compe steering wheel?

[LEE240ZPERTH]

Alan

I don't know if you know him personally or not but while I was living in the UK I met up with Kevin Bristow and James Morris, well known Z car people in rally circles, anyway I took my z to his property to collect a seat I needed and he showed me a works car he had purchased a few weeks before, he had it stripped down and had started a nut and bolt restoration job on it.

I was just wondering if you knew of the car and if so have you seen it, would also be interested if you have any thoughts as to what you would have to pay for a works car, even one in need of a full resto job, I