The first Z pace car

[Zedrally]

Alan, many thanks for sharing this information with us.

In the earlier, now deleted thread, you made mention that the pace cars had a "sunroof" and stauchions [sp] for flagpoles.

quote:

As one of the cars in the Nissan Racing School fleet, the 432 was prepared for fast circuit use - with many of Nissan's own 'Sports Option' list and Works parts fitted to it. It would certainly have been able to keep up a reasonable speed on the circuit, especially with Toshimori driving.

I gather that the cars would have been prepared by Nissan, thus possibly having the distinction of having factory sunroofs..

it was a genuine accessory after all.......

Do you have any further info?

MOM

[26th-Z]

I think I was the one who brought up the sun roofs and flag holders, Mike. I was only refering to the way some of the cars were fitted for Ontario Speedway duties and suggesting the features as possible ways to identify a car. I would not necessarily assume that those pace cars were "factory" prepared at all.

I wonder if the grill badge is a JAF emblem?

[beandip]

Alan , thanks . Good job, hope to see you more often . Gary :rambo:

[philUK]

great photos Alan, love the illustration too, i'm guessing it was originally in colour - would love to get a copy!

[alg]

Awsome, Gotta love it!

[HS30-H]

I guess the S30's being lighter than the KPGC10's gave them that extra advantage.

Hi Gav,

In that particular race the 432s were up against the PGC10 4-door GT-Rs ( this was before the debut of the 'K' 2-door ).

The weight issue must have helped, but there were races where the Z was beaten by the GT-R overall even though they were racing in different classes.

Incidentally - the 4-door GT-R was lighter than the 2-door, which is interesting isn't it?

Bambikiller240 & Alfadog,

I doubt that this particular car survived its Nissan Racing School career, and I have certainly never heard tell of such a 432 surviving.

The only Nissan Racing School Z car to survive as far as I know is the LY-engined 240ZR that NISMO restored a few years back - which is a much later car.

Unfortunately it was probably the case that the cars were worked to death and then split for spares or scrapped within just a few years.

ChrisA,

The emblem that you see on the centre of the grille is the 'SCCN' ( Sports Car Club of Nissan ) steering wheel / leaves / tricolour shield emblem. SCCN was in effect the organisation that the Works team drivers belonged to ( and were employed by ) and which entered the Works cars in the races. The Nissan Racing School was also part of the SCCN organisation, along with the NDC ( Nissan Drivers Club ). The Katakana script around the rim of the steering wheel on their emblem reads "Nissan Sportscar Club" - which does not actually match up with the SCCN acronym......

I am attaching a photo of an SCCN sticker below:

MikeW,

Don't forget that this particular race was not actually the race debut of the Works cars. You might be more impressed to hear that the race debut of the Z car was on 18th January 1970 - in the "All Japan Suzuka 300km" race. SCCN works driver Moto Kitano was leading the race in his 432R until he was hit broadside by another car - destroying the first Works 432R race car in its first-ever event.

1GENZED,

The Nissan Racing School was set up initially to recruit and train drivers to become members of Nissan's race teams. They mainly operated out of Fuji Speedway and Tsukuba Circuit, and the teachers themselves were Works drivers and SCCN team members.

This was purely a race driving school, and was not set up to sell Nissan products, or to instruct customers who had bought Nissan cars in how to drive them - so the comparison with Bob Bondurant's school would be a good one.

They used many different types of car, ranging from Fairlady roadsters, Sunny Coupes, Skyline GT-Rs, Cedric and Gloria stock cars right up to single seaters. The school was still running until recently - so they would have used many many cars over the years.

See the photo below of an early Nissan Racing School 'starter pack' of text book, FISCO course map and Nissan Racing School sticker.

Alan T.

[HS30-H]

The tires on the pace car look huge. Were the wheels on the car the Kobe Seiko wheels(R:14 by 9.5 and F:14 by8.5) that were an option on the 432-R or are they Watanabes? I only ask that because they look so large. I am very curious about the specifications of the car.

Hi Ben,

Yes - they were almost certainly the Kobe Seiko magnesium 8-spokes as offered in the Sports Options list for the 432R, but possibly only the 8j x 14 size ( which was the only size listed in the first Sports Option list for the PZR ). I think it might be the Dunlop race tyres that are making them look so wide. They only just fit under the stock arches.....

I think the pace car / Nissan Racing School car was a 432 upgraded to 'R'-level specs, with all the Sports Option suspension parts / plastic panels / acrylic glass / 4-point cage / stripped interior and Ikeda Bussan seats with 4-point harnesses. Probably not too much in the way of engine tuning.

Without doubt the spec would have changed fairly regularly. Within a couple of months of their debut almost all the Works PZRs were wearing Overfenders and starting to sprout the vestiges of aerodynamic aids - especially in the front grille area. I'll post some more images of later cars in this thread after I scan the images and make proper notes about them. Stand by.

Zedrally,

No sunroofs on these Works cars, I'm afraid.

PhilUK,

The sketch may have originally been in colour when the artist did it, but it was only reproduced in b/w in the 1970 literature that I have. Sorry.

Cheers,

Alan T.

[HS30-H]

As a kind of branch to this thread, and with reference to that now-locked USA pace car thread, I thought I would post this photo.

It was taken from a Japanese magazine reporting on the final round of the 1970 Can-Am ( Canadian American Challenge Series ) races - the "L.A. Times Grand Prix' - which was held on 1st November 1970 at Riverside Raceway in California.

The photo shows a fairly stock looking 240Z - which I would assume was almost certainly an HLS30U road car - being used as a pace car during the race.

Caption ( in Japanese ) under the photo implies that this was the first instance of a 240Z being used as a pace car in the USA.

Alan T.

[EricB]

Alan,

Regarding weight, did you say the racing PGC10 was lighter than the racing KPGC10?

Or did you mean the racing PGC was lighter than the stock version KPGC?

Or did you mean that when the KPGC debuted they altered the regulations such that it would be required to have a heavier minimum weight than the PGC?

Just curious for clarification...

Thanks,

-e

[Bambikiller240]

........... I thought I would post this photo.

It was taken from a Japanese magazine reporting on the final round of the 1970 Can-Am ( Canadian American Challenge Series ) races - the "L.A. Times Grand Prix' - which was held on 1st November 1970 at Riverside Raceway in California.

The photo shows a fairly stock looking 240Z - which I would assume was almost certainly an HLS30U road car - being used as a pace car during the race.

Caption ( in Japanese ) under the photo implies that this was the first instance of a 240Z being used as a pace car in the USA.

Alan T.

Thanks Again, interesting info and good picture.

It didn't seem logical (as indicated in the previous thread) that it took until 1972 for a 240Z to be used as a Pace Car in the USA.

[g72s20]

Eric,

from the respective sales brochures,(I only have them in PDF) the stock PGC10 weighed in at 1120 Kg. The stock KPGC10 weighed in at 1100Kg, and just for interests sake the fastback KPGC110 tipped the scales at 1145Kg.

I'm betting Alan T has some interesting gems about the race weights of the racing 4 door GT-R and the racing 2 door GT-R.

Jim.

[EricB]

Jim

Thanks for the numbers... we'll see what Alan says.

-e