The

Datsun Datsun (, ) was an automobile brand owned by Nissan. Datsun's original production run began in 1931. From 1958 to 1986, only vehicles exported by Nissan were identified as Datsun. Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in March 1986, but relaunche ...

Type 15 was a small car produced in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the 1930s. It had a side valve engine and was offered in several body styles.

Design

The Datsun 15 was mechanically very similar to the preceding

Datsun Type 14 The Datsun Type 14 was a small Japanese car introduced in February 1935 and built until 1936. It had a sidevalve engine and was offered in several body styles. According to Britain's National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, the Type 14 "marked the birt ...

. The Type 7 engine was retained, by with a higher compression ratio, increased from 5.2 to 5.4, which increased power by . The engine drove the rear wheels through a three speed gearbox to give the car a top speed of . Externally, the car was larger than its predecessor, but with less chrome detail (material was becoming harder to find because of the war in Manchuria); similarly, the interior was larger but more sparse. The front end resembled American cars of the period, but on a smaller scale. All Datsun 15 models had bumpers.

Production

The first Datsun 15 rolled off the production line in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

in May 1936 and production continued until the Datsun 16 was released in April 1937. The majority were for home use, but 87 were exported.

Datsun 15T

Between May 1936 and April 1938 Nissan produced the Datsun 15T truck based on the Datsun 15. The engine cover was different, with near vertical vents instead of the cars horizontal vents.

References

{{Classicprw-auto-stub Type 15 Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Cars introduced in 1936 Nissan trucks