One Man's Cure for a Mid-Life Letdown

By Bill McLauchlan

I doubt the celebrated British poet John Masefield served as inspiration for Scott Fisher when he penned “It is good to be out on the road, and going one knows not where. Going through meadow and village, one knows not whither nor why.”

But you must admit they seem pretty appropriate given his driving ambition to take a break from the daily worries and cares involved in building and running a successful business.

You see, Scott Fisher is a man with a mission. Not the kind of mission with deadlines and meetings but a mission to reconnect with his 1967 Datsun Fairlady roadster – which pre-dates the Japanese automaker’s iconic 240Z that put Datsun (now Nissan) on the map here in the early ’70s – and discover the wide-open spaces of North America. Fisher has blogged the entire trip in detail at RoadsterRoadTrip.com, sharing an impressive array of his photographs from the road.

“I had owned a manufacturing business in Las Vegas for 16 years. I knew I needed to kinda’ get out, and unwind, and get my mojo back,” said Fisher. In his travels, he has covered more than 48,000 km (30,000 miles) to date, starting from his Las Vegas home last spring and heading up the West Coast.

“I got up into the Northwest when it was hot in the South, and I got over into the Northeast for fall, which has allowed me to keep the top down, maybe 80 percent of the time. I drove through the Polar Vortex cold snap. The car even ran well through that. Started right up, idled, didn’t seemed fazed by it at all,” said Fisher.

Now, with 44 states and seven Canadian Provinces behind him, the Nevada-based roamer has taken a detour into Tennessee to show off his red roadster to the folk at Nissan headquarters and share some tales from the road. 

The day started with a visit to Nashville’s Lane Motor Museum, a place where a car guy like Scott Fisher can check out vintage automobiles and relive a childhood memory. “This exact car would have been one of the cars I watched racing when I was growing up. Nissan brought these in and started cleaning up. I definitely didn’t think I’d be sitting here when I woke up, let alone back then,” said Fisher.

Then he headed down the highway to Smyrna to tour Nissan’s Assembly plant.
The extensive road trip has become more than just a chance to decompress and enjoy driving a machine from a simpler time. It is a connection with the natural beauty of a continent and the hospitality of its people that has given Fisher a renewed optimism for life.

“Pretty much anywhere I stop people will come up and talk to me. The car is like a little ambassador. Like traveling with a puppy, people want to come up and look at it, pet it,” he said.

Part of Scott’s Tennessee stopover was a tour of the company’s Smyrna assembly plant, where he witnessed a level of modern automobile manufacturing automation that was not around when his Fairlady rolled off the line at the Shatai plant in Japan in the mid-1960s.

It was a day of unusual hustle and bustle for a man on a year-long journey travelled at his own pace, stopping and taking in landmarks and natural beauty whenever the opportunity presents itself. “I feel like I’ve got a better sense of the country than before I started, for sure,” said Fisher.

Then it was off again, down the Natchez Trace Scenic Highway toward more undiscovered states and beautiful scenery passing by as the soothing sounds of a 45-year-old carbureted Datsun purr under the hood.

“I’m planning on taking my time down through Mississippi, and then getting over into New Orleans. The trek that began as stress relief has become something much bigger; a blog started for close friends and family now has legions of followers. And for Scott Fisher, a man of many talents, the next curve brings a window of discovery to be shared with an old friend.