Car feature: Nissan 2400GT HGLC10 at Garage Denissen

About five years ago I found a Dutch Nissan 2400GT brochure for sale on our local classifieds and I posted photos and scans of this brochure on my blog. Then I got contacted by Frans-Jan Petrij about his two Nissan 2000GT and 2400GTs and I posted a few of his photos. One thing led to another and I got contacted by a Nissan dealer called Fons Denissen who told me he actually has a Nissan 2400GT HGLC10 in his showroom!

Obviously I visited the Denissen dealership in 2010 and took a lot of photos of the 2400GT that was crammed between a few modern Nissans and at the back of the dealership there was a Datsun 240Z on a pedestal. Unfortunately my digital camera was dysfunctional so most photos were scrambled and had black lines in the photos. So I made the promise to return to the dealership and I finally was able to keep my promise and visit them again.

In the four years that passed a lot had changed at their dealership. They now also represent the Kia brand, the Datsun 240Z has gone and the Nissan 2400GT took its place on the pedestal:

This 2400GT is an early restored example that has been in possession of mr Denissen for the past 35 years. He did own two of them once, but used parts of the other car (far worse condition) to keep this car alive.

The car itself used to be a demonstration car of Datsun to show they also sold performance cars and not only econoboxes like the Cherry and Sunny.

In basis the Nissan 2400GT is the same as the Nissan Skyline 2000GT that sold in Japan: same bodyshape, long nose, six cylinder L series engine. The difference is obviously the left hand drive steering wheel, the bigger 2.4 litre engine and the tail lights that are entirely different than the Japanese tail lights.

The interior still breathes the late 60s early 70s vibe and it appears to be in pretty good shape.

In this photo taken from the other side you can see that the test of time left its marks on the dashboard: it has cracked right through. A bit of a shame as the left hand drive dashboard is unique and rare. Apart from that the car still has its original trim including the wooden steering wheel with the 60s Nissan logo on it.

The tail lights at the rear of the car are different that due to the European regulations the indicator has to be orange and not red. Also the inner shape is slightly different.

Only 59 of the Nissan 2400GT HGLC were sold in the Netherlands and according to mr Denissen there are only three of the 2400GT/2000GTs left in the Netherlands of which his car is one of the two drivable cars. The car is, as far as I know, not for sale and will be fully restored somewhere next year.
Outside the Netherlands there are six known cars in Finland, one in Sweden, one in Portugal and another two in Dubai. Worldwide there should be somewhere between 15 and 20 cars left, so it is a rare and special car

The other two Nissan 2400GTs in the Netherlands are owned by another Nissan dealership that also features the Dutch Datsun/Nissan museum. So guess where I plan to have my next visit?

Edited and corrected two mistakes: the car has been restored and one of the other two has been restored and is drivable again