Racers immediately saw the potential of the new Datsun. Since the company's 510 Sedan was already a proven winner, the 240Z was a natural. Bob Sharp and Pete Brock both raced a C-Production Class 240Z in 1970 and took the class championship. Almost overnight, 240Z performance parts were available. Because of the 240Z's bargain price of $3,526, owners had plenty of cash left over to buy parts to hot rod their rides. Spoilers, air dams, fog lights, racing wheels and tires, engine kits, and even Chevy V-8 conversion kits were soon available.
Between 1969 and 1973, Datsun made small, incremental improvements to the 240Z (items such as seat belt retractors, new seats, a rear-window defroster, intermittent windshield wipers, flame-retardant interior materials, improved dash layout, and eventually 2-1/2-mph bumpers). The updated, larger displacement 260Z came out in 1974 (the beginning of the boulevard Z-cars), and the Z would see a handful of incarnations throughout the next few years as it moved away from being a sports car and more of a cushy consumer vehicle.
For his lifelong dedication to the automotive industry, Yutaka Katayama was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1998, a well-deserved tribute to the man who changed what it meant to own a Japanese car.