JDM HS30 series VIN's...

[Carl Beck]

And you are forgetting that not all 'HS30' VIN-prefixed cars were 'Datsun 240Z' models. The Japanese home market had the 'Nissan Fairlady 240Z', 'Nissan Fairlady 240Z-L' and 'Nissan Fairlady 240ZG' added to their range in October 1971. All three models used the 'HS30' VIN prefix, and the word 'Datsun' was not written anywhere on the cars.

Japanese home market 'HS30' VIN-prefixed models manufactured during the calendar year of 1971 had body serial numbers 'HS30-10001' through 'HS30-10436'. Then the 1972 calendar year had 'HS30-010437' ( note that extra digit ) through 'HS30-012045', whereafter the first digit was changed over to a '1' and numbers 'HS30-100001' through 'HS30-100800' were manufactured. 1973 calendar year production started from 'HS30-100801'..........

Alan T.

On 26-07-05, the Z Car Club of England you wrote:

Right, I've found the paperwork I was looking for.

This is from Nissan Kabushiki Kaisha themselves. The information for the S30 and PS30 models checks out as accurate enough, so I think the HS30 data should be pretty accurate ( ? ).

Note that these are actual PRODUCTION year figures, not 'Model Year' or other sales-related jargon.

*1972 'HS30-10437' ~ 'HS30-12045' and 'HS30-100001' ~ 'HS30-100800' ( note the gap when the numbers switch to six digits - I believe this happened in late October )

*1973 'HS30-100801' ~ 'HS30-101537' and 'HS30-102001' ~ 'HS30-103262' ( I don't know why there is a gap between 101537 and 102001..... ).

So, according to these figures, the last 'HS30' manufactured in 1972 was #100800 and the very last 'HS30' was #103262.

No doubt - knowing Nissan - somebody with 'HS30-103263' or higher will show up now and prove that HS30s were made into 1974 too.

Hi Alan:

In an attempt to arrive at the number of JDM Nissan Fairlady 240-Z's produced and sold in Japan,

I subtracted the beginning of each range, from the end of each range, for each calendar year for the JDM.

1971

10436 - 10001 =435

1972

012045 - 010437 = 1608

and

100800-100001= 788

1973

101537-100801 = 736

103263-102001 = 1261

Total = 4828 units produced, if all assigned VIN's from each block of reported numbers were used.

I was originally under the impression that you were saying all of the above units were the JDM Nissan Fairlady 240-Z's, and thus 4828 of them were sold in Japan.

However checking the VIN's from Australia and GB I see cars with VIN's in the above ranges. So the above ranges must represent something other than, or more inclusive than. just the JDM HS units, yet the ranges are not nearly broad enough to cover the HS Export units.

Have you found any farther information related to the production numbers or VIN's related to the JDM HS series cars 71-73? Or was I misunderstanding what you were trying to indicate with the VIN ranges you quoted?

thanks,

Carl

[HS30-H]

Carl,

A couple of points to keep in mind re the above:

Firstly, many of the UK-based owners are primarily interested in 'proving' ( ha! ) that their cars were built on or before a certain date for one main reason, and it is related to money. We have a fixed cut-off date for a 'Historic Vehicle' licensing tax over here that falls around the middle of first-generation Z production, and 'proving' that a certain car was built ( not just registered ) before the cut-off date can help to save the owner a fair amount in tax every year, and can slightly increase the value of the car if it should come to market. Some people have managed to get cars made after the cut-off date exempted, and there are also some poor souls who would probably be eligible to qualify for the exemption but have not been able to 'prove' it ( often due to complications arising from late initial registration when the car was new ). The emphasis is somewhat less on the 'carchaeological' aspect of Z production history than anything else. SO, please bear that in mind when viewing what data I post on the UK-based forums, and in what context it is being discussed.........

The other point to take into account is that I am usually trying to make some sense from the data of several sources that does not actually add up as an accountant would like. Its all a bit woolly to say the very least. You have a distinct advantage as far as the USA/Canada market versions are concerned as the data was treated somewhat differently and is certainly better recorded at the receiving end ( although I always wonder just how many of the European-market HLS30s get counted-in or counted-out with the USA/Canada numbers ).

One thing I think we can count on ( and I think this has confused some people over the years ) is that there were NOT two body-number sequences running on the 'HS30' prefix at the same time. EG - there could not have been an 'HS30-00240' in Japan and also an 'HS30-00240' in UK/Australia. I have never come across a duplicated body serial number on the same prefix, and I don't know anyone who has. If two with the same number cropped up I'd suspect skullduggery before any other theory, but I suspect there could well be the possibility of a factory stamping mistake being the exception that proved the rule. So, the point is that we should be able to get a rough idea of quantities produced just by looking at what we have left. There are nice big gaps in serial number sequences though.......

Forget about the 'HS30' body serial number sequences in the quotes that you put in your above post for a moment, and let's talk in very general ball-park numbers about what we think we should be finding:

Quoted figures from various sources ( presumably all originating from Nissan Japan and/or their local offices & distributors/franchises in the territories ) show us that -

*AUSTRALIA & UK market 'HS30' totals should be around 5000 units.

*JAPAN domestic 'HS30' total should be around 5000 units.

*USA/CANADA 'HLS30' total should be around 147,000 units ( note that I suspect this does not cover European-market 'HLS30' units -? ).

I have a note of a TOTAL production figure of 'HS30' & 'HLS30' prefixed units that originated from a Japanese source ( unsubstantiated I'm afraid ) of 157,382 - but I have no idea if that is as accurate as it seems to think it is (!). However, if you add up the above three figures it comes to around 157,000 too - which seems likely to be more than just a coincidence ( ? ). What do you think?

In any case, as far as I can see, Japanese domestic market 'HS30' prefixed units appear to be around 5000 units or so, as do the combined totals of the UK & Australian major territories. Japan only got the L24-engined version for a comparitively short period of course.

A brief word on the Japanese-market 'HS30' body serial number sequence runs you quoted above: I'm not sure how to treat them with regard to individual cases. However, my 1972 240ZG certainly falls into the range of the quoted numbers, and my old ( early/mid ) 1971 UK-market 240Z falls outside them ( it was in the nine-hundreds ) - which seems to match up with what they purport to show. The numbers come from a Japanese government administered agency of the period, and were ( supposedly ) submitted by Nissan Japan themselves. They look to me like they ought to be accurate - although they don't add up to over 5000 like they should ( other combined yearly totals for Japan-market 'HS30' units come to 5023 ) but then they are linked to units REGISTERED FOR ROAD USE in Japan during the years concerned ( rather than units PRODUCED ) and therefore would not take into account personal exports or cars that were produced but remained unregistered for road use. I think that is an important distinction.

I reckon anyone who is brave enough to put their head over the parapet on this subject is very likely to get it shot off............. :paranoid: :classic:

Alan T.