Just about the time Datsuns were getting Nissan badging, the suits at Nissan HQ decided that they needed a cheap sporty car to compete with the likes of the Honda CRX and (cringe) Ford EXP in the American marketplace. A little cutting and pasting on the Sentra and voila! Pulsar!

The 70 horses of the E16 engine wasn’t much, but it was comparable to the competition. I remember reading a review of this car that suggested the best way to get the automatic to accelerate was to neutral-drop the transmission. Argh!

The crazy Sportbak option wasn’t available for a few more years, but the early Pulsars still managed to look science-fiction strange.

I’ve never heard anyone refer to a “Datsun Pulsar,” but Nissan was still slapping Datsun badges on most of its American products in 1983.

Such a red interior, though it’s not quite up to the whorehousey standards of the later Dodge Dynasty.

Genuine Datsun AM/FM sound! This option probably cost plenty back then.

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