After a discussion arising from a recent thread, I took a closer look into the question of 'The first Z pace car'. That is to say, the first S30-series Z car to be used for 'Pace Car' duties in a race event worldwide. I have been encouraged to post this information here on the site for all to see, so here goes:

The first instance of use that I can back up with solid documentary evidence, data and pictures is at the 'Race De Nippon' event - held on 12th April 1970 at FISCO ( Fuji Speedway ) in Japan.

This 6-hour race included 'TS-II', 'TS-III' and 'GTS' classes, with two SCCN ( Nissan's works team ) Fairlady Z432-R cars entered in the GTS class. Car no.1 was crewed by aces Hasemi and Kitano, and car no.2 was crewed by Teranishi and Yokoyama. The main challenge to the two Z cars for overall victory was to come from a gaggle of Skyline GT-Rs in the TS-III class, a brace of very hot Mazda rotary coupes also in TS-III and a couple of quick Isuzu Bellett GT-Rs running in TS-II. Several Fairlady SRs were running head-to-head with the 432-Rs in the GTS class, and as these were pretty much at the end of their development period they would have been well-sorted and still fairly quick.

The no.1 432-R of Hasemi and Kitano took the overall and GTS class class win - covering 959km over the 6 hours, with Skyline GT-Rs following home in second and third positions. One of the Mazdas came in fourth. This was the worldwide first ever race win for the S30-series Z car.......

A pace car was deployed more than once during the race, and it is this car that is the subject of this thread. It was a Fairlady Z432, and was actually one of the cars that was part of the Nissan Racing School fleet - which was based at FISCO. For this event, JAF ( the Japanese Automobile Federation ) 'borrowed' the car from the Nissan Racing School, and used SCCN race team driver Yasunori Toshimori as the Pace Car driver - accompanied by a JAF official in contact with the Race Controller by radio.

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.

Below are pics of the car in question. First pic is of the car being used in the race after an incident. Second is the same car in its Nissan Racing School livery. Third is a nice illustration of the same car in some Nissan Racing School publicity, and the fourth pic is a portrait photo of SCCN team driver Yasunori Fujimori, who drove the Pace Car illustrated.

I hope this is of interest to some site members.

Alan T.

Just for fun...a little quiz for Mr T

What race?

clues.1973. Motoharu Kurosawa was Blackflagged. Kunimitsu Takahashi DNF. Hiroshi Kazato won.

A trivia clue for the Aussies here. Tim Schenken was a DNF this event.

.......Oh, and the pace car was driven by Osamu Mochizuki....that's it in front..the white one ..hey, is that a Gnose ? (is the G silent?)

hehehe,

Jim.

Hi Jim,

WOW - nice picture. I haven't seen that one before.

Let's see ( I hate being put on the spot like this ).

I'd say it was probably Round 4 of the 1973 Grand Champion Series - the 'Fuji Masters 250km', held on 10th October ( at FISCO, obviously ).

1st - Kazato Hiroshi ( Chevron B23 ).

2nd - Tanaka Hiroshi ( March BMW ).

3rd - Tsutsumi Tomohiko ( Lola T212 ).

Incidentally, the great Henri Pescarolo ( March BMW ) came home in 15th place.

Kazato covered 41 laps, over the course of 1 hour, 13 minutes, 26.56 seconds for an average speed of 200.973km/h. Tanaka was only 8 seconds behind him at the finish.

Always nice to see Kurosawa getting a bit of bad luck ( the miserable sod ).

Did I pass?

If you've got any more Z pace car shots I'd like to see you ( anyone? ) add them to this thread. I feel a bit like a unicyclist spinning plates at times.

Cheers,

Alan T.

How do you send the "top of the class" to the top of the class. Absolutely correct Mr Thomas!! . Aaah it's all good fun. My reference is the Feb. '74 issue of MOTOR (Car & Cycle)MAGAZINE INTERNATIONAL . Happy to email you a higher res pic of the article if it pleases Alan.

Anything to keep the historic juices bubbling :classic:

Cheeers,

Jim.

Of related interest...

Yesterday I went down the street to the local UPS Office/Hub on Rancho Conejo Blvd in Newbury Park (CA) right next to where I work and while taping together a couple tires I was sending off to someone, this guy Lance whom I gathered is one of the Fleet Mechanics there came out to admire my Z.

