The new Fairlady was a significantly better car than it's predecessor. Like the previous Datsun sports cars the new SP310 was based on the mechanicals of another car in the range, this time it was the 310 series Datsun Bluebird sedan. The 310 Bluebird was a giant leap for Nissan in mechanical sophistication. The older sedans were all rather crude, with their chassis and suspension based on Datsun truck designs. The 310 Bluebird was very different, and no longer shared any of it's undercarriage with a truck, instead it had a purpose built chassis with double wishbone front suspension. A heavilly modified version of this setup was to be used on the Fairlady. The two main rails of the Bluebird chassis, plus the front crossmember that the suspension attaches to, were used on the Fairlady, but significant alterations were done to the rest of the chassis to strengthen it. The centre part of the chassis rails were doubled, with a second U shaped section welded under the existing rails. The thin rails that connected the two main rails on the Bluebird were removed and replaced with much heavier box sections, similar in size to the main chassis rails. Then the chassis' most dramatic feature was added, a massive X brace under the seats that linked both main rails. This feature gave the chassis enormous torsional strength.
The steering and suspension systems were a modified version of those used on the Bluebird. The upper and lower wishbones were essentially the same, but the Fairlady had a different sway bar design, which attached to two inverted towers under the chassis and then slotted directly into the lower wishbone. The complete steering system was the same as the Bluebird, except that the steering box has a larger diameter sector shaft. The rear suspension featured a live axle design, but instead used the bigger differential and axles from the larger Cedric sedan. The front and rear spring rates were very different to those on the sedan.
Also carried over from the Cedric sedan was the engine. Earlier Fairladys used the same engines as the sedans they were based on, which meant they used the 1189cc E and E-1 engines. The SP310 used the 1488cc G series engine from the 30 series Cedric sedan, which apart from being a substantially bigger and stronger engine than the E series, it also featured a cylinder head with four intake ports instead of the two on the E engines. The G engine used in the Cedric had a dual throat down draught Nikki carburettor, the version used in the Fairlady instead had a single side draught 38mm Hitachi carburettor, which was very similar in design to the British SU carburettor. The Cedric produced 71hp while the Fairlady produced 77hp. The gearbox used was a 4 speed floor change unit with synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears.
