Hello all,

Can I ask for opinions on the following?

Are you happy with the positioning of the Emergency Brake on your early Z car?

In the UK, we have traditionally called this the "Handbrake" ( is that true for Australia / New Zealand too? ) and I know in Japan it has mainly been known as the "Side Brake".

Some owners will realise that the positioning of the Emergency Brake on the right side of the trans tunnel ( from the viewpoint of the driver sitting in the car ) was the same for both Right Hand Drive and Left Hand Drive versions. As far as I am aware, the only time that the positioning was changed to the OTHER side of the tunnel was in Factory-built "Works" competition cars ( specifically, in SOME of the Works rally cars that were Left Hand Drive - but not all of them ). I think this was only performed on a handful of cars after the Works drivers complained.

As the owner of more than one RHD early Z car, I have always felt that the position of the handle on the right hand side of the tunnel was perfect. When I drove an LHD early Z car for the first time, I was shocked to find how awkwardly positioned the Emergency Brake seemed.

I have in the past owned a fair few non-Z LHD cars ( American, French, Italian, German ) and I think I remember that the handbrakes were usually centrally-mounted or were otherwise easy to get to and use effectively and sportingly ( especially for the odd handbrake-assisted turn ). The early Z cars seem to be unusual in the way that they kept the same position on both LHD and RHD cars.

What do you think?

Alan T.

2manyZs, your anecdote on your girlfriends' legs reminds me of a poll I once read:

100 mem were questioned on thier preferences, 22 % said they liked short legs and 33 % long legs - the rest preferred something in between !

I never understood why you staters call it an emergency brake - what are you going to do in an emergency , pull it up and spin off the road ? In all the TV programmes and films, I always see the cars rock forward as the driver sticks it in gear or 'park' where the locking bolts slide across into the transmission / wheels or whatever !

I also am disappointed that I can't cruise comfortably with my arm outa the window. I nearly always drove with the window open to hear the exhaust - even in the rain 'cos with the guttering, rain hardly ever came in !

Another pleasure is that (and it's been a while since I drove a Z) I don't remember a blind spot with the 'A' pillar. In fact I always found the all-round visibility to be excellent, even when driving my RHD in France for example.

Alan, you 'agent provocateur' you, there is no right or wrong side, they built it like that and that's that. Someone obviously asked "which side should it be put on ?" And we all know the answer !

But reading the replies, as it is high on the tranny tunnel, and it is less of a struggle to let off the high handbrake when it's closer, maybe that plus the fact that the domestic market drives on the rhd side....

After all, cars made by a native company are usually made to conform to the domestic market first before exports !

Sean,

That's what I think - but there are people out there who say that the S30-series Z was made "for" the American market ( rather than just made with hopes that it would sell well there ).

That's why I'm trying to be an Agent Provocateur ( hopefully I won't be accused of Sedition ) and promote / provoke a debate about the 'natural' bias of the car being LHD or RHD.

There's a whole litany of other things on the car that make me think that the RHD market cars are the ones that are the most natural state for the car to be in. The whole layout of the engine and transmission is a large case in point.

I don't want to let these assertions that the car was made "for" the LHD market go unchallenged ( or at least undebated ). I think its quite clear that it was not. The Handbrake positioning is a good example of this.

So far though, comments from LHD car owners have been fairly non-commital. What I really want to know is if anyone out there with an LHD car thinks that the Handbrake position on the right side of the tunnel is the way they think it SHOULD be for an LHD car.

My intentions are constructive rather than destructive, and I'm hoping for an old-fashioned debate without descent into confrontation.

Or maybe this is too dry a debate for most people to be bothered with getting into?

Alan T.

Oh you stirrer you,

You may have more luck starting an argument about cricket being superior to baseball!

Reminds me of a Volvo I once owned [although I might regret owning up to it].

The indicators where on the "wrong"side.

After a while you get used to it and think it normal, hence the lack of response on the handbrake question.

I think Alan's just getting old and trying to start arguments!

Either that or he is subtley spreading the word that the Z was definitely not "An American car, built in Japan" - something that needs to be spread so that those darn yanks don't one day remember the Z as a "muscle car"... no offence to the Americans here certainly.

Alan, about the Japanese short people driving Z's ... you have an answer for everything!!! Let me think of another... ok was there any real reason why they changed slightly the design from the "series 1" to "series 2" cars? (you know, the hatch vents, steering wheel holes, etc.) or was it just changed because it could be?

Oh and one story I find hard to believe (can't remember where I heard it .. might have been you!) was that Mr. K actually got people to debadge all of the American export Z's in the beginning, and rebadge them all to be 240Zs... is this true at all?

I'm going off topic aren't I...

Hi All,

I would have to agree that the car is originally designed as a RHD car, and then only AFTER, was it adapted to LHD mode.

Out of interest, for those of you that have driven a LHD S30, what about the positioning of the pedal box? Is it in a "nice" position, or is it too close to either the left or right? Maybe that will also help this "debate"

Now out of topic, Alan, your number of posts are fast approaching the magic 432 number, I am sure at the moment that anything "432" would almost appeal to you!?!?

Now that I am a bit older, a bit more Nissan educated, there is a question runing in the back of my head.

Why Nissan didn't send the whole package to the world?

The Z is my dream, my main occupation in life. I also know that if (yes the old what if...) my garage would be big enough, my bank account large enough, I would have an old Skyline. I am sure that they would have scored big as well this this model. I rather have a skyline coupé in order to move 4 peoples than a 260 2+2!

I my opinion, they almost invented the BMW Mx concept, big engine in a small package. But you don't rewrite history...

Not getting many bites from the LHD owners, so it might be declared "no contest"..........

I'm after a healthy and grown-up debate here - not an 'argument'. Where are the Zhome supporters when you need 'em?!

Zedrally - that's an interesting analogy about the Volvo indicator stalks. I drive an RHD Alfa Romeo 156 as my everyday transport, and that is compromised in the same kind of way. Its really easy to tell that it was designed primarily as a left hooker, and the RHD version has lots of silly little niggles like that.

I think one of the biggest no-no's on a car is to have the indicator stalk on the same side of the steering wheel as the gearstick. It just makes you feel really busy sometimes. Having it on the opposite side of the wheel somehow seems more natural, even though you still need to use both hands. Interesting that Nissan seem to have thought of this with the LHD and RHD versions of the S30-series Z.

Alfadog, I have never heard Japanese Z enthusiasts talk about "Series 1" and "Series 2" cars. I think this is terminology that grew up in the USA market in answer to a perceived cut-off or change point from one spec to another. From what I have seen, heard and read, there were many changes all through the life of the early cars ( I'm primarily talking 1969 to 1973 here, and ALL markets - not just USA ). Some of them were more noticeable than others ( like the venting change and the holes in the steering wheel that you mentioned ) and this may have led to the perception that there were different "series" of cars. I think in truth the factory was changing / improving / fettling details all through the life of these cars, and it was mostly done on the hoof. Sone of the big reasons for changes would have been improvements to manufacture of components - like the "sugar scoops" changing from plastic to steel. Apparently it took a while for them to sort out the proper pressing of these items, and they were forced to use plastic in the beginning. I can't see any reason for changing most of the details except that they might improve production, function or looks. They were pumping out so many of these cars in the first few months of production that its not surprising they found ways to improve them.

That story about Mr K. changing emblems is at least partly apocryphal. There's no doubt that it was Katayama himself who insisted on the name change, and this involved him taking some "Fairlady" emblems off of cars and switching to a "240Z" emblem instead. But where did these "240Z" emblems come from so suddenly? They must have already existed in order for there to be the possibility to use them. Do we have the whole story?

Cuong, the pedal box question is a good one. Its pretty crowded on the left side of the trans tunnel and engine bay of an LHD Z.

The footwell is pretty wide though, so the factory may have done a good job in packaging the pedals and their linkages. Notice that the Clutch Slave and Throwout Arm are on the right side of the trans though.

( Cuong - when I get to 432 posts I'll probably need an oil change at the very least! ).

Fred, I think its fairly typical that "Export" markets never get the full Home Market range of any automobile manufacturer. They usually pare down the model selection to make it simpler for themselves and their territorial representatives. Here in the UK, the early days of Nissan / Datsun importing were carried out by a franchise ( called "Datsun UK" ) who tried to keep things simple for themselves. For example, they never imported the C10 Skyline range as they probably thought they could not compete with the Escort and Cortina in the UK market. This must have been the scenario in most other territories too.

"An American car, built in Japan" - anybody want to agree with that?

Alan T.

Allan, have you been in a rally buggy? I think they have what could close this argument, dual hand-brake. Right, one for each side of the rear wheel, so you can turn very tight on mudy hairpins. So what would be right for a rally Z fanatic is to use both lever on each side od the trans tunel !

If we start counting, I vote hand-brake wrong for a LHD and right for a RHD.

PS, are you doing any Monte-Carlo revival with all the snow you get in UK latelly?

Fred

Alan.

Nissan would have realised the export potential of the Z, it would have been designed for the world market, may be not as well designed as it should have been,the hand brake for instance.

But that did'nt seem to bother many thousands of Americans who could'nt get enough of them may be design genius??

Were Zs exported to USA before UK? the natural export market?

Credit where it is due they built a car that sold very well in the market that it was intended for.

Pity the UK motor industry was still trying to sell some pretty average product in the 1970s

Nick

"An American car, built in Japan"

I agree to disagree with that...

Alan,

Your (mass) debates are dry but informative - especially to the owners who've accepted 'that's what I've got - it sold by the thousands so it must be right (even if it does give me a frozen shoulder every time I want to hang a sharp turn) '.

Personally, my favourite way of taking a sharp turn was to point the front wheels more or less in the direction desired then squirt the gas - she's such a lovely car to drive and you always know what's happening. I've been out in her in the snow - yes, sacriledge but, dammit, it's such fun and the car will wheel spin in a STRIAGHT line, no fish-tailing !

I want to pose a question though, being a new to LHD zedding, has anyone tried to mount the handbrake on the drivers side - how much work is involved ? No purist thought please, the car is already well past the original concours stage !

Over to you, fifth columnist !

Alan,

I just got hit by all the other (RHD) responses and something you said made me react.

Here in France, the French manufacturers loads their export cars with extras sometimes never seen on domestic models or, at the least are costly extras. Can't we assume that Nissan did the same with the Z ? Rather than quote the ZL and other models as models made cheaper for the Japanese market (because of the tax cutoffs?), shouldn't we be saying that the export markets got the top of the range domestic model (432 excepted - is that synthetic or mineral oil change?) ?

Big mistake not to have at least exported a limited number of Skylines to each country and let the motoring journalists have a go. This dreary Datsun image would have been shortlived !

Fred, if you speak nicely to Steve, he'll sell you his 200 brake 1983 Skyline !