1969 Nissan Fairlady Z432

Though the standard Nissan 240Z that made its debut in 1969 was fast enough, there was an even faster version, the Fairlady Z432 sports coupe.  This car used the Nissan Skyline GT-R's 160-horsepower straight-6 S20 engine, and was named Z432 because the engine had four valves per cylinder, three Mikuni carburetors, and two camshafts.  Only about 420 cars were built, including a few for the Japanese police, who wanted a car that would let them catch up to criminals driving fast foreign sports cars.  This was still more common than the earlier Toyota 2000GT.  The regular Z sold over 40,000 cars a year in the American export market alone, and showed that Japanese sports cars could beat their European rivals in performance, pricing, and reliability.  The Z432 is the kind of car Jeremy Clarkson would have reviewed on Top Gear if that show had been around fifty years ago.  Half a century on, this orange 1969 Nissan Fairlady Z432 still looks fine and fast on the Nissan showroom floor in Yokohama, Japan.  Buying one of these today would cost about 10 million yen (100,000 dollars), which is worth the investment if you're the right kind of driver with the right kind of road.