Requesting documents on 1970's Nissan Motorsport coilovers

[2500lb tuxedo]

Hello,

I have what I believe to be a set of 1970s Nissan Motorsport coilovers. I am requesting scans of documents, pictures, and information of this suspension set up. Here are some of my pictures. Any help appreciated. Thank you, Darren

Edited November 13, 2012 by 2500lb tuxedo

[HS30-H]

Darren,

I don't think that's a Nissan Motorsports setup, I think it's a period local fabrication. Here's why:

The 'coilover' type factory 'Sports Option' struts almost invariably used full-size springs that sat on wide alloy bases, with slots cut in them for tightening. Yours have smaller diameter ( 2.25" / 2.5"? ) springs, sitting on small platforms that have holes drilled for fastening. The threaded portions on your struts are about twice as long as the factory type too. They also appear to be welded all around the threaded portion, whereas the factory type only had short welded sections on them.

The camber-adjustable top mounts on your setup are also different than the type Nissan used. The high-angularity uniball sandwiched into a two-half alloy housing is similar to the system the factory used, but they used an offset centre for their - limited - camber adjustment, and the camber was adjusted by turning the complete top mount whilst yours appear to be linear adjustable.

However, the damper inserts themselves look just like the heavy duty Nissan Sports Option inserts - although they appear to be the oil-filled type rather than the gas-filled ones. Do you see any part numbers on them? If you can, I might be able to give you the bump & rebound data on them.

The whole thing looks like a period-correct setup of good quality. I note the long wheel studs, drilled rear brake backplates and ( what appear to be ) modified steering knuckles too, but stock front discs. A competent race shop build from the early Seventies, perhaps? Something from a C-Production SCCA racer maybe?

Hope that helps.

Alan T.

[HS30-H]

For reference, here's a photo of an AMPCO E4621 Nissan 'Sports Option' gas-filled front strut. Note the screw near the top where the unit was filled with gas, the full-size spring mount and the short portion of thread for height adjustment / corner weighting:

[John Coffey]

Alan,

Those are parts that Nissan Motorsports USA sold to racers back in the 1970s. Yes, they are not made by Nissan. They were locally sourced (the camber plate, threaded tube, and adjustable lower spring perch) from fabrication shops most likely here in Southern California. The same basic camber plate design is still being made by Don Oldernberg at DP Racing and he might have made the originals.

[HS30-H]

Those are parts that Nissan Motorsports USA sold to racers back in the 1970s.

Thanks John, but would they not have been called 'Datsun Competition ( USA )' at that point?

Shirley 'Nissan Motorsports USA' was a later iteration that post-dated these parts, unless they are not as old as I'm imagining...?

Whenever I see the name 'Nissan Motorsports' I think of Japan, and the works competition departments at Oppama, Murayama and Omori which would eventually become 'NISMO' ( their Telex address ) in 1982.

[John Coffey]

Yes, the were known as Datsun Comp back then. When I started working with them (in the early 1990s) they had already changed their name to Nissan Motorsports USA (as part of the creation of Nissan Performance Technology, Inc. from Electramotive). As an aside, say hi to kas Kastner and NPTI:

http://dev.grandtouringprototype.com/tag/nissan-performance-technology-inc/

[HS30-H]

As an aside, say hi to kas Kastner and NPTI:

http://dev.grandtouringprototype.com/tag/nissan-performance-technology-inc/

Very interesting, thanks.

However, it kind of confirms what I have mentioned previously: If you were to view a video like that on it's own, you could be forgiven for believing that Nissan had put ALL of their race operations in the hands of NPTI and were doing precisely nothing in house, or even elsewhere. But in fact, nothing could have been further from the truth. The NPTI setup was one part of a global racing setup that Nissan had running at that point.

Quite bittersweet to see the P35 mentioned at the end ( much promised, little delivered ) but it's a perfect illustration of what I'm talking about...

[John Coffey]

NPTI was part of Nissan USA Marketing and they pulled a lot of their technology from Nissan Japan/Europe and their various motorsports programs. The first few chassis were Lolas that Electramotive got up and running very quickly in 1985 as the GTP-ZX. Once Electramotive was folded into NPTI in 1990 Nissan produced their own chassis, the NPT-90. The P35 (NPT-93) was finally killed when IMSA cancelled the GTP class for the 1994 season. Its a pretty interesting story and Bill Savage (of NPTI and T-Mag) and I worked together on my 240Z back in 2001 doing some finite element analysis work on the front of the car to figure out how to stiffen things up. A lot of the fabrication work on the GTP cars occurred at night because the fabricators hated Kas and Trevor. :-)

[26th-Z]

I think Vintage Motorsport just did a write-up about Trevor's career. There was no mention about any involvement with the 240Z, just the 510.

But back to the original question; I was looking at this thread with interest as I don't recognize the struts from my various competiton parts catalogs of the early 1970s period. Alan correctly points out that competition parts developed by Nissan Motors were marketed and sold through the Datsun Competition Department of Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A. I also have some early BRE / Interpart catalogs and I don't see them in there either.

Edited November 14, 2012 by 26th-Z
Speeling and Punctation

[2500lb tuxedo]

When I first got the coilovers I put them on my car with the original springs and collar adjustments. I was expecting a low stance but I was surprised to see the car had space between the wheel wells (even with my 215/70/14 tires). The ride height was higher than stock. This leads me to believe they came off a rally car.

Edited November 14, 2012 by 2500lb tuxedo