In 1969 Nissan introduced one
of the prettiest cars they have ever built, the Datsun Sunny Coupe, though
sadly it was only in production for a very short time.
The KB10 Sunny Coupe is based on the B10 Datsun Sunny sedan,
which was released in April 1966. Initially only a two door sedan version
of the Sunny was available, then in 1967 a four door sedan, a pickup and
a van were added to the range. Then, well over two years later, the coupe
was released. The Sunny Coupe went into production in 1969, and was built
until early 1970.
The Coupe was built on the floorpan and mechanicals of the
standard two door sedan. It used the same 988cc A10 OHV 4 cylinder engine
as the sedan, but it had different manifolds, a different carburettor,
and a cylinder head with different porting that gave it an output of 66hp
compared to 60hp in the sedan. When the sedan came out in 1966 Nissan made
the rather bizarre decission to fit the car with a transverse leaf spring
front suspension setup, something that was incredibly outdated by that
time. This rather un-sporty system was also used on the Coupe as well.
The coupe body was noticably lower than the sedan. This, combined with
it's crisp lines gave the car an angular and sporty look. Many of the design
features, in particular the sharp creases and folds in the panels and the
airy glasshouse area were very reminesent of the 1965 Nissan Silvia. Inside
the car it was very different to the sedan. The Coupe had a completely
different dashboard. The sedan had a painted dash with a black padded top,
and an instrument binnacle attached to the front of the dash. The Coupe
has a moulded black plastic dash with a recessed brushed alloy instrument
binnacle with three large round dials.
The grille on the Sunny Coupe is completely different to
all the other Sunny models. It features seven thin horizontal chrome bars
and has a badge located in the lower right hand corner of the grille with
a red, white and blue design that looks like a reversed French flag. On
the side of the car there is a Sunny 1000 badge on cars sold in Asia, and
for most other markets there is a Datsun badge. On the boot lid there is
a large round badge with an S in the middle.
Only in production for a year and a half, the KB10 Sunny
Coupe was replaced in early 1970 by the blander and less stylish, though
faster and better handing, KB110 Datsun Sunny 1200 Coupe. |
A sales brochure for the Sunny Coupe KB10
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1969
Datsun Sunny KB10 Specifications
Length - 3770mm
Width - 1445mm
Height - 1310mm
Wheelbase - 2280mm
Weight - 675kg
Top speed - 140kph
Transmission - Floor change
4 speed |
Engine
Specifications
Model - A10
OHV 4 Cylinder
Capacity - 988cc
Bore & Stroke 72x59mm
Power - 66bhp@6000rpm
Torque - 66ft.lb@4000rpm
Compression - 8.5 : 1
Carburettor - Hitachi single
throat down draught
Final drive - 4.11 : 1 |
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