Australian 260z

[RIP260Z]

Hi,

Of the RS30's I have seen here and on Ebay Australia, there does not seem to be any 1978 registered cars. All I see is upto and including 1977. As here in England we were still getting cars that were registered in 1978/1979. Was it the fact that Australia registered all the RS30's that it imported by that time (1977), or that no cars were imported during the early part of 1978? I think that some of our later UK registed RS30's just sat at dealers waiting to be sold. I think this was true for my 1980 registered RS30, as it was a colour nobody wanted.

What about the New Zealand registered RS30's, were they being registered in 1978, or did that end in 1977?

I could be making something from nothing here or not being observant enough, but....

Cheers

Ian

[Mr Camouflage]

I believe the last 260z's we got in Australia were 1977 models, some of which may have been sold in 1978, but were 77 (some may have even been 76) delivered cars, that just sat in the lot waiting to be sold.

I also hear that the UK got the left over 2+2's up to 1979 (you'd be in a better position to comment on that), while here in Australia we got the 280ZX (S130) in late 1978.

[RIP260Z]

Thanks for that Mr Camouflage,

So, if Australia only got 1977 models, why were you not getting 1978 produced RS30's? The UK was getting early to mid 1978 produced RS30's (so the last registered cars were in late 1978 and early 1979), had Australia already started to gear up to the replacement model (S130) that early (surely not)?

As for the UK getting the left over 2 by 2 (GRS30), I have not heard that. As far as I am aware the UK carried on getting the 2 by 2 in tandem with the RS30, as I have seen 1978 reg plates.

Cheers

Ian

[Mr Camouflage]

Ok, your distinguishing between rs30 and grs30. In that case. Australia didn't get the rs30 in 77 (or so i'm led to believe) only the grs30 in 77. Nissan put the figures at 77 grs30's sold in 1977. The 2 seater was dropped from the line up in 77.

The 2+2 far outsold the 2 seater here, apart from in 1974, when the split was fairly even between the 2 seater and the 2+2 (2+2 sold 157 more in 74, 554 more in 75, and 1230 more in 76).

Here in Australia the cars don't get registration dates. They get compliance plate dates, which are fitted fairly soon after the cars are imported into Australia, not when the cars are registered. So it would be impossible to know when a car was first registered, unless you had the original paperwork from the car being registered.

For example one of the guys here in WA has a 1976 GRS30 (unless thats a typo) that was one of the last 260Z 2+2 sold in WA in 1978.

I'm not sure when Nissan started to wind down production of the S30, maybe one Alan T would know more about that.

[RIP260Z]

Thank you.

So can it be deduced that the RS30 was dropped by Nissan Aus. in 1977 due to poor sales against the GRS30, or was there another reason? Basiclly there is no compliance plated (imported?) 1978 model year RS30's (and GRS30's) only a few registered ones?

It has not helped that I have muddied the water by not using compliance plates in my question, as this would have made things easier. In the UK we don't have compliance plates, only registration plates.

Sorry I have banged on about this subject, I am just trying to see why Australia stopped importing/compliance plating RS30's while the UK carried on importing RS30's maybe up to six months longer.

Cheers

Ian

[NZeder]

In response to the NZ question - I am not 100% sure when Datsun (as it was back then) stopped importing the RS30 into NZ (be it RS30 or GRS30) it is very hard to tell as we did not have the compliance plates like Australia only registration plates (and many have been re-registered after a stint off the road for repairs etc ie new rego plates.) Add to the fact that many S30 have been imported from all over the world in the 30 or so years. We have JDM spec, AU spec, NZ spec (general RHD export = different to AU spec cars), UK spec, and LHD US spec imports. Point in case is my car a RS30 registered as a 1977 260z but import and first registered in 1978 from NAURU however going by the chassis number it would have been assembled in Aug/Sept 76 so this should make it a 76 car.

Like Australia we have a few NZ registered 280zx in 78 and many in 79. Again due to imports many JDM models were imported in the from late 80's on when our government relaxed the duties on imported cars and this forced the closer of all the car manufacturing/assemble plants. But unlike Australia we did get the 280zx 2 seaters. So I assume the 260z 2 seater was a good seller for Nissan/Datsun so they continued with the 2 seater range for the 280zx.

[Zedrally]

Possibly it may have been that the numbers of G/RS30 models was insufficient to export into OZ and a smaller market that could absorb them was identified as the UK.

Nissan backed the wrong horse with the L26 and needed to off load them somehow, that's why/how the RHD Export market never recieved the L28 S-30.

Needless to say, every 77 G/RS30 model I've come across has no similarity to another. It was a case of using the bit's and pieces that remained from the

L26 G/RS failure to construct anything that remotely looked like a zed!

HIH

MOM

[sjcurtis]

The only true way to clear the water on this is to compare body numbers from the different markets, this overcomes any changes due to geography and shipping or dealer inactivity. Gives a much clearer picture the GRS30 and the RS30 area/ date sales, changes where many but body numbers just climbed untill the official end of production.

The old seat belt tag date is a real good rationaliser for this one.

my2c

Steve:)

[Mr Camouflage]

I though Aussie Zed's had there original seatbelts replaced with ones that met Aussie standards regulations when they were complianced - or was that just 240z's?

[sjcurtis]

As you can see the seat belt for Australia went through many changes, driven towards achieving reasonable crash survivability. This was the main ADR focus durring the seventies.

"It worked" not until past 2000 did Australias figures start to spike higher than 1968-69 for major injury and death per accident rate national.

These are the main production change drivers for NISSAN I have seen for the Australian market delivered cars 1969-1978 with regards to seat belt.

1969 ADR 4 seat belts fitted in front seats from (JAN 69)

ADR 5A seat belt anchor points for front seats from ( JAN 69)

1974 ADR 4A improved seat belts buckles effective from(APR 74)

1975 ADR 4B inertia reel seat belts fitted to all front seats JAN 75)

ADR 5B improved location of seat belt anchor points (JAN 75)

1976 ADR 4C dual-sensing locking retractor inertia reel seat belts from (JAN76)

I agree the 260Z RS30 and GRS30 went through greater change than the 240Z HS30 for Australia. As far as I have seen all of the madatory changes were incorporated into production prior to shipping. The belt change for 12/71 wasn't that the improve buckle locking change, pre dating the ADR by over 3 Years.

cheers

Steve:classic:

[Zedrally]

I think what Mr C is asking when did Nissan stop changing belts from JDM to ADR. The 240's all had the lap type, much IMO was a backward step, otherwise we would have had the roller type, but for some unknown reason (possibly to keep up the Australian content), it was dumped and the buckle/lap belt was subsituted.

The roller type was maintained with the 260, whether it was factory fitted or Aussie, I had never considered. Everone to there 260's and check!

FWIW

MOM

[sjcurtis]

Zedrally,

What I was getting at here is this was all a governed by ADRs from the start, NISSAN was all over it. The lap sash was an ADR requirement up until 04 APR74 this would explain the initial batch of 260Z had it too.

I think the post production change outs would be either diverted shipment or private import.

My 2C

Steve:nervous: