This item crossed my desk yesterday, and I thought it might be of interest
to some Healey listers. If not, my apology for using your bandwidth. Go
ahead and delete it.
== Alex in Maine
1960 BT7 3000 Mark 1 - "The Blue Mainie"
Former owner of 1957 100-6, and 1967 3000 Mark III BJ8
http://users.adelphia.net/~alexmm/ai2q.htm
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| THE CAR THAT STARTED A WAR: THE 1937 DATSUN DISCOVERED
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| Dateline: January 5, 2006 ... New York 10702
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| YONKERS, NY - January 5, 2006 - In the summer of 1936, the Japanese,
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| already at war, quietly purchased a factory from Graham-Paige, an
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| important American automobile maker. This modern manufacturing
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| equipment was shipped to Datsun, today called Nissan, in November
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| 1936. Setup began that December and by January 1937, the age of modern
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| mass production of motor vehicles in Japan had begun.
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| Datsun's new equipment quickly played multiple roles in world history.
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| After Japan's December 1937 attack on the US gunboat "Panay", President
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| Roosevelt cancelled contracts with Graham-Paige, furious that they had
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| transferred such advanced mass-production technology to Datsun.
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| Datsun, in turn, would shift from car production to army trucks and
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| engines for torpedo boats and aircraft. Indeed, auto production had
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| been chosen for modernization partly because car factories could
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| easily be converted to aircraft production. The war clouds gathered,
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| reaching a climax on Dec. 7, 1941.
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| The oldest known survivor from Japan's inception of mass production, a
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| January 1937 Datsun roadster, will hit the auction block this month.
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| Dated on its frame, it is the only survivor from the first month of
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| the first year of modern mass production by any Japanese automaker.
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| The 1937 Datsun will be sold on January 31, 2006, in an auction held by
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| Cohasco, Inc. of Yonkers, NY. Original features, such as a rumble seat,
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| turn signal flaps made of Japanese lantern paper, and ancient Japanese
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| tires are present. It is estimated to be valued at $225,000-$275,000.
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| Among over 600 other varied lots of collectibles in the auction are:
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| - a massive manuscript ledger from the earliest days of
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| General Motors, 1911-12, recording telephone expense of 27"
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| for one month ($900-1,200)
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| - the personal Bible of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mother, with
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| her handwritten entries chillingly recording the births,
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| marriages and untimely deaths of both sons Martin and Alfred
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| ($1,100-1,400)
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| - a fragment of a medieval manuscript from the Monastery of
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| the White Monks circa 1150 ($110-140)
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| - a letter from a steamboat captain describing the Mississippi
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| River flooding the country for miles inland in 1874, the water
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| up to the eaves of houses ($100-200)
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| - a rare engraved printing of the Declaration of Independence
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| on rice paper ($20,000-25,000) and many other unusual items
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EoF
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