History on this Z?

[Ed]

Can someone enlighten me as to the significance behind this body scheme. I see them every now and then and I feel like there is a history behind this.

http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=3551

I'm not really sure how to do this properly but the pic is in there somewhere.

[2ManyZs]

Ok, now that you have our attention, could ya give us the pic?

[Ed]

Sorry 2many, I'm trying, its the one on the home page. The orange one with the black hood. Meanwhile I'll keep trying. (never done this) I think I got it (kind of) on the first post.

[24OZ]

The black bonnet and red body paint scheme is synonymous to the race bred 240Z's that were being built in England in the late 1970's by Samuri Conversions Ltd. The most famous of the cars being "Big Sam".

Maybe this is what you were thinking off??

Big Sam (Top) compared to Gav240Z's Z Pic (Bottom)

Actaully big typo...oops... the paint scheme is more synonymous with the works rally cars

Much better info, then I can ever provide on these cars, is located at Z home

[Ed]

That's the one. Now you have to tell my how to attach a picture.

[24OZ]

This is how you attach a picture..

1.go to the picture you want and right click on it.. you will then see a few options.

2.go to the option which is called "properties", you will now get more options, copy the link called "address" (highlit it and then press Cntrl C).

3.Then in the page you post into, at the top in the section called vB code you will see a button called "IMG".

4.Click on this button and in the box that appears it asks you to put in the url, just Cntr V to paste it in and your done.

[HS30-H]

Actually................

On the seventh day, God made the 432R, and there was light.

Everything else came afterwards, including the Works rally cars.

Samuri Conversions and "BIG SAM" certainly DID NOT influence anything going on in Japan - quite the opposite in fact.

The photo of the Orange car with Overfenders, wide RS Watanabe 8-spokes, a deep front spoiler / air dam and a black bonnet ( OK - hood ) is a typical example of what might be called an Old School Japanese street-tuned look. This grew up from a mixture of influences, but can be traced back to the look of the 432R and the Sports Option parts that were available from the Factory since the beginning of Z production. Its always been cool in Japan to use these parts, but over the years the look slightly mutated and you can see different ( and sometimes not very well done ) versions of it. The black bonnet / hood look started out as a matt-black or satin black finish for heat dissipation on race and rally cars. This is a difficult finish to keep looking smart, hence the gloss black version ( less effective at heat dissipation but easier to keep clean ). In a nutshell, this look is just apeing the Factory race and rally car look of the early Seventies - but with a little bit of a modern twist.

If you want the REAL story of the Works rally cars then I suggest that you buy one of the Z books that contain a chapter or two about them. The best of these would be between "The Z series Datsuns" by Ray Hutton ( ISBN 0 947981 02 0 ) or "Datsun Z - Fairlady to 280Z" by Brian Long ( ISBN 1 901295 02 8 ), both of which have fairly good chapters on this aspect of Z history. However, the definitive book on Nissan's "Works" built race cars is still to be written..................

People seem to be getting more and more interested in the 'Japanese look' recently, don't they? I reckon its a good thing. Maybe people will start to realise that the Z has a Japanese history too.

Alan T.

[24OZ]

Alan,

Thanks for saying what I should have said in the first place, it's definately back to school for me!

[HS30-H]

Old School, George!

And how the hell are you anyway?

Must meet up some time when the weather gets a bit better, eh? Kind of ironic that we are just a few miles from eachother but communicating via a USA-based website, isn't it?!

George, PLEASE don't mention the dreaded "S" word again ( you know, that S-a-m-u-r-i one ). Its a very rude word in our house!

All the best,

Alan T.

[Ed]

Thanks for the lesson. :classic: