It’s a tired trope to liken Japanese cars with European or American ones. I’m guilty of it just as much as anyone – the Bellett is the Japanese Alfa Giulia, the FJ Land Cruiser is a JDM Jeep, the Prince Gloria is a take on the Mercedes Fintail, and so on… Some of these are apt, some are a bit of a stretch. In the case of the first-generation Laurel, though, I think the Neue Klasse comparison really fits it to a T.
Not that the Laurel is a reverse-engineered BMW the way Stalin’s limos could be mistaken for 1941 Packards. For starters, the Nissan’s looks are quite different, much closer to the 510 Bluebird that was obviously their main source of inspiration.
The circumstances were also very different. BMW launched the Neue Klasse in 1961 in a last-ditch effort to save the company from ruin – a true renaissance story. Nissan, for their part, were doing just fine when they launched the Laurel in April 1968. All they needed was to plug a small gap between the 1.6 litre Bluebird and the 2-litre Cedric.
The Laurel was planned for since the mid-‘60s as a stand-alone saloon, with a coupé derivative to be added later but crucially without a station wagon / van version. Nissan’s idea was to leave those long-roof variants to the lower Bluebird and larger Cedric. In the interim, Nissan took over Prince and gained a mid-level sporty car in the Skyline, but the Laurel went ahead anyway: the Prince and Nissan sales channels would remain separate, so the Laurel was still filling a gap.
The Prince takeover had other consequences on the Laurel. One was the engine – initially, the plan was to use a variation of the Nissan L block, but this was soon ditched in favour of the Prince G18, a 1815cc OHC 4-cyl with hemi heads. Now the BMW overtones are becoming clearer…
Why did Nissan opt for the G18? It was already in production and, with its healthy 100hp output, it was perfect for the job entrusted to the Laurel. Another reason was that production was handled by the Murayama factory, i.e. the Prince plant, which also built the Skyline and Gloria. It made a lot more sense to use the engines that were made in the very same location.
Just like the sportier 510 Bluebirds and Skylines, the Laurel would also feature a thoroughly modern (and very BMW-esque) all-independent suspension setup: MacPherson struts in the front and semi-trailing arms with coils in the back. This put Nissan well ahead of the pack on the JDM. The Laurel’s main rival there would have been the Toyota Corona Mark II and the Mazda Luce, along with a lot of newer imports such as the Peugeot 504, the Fiat 125, the Volvo 142 or, inevitably, the BMW 1800.
Those European saloons would have been far more expensive in Japan at the time, but the Laurel, in the few European countries where it was imported as the Datsun 1800, was priced just between the Fiat and the BMW. The 1800 Laurel was offered in places like Belgium, Finland, Norway, the UK and West Germany – all the way to Bavaria, it seems.
The interior was just as up-to-date as the rest of the car, with trendy circular gauges and a 4-speed manual located on the floor, though from 1969 an automatic transmission was available as an option.
Unlike the larger Gloria and Cedric, which were more often than not bought by corporations for chauffeur or taxi service, the Laurel was marketed as the ultimate owner-driver car, albeit with more than enough room for family members. This was a novel segment for the JDM, and the sophistication of the Laurel’s chassis was tailored to match this niche.
To buttress this image, the C30 Laurel got access to the 2-litre G20 engine for 1970, including a 125hp twin carb GX variant. That same year, a hardtop coupé was added to the range – Nissan’s first home-grown pillarless design.
The next generation Laurel would carry over this saloon and coupé range, but the four-door cars reverted to a leaf-sprung live axle. Apparently, Nissan felt that they had gone a bit too far ahead of the competition.
With about 150k sales between April 1968 and April 1972, the Laurel was regarded as a mild disappointment by its manufacturer. Japanese sources indicate that a lot of the blame for this lacklustre performance was laid at the feet of the car’s external design, which was criticized as being too close to the Bluebird.
There is something to be said for that. When this car showed up at the regular Sunday morning meets in central Tokyo, I confess that I first mistook it for a 510 for a moment. This is particularly true of the front end. Not that this is altogether a bad thing: the 510 was one of the best-looking Japanese cars of the late ‘60s.
But in a niche where image was so crucial, looking too much like the junior car was probably fatal. Nissan made sure to remedy that with the next generation C130, which had a far more successful run, also aided by having access to 6-cyl. engines. But in so doing, it lost the original version’s crisp styling and sophisticated suspension. For my fantasy garage, I’ll stick to this one.
I love this model. Such an attractive design and just the right size. Sad how Nissan (Prince?) transitioned from this to their mostly awful designs of the 1970’s.
I was fortunate to see a hardtop in a museum during my visit to Japan a few years ago.
Many years earlier (mid 1980″s) I saw a sedan in traffic in Sydney. Obviously a private import as we missed out on this as its larger cousin the C110.
The four door looks sharp even to day, that hard top coupe sends me to the moon, I’d like to see it in pastels .
100 HP ! I bet that’s plenty for daily driving .
-Nate
A very attractive car, on a number of levels. But yes, the familial similarity to the Bluebird/510 was quite great, and it’s never good to have the cheaper car come out first with a new styling direction.
I’m rather surprised that the next generation Laurel 4-door reverted to semi-elliptic springs and solid axle, as the 610/810 retained the IRS on the sedans (not the wagon/van). Makes no sense.
Styling-wise, not much different than what Nissan was selling in the mid-1980s.
What a neat design, not all humped and twisted like later Nissans.
And yet, coming out with this new car when they already had inherited the Skyline in this market slot! Most companies would have said ‘Dōmo arigatōgozaimasu’ and stuck their badge on in place of the Prince one – but not Nissan. It appears to be pretty much a Skyline technically, but wearing a Bluebird suit – less overtly sporty, more conservative, more Nissan.
And yes, reverting to cart springs on the next model: how weird, how inscrutable. When you already have the good rear end in production and it’s a positive selling point – why?
What a great find – great write up and wide range of pics, thanks T87! I must say, the sedan taillights are rather delicious! Interesting bookending too in that the Laurel was Nissan’s first and last pillarless hardtop in 1970 C30 and 1992 C33 forms.
Big Laurel fan here, but have never seen this generation in the metal. Well, I may have when I was young and they were potentially still around, but I’d have thought it was a Bluebird. And that, as has been pointed out, would have been the OG Laurel’s Achilles heel. Although, 150k sold over 4 years seems reasonable enough for the time. Giving it unique styling while twinning it under the skin with the Skyline certainly helped though, and probably allowed both to survive over the coming decades, with the Laurel having sold over 2 million units by the time of its demise.
Nice find. Indeed, easy to overlook as another 510. The Nissan Musashi-Murayama plant was a huge facility very near to where we lived. It included a large, banked test track. Ghosn sold it off in 2002 – it’s now a large Aeon Mall and city municipal facilities.
The cars we called Datsuns had double chins I never liked. The turn signals should be below the front bumper, to avoid the glare of headlights. Also, high bumpers make a car look lower.
Interestingly dull looker, this. Unlike the 510, it has a version of the Corvair seam running around the beltline, though I’m not sure it adds a lot here. The 510 actually looks better.
The inside appears much roomier, no doubt helped by the thin, nasty chairs the Japanese fitted to everything for 20 years or more (Nissan being the worst offender in my memory). In fact – well, in that unreliable memory – every second 510 inevitably got front seats from Something Else, but then again, that’s because every second one also got mag wheels, spotlights, Webers, extractors, and then had the absolute ring driven off it.
Many moons ago, I drove a BMW 1600 and Datsun 510, though not side by side. They were the same, and damned if I could see the superiority of the double-priced German. I can’t imagine why this Laurel wouldn’t merely have resembled the Neu Klasse but also been as good.