Graham’s low-priced Crusader was introduced in 1936. One year later on the other side of the world, it was in production as the Nissan Model 70.

The 1936 Graham Crusader Model 80 was a totally conventional Motor City product of the mid-1930s. The lowest-priced of Graham’s three model lines for ’36, the Crusader was essentially a carryover of the previous year’s aging Model 74. There were  just two body styles for the price leader, a two-door coach and a four-door sedan, each available with or without an attached trunk. All rode on the same tidy 111-inch wheelbase and were powered by a 169.5 cubic-inch L-head six supplied by Continental. Prices started at $645.

1936 Graham Crusader 

Indeed, the Crusader was a typical Detroit automobile of its time but for one remarkable fact: One year later, the production line and tooling were halfway around the world in Yokohama, Japan, where the car was manufactured as the Nissan Model 70. It seems there are two stories of how a Graham-Paige product from Detroit, Michigan could travel 6,500 miles to be produced as a Nissan, and both may well be true. That is, they don’t necessarily conflict in a significant way, so we will share them both.

+   According to David Halberstam in his landmark history of the auto industry, The Reckoning (highly recommended), the deal was orchestrated by William R. Gorham. An American expatriate, Gorham is revered as one of the founders of the Japanese auto industry and was closely associated with Nissan. In Halberstam’s account, Gorham arranged to acquire the Graham rights and tooling on a visit to Detroit.

+   Meanwhile, the authors of The Graham Legacy: Graham-Paige from 1932 (also highly recommended) report that Joseph Graham of Graham-Paige made a visit to Japan on behalf of glassmaker Libbey-Owens-Ford, another Graham brothers interest. There he was introduced by Japan’s finance minister to Nissan founder and president Yoshisuke Aikawa, and conversations about a possible agreement ensued.

Either way, we can assume that Gorham, the Graham brothers, and Aikawa were all actively involved in the negotiations, and that multiple discussions were required to arrange the purchase. Strapped for cash, Graham-Paige was more than willing to make the deal, while Nissan was eager to produce an American-style full-sized car but was in need of a head start. The result was that for approximately $390,000, Nissan obtained the rights and all the production machinery for the Crusader, just as it stood on the floor of Graham’s Warren Avenue plant. The entire kaboodle was crated up for shipment to Yokohama, with payment made in Detroit.

1937 Nissan Model 70

There was just one substitution in the equipment list: Since the Crusader’s engine was a Continental property, Graham included the tooling for its own 224 cubic-inch L-head six, an older design that had been retired in 1935. The struggles were many—the machinery was well worn, while Nissan had a shortage of skilled personnel to set up and operate it—but production was already underway in March of 1937. For its formal introduction to the Japanese public in June, the new car was branded as a Nissan to distinguish it from the tiny Datsuns that made up the rest of the company’s vehicle line.

Except for the engine, a few trim variations, and conversion to right-hand drive, the Nissan Model 70 was nearly identical to a four-door Graham Crusader. One year later an additional body style was offered, a four-door touring car for the Japanese miltitary. Meanwhile, Graham continued to offer the Crusader in the USA in ’37, as the company had taken steps to build up its parts inventory while the details of the Nissan deal were worked out.

1937 Graham Crusader 

Between 1937 and the end of production in 1943, a total of 5,496 Model 70s were built, according to The Graham Legacy. The bulk of them went to the Japanese military, where they were used in the occupation of Manchuria and elsewhere (below). Thousands more trucks and buses using the Graham-Paige engine and running gear were produced, and when civilian production resumed after World War II, the old L-head six carried on, eventually powering early versions of the Nissan Patrol. Barely a handful of NIssan Model 70 passenger cars survive today.