I
have been aware of this car since the 70s. The original
owner, Bruce Mori-Kubo was very nice to me when I was
starting out in this business some forty years ago. This
is the car I wrote the article about in our 1988
catalog
insert.
This
is the first Fairlady sold in the US. It was ordered from
the factory with a deposit on May 26th, 1960. It is the
original paint color from the factory which is not one of
the six offered colors. This car was specially painted
for Mr. and Mrs. Mori-kubo by the factory in a brilliant
"Cherry Blossom Pink" as it would be the first car sold
to a customer in the US. He could have chosen any color
mixable. Bruce received a $50.00 service rebate from
Nissan USA as there were no dealers in the Midwest at the
time.
"The
car is affectionally called "Sakula" meaning Cherry
Blossom.
Last
I heard it was going home to Japan, after receiving some
TLC from Cave Creek Classics in Arizona, a company who
seems to delight in taking on the restoration of the
rarest and most unusual vehicles on the planet. Bruce had
passed away a few years ago.
Rest
in Peace Mori-Kubo san.
Pic
from original brochure.
People
think that the earliest cars would have the lowest vin
numbers; but I have surmised that Nissan would build cars
in a big batch and shove them into a storage aread with
only one entrance and exit. Then when they began pulling
them out for shipment the higher number cars were shipped
first; which could explain why the 1st car to be shipped
to the USA was #198 out of the total production of
288.