Long story short, his dad a retired CHP officer once tailed a trailer to its destination in Thousand Oaks because it was carrying a car he instantly fell in love with. It was one of the Ontario Motor Speedway Z pace cars still in its original livery. He managed to buy the car off of the trailer although it wasn't for sale. It's been in that family's care ever since. I asked if this guy Lance had any pictures of it and he said he'd bring some in to the UPS place next week.

Anyobdy remember these cars from back in the day?

-e

I also like to add a picture of one of the Fuji cars…. On the right a Dutch journalist ready for take off round the circuit.

Hi Alan (everyone):

Per your offer to contribute the JDM Pace Car information and images to the Z Car Home Page; I've attempted to extract them from this thread, and created a first DRAFT of the article.

Now it's your turn... Review the "DRAFT" and send edits directly to me at my e-mail address: beck@becksystems.com (I'll cut/paste the plain text into the html).

Secondly: g72s20 aka "Jim" provided another image to the thread.. I've put it there as well - Jim if you will, please e-mail me a full name to credit for the image, I'll add that to the article.

The draft is not yet linked to the main index on "the Z Car Home" page... so the direct url is <a href=http://ZHome.com/Racing/JapanPace/FairladyZPace.htm>http://ZHome.com/Racing/JapanPace/FairladyZPace.htm</a>

thanks,

Carl

Carl Beck

Clearwater, FL USA

http://ZHome.com

Hi Alan (everyone):

Per your offer to contribute the JDM Pace Car information and images to the Z Car Home Page; I've attempted to extract them from this thread, and created a first DRAFT of the article.

Now it's your turn... Review the "DRAFT" and send edits directly to me at my e-mail address: beck@becksystems.com (I'll cut/paste the plain text into the html).

OK Carl,

I've taken a look at the draft, but I think I would much rather add my comments to this thread than send them direct to you - if you don't mind. That way anybody else who is interested can also add comments / corrections / extra info / different opinion.......

The draft is not yet linked to the main index on "the Z Car Home" page... so the direct url is <a href=http://ZHome.com/Racing/JapanPace/FairladyZPace.htm>http://ZHome.com/Racing/JapanPace/FairladyZPace.htm</a>

It seems to me that you are immediately differentiating between the Japanese-market cars and the Export cars, and creating some kind of segregation? If you put this page of Japanese-only pace cars up on the zhome site, then what is going to happen to the pages that are already up there, where the caption "Pictured below, as far as I know from my research to date, is the first Z Car that was used as the "Official Pace Car" for a major racing event." is still visible? This is now out of date, isn't it?

Are you going to modify those pages? Would it not be more relevant to have some 'Pace Car' pages that cover pace cars with a worldwide view, or will you still differentiate between the Japanese-market cars and the Export versions, with a strong bias to the USA / North American market?

This kind of goes to the heart of my difference of opinion with you regarding the way you divide the S30-series Z cars into convenient compartments on zhome.com. To me ( and Nissan! ), the S30-series Z was a small 'family' of models. I can understand the need to divide these models to talk about each specifically in more detail, but only if it is clearly understood that each of these models is a member of a family.

Without understanding the family, I don't think it is possible to understand each specific model - and vice-versa.

Maybe others would like to add their comments on this?

Alan T.

Without understanding the family, I don't think it is possible to understand each specific model - and vice-versa.

I totally agree with you on this one. You said it very well. For me, the more interested I get in these cars, the more I appreciate all of them. I may favor specific models, but I love finding out the similarities and differences between all s30 models.

-Ben

p.s. Alan, I thought you were from London, England.

Hi Alan/Carl,

I must agree with Alan on this, hopefully it will become a world wide pace car thread.

It would be dangerous to focus on one country and one model alone alone.

Out of curiousity, I noticed an emblem on the grill which doesn't appear to be the "normal" one.

Was this a special for the JDM?

MOM

...Out of curiousity, I noticed an emblem on the grill which doesn't appear to be the "normal" one.

Was this a special for the JDM?

Zedrally,

ChrisA asked the same question. See post #18 on this thread for the answer, and an attached photo.

Cheers,

Alan T.

Ben,

He is... he just happens to move around some thus the current FL location...

-e

Two more pics from '72 for the archives