japan from 1937 until the Second World War made production impossible. It came as a four-door sedan, in standard and deluxe forms, and as a four-door open phaeton that was used mainly by the military; Nissan designed and built the phaeton body, doors, windshield and folding hood itself for supply to the army. The car was Nissan's route to a proper domestic passenger car to rival the American Ford and Chevrolet cars then assembled in Japan. Nissan bought the drawings and machine tools for the 1936 Graham-Paige Crusader, produced it in right-hand-drive form, and fitted Graham's older 3.7 litre engine, because the Continental 2.8 litre engine of the original could not be bought. About 5,500 sedans and phaetons were made, serving before the war as taxis and official or company cars and during it almost entirely as military vehicles. Because Nissan then used the Nissan name for large cars and Datsun for small ones, the formal name was Nissan Model 70 passenger car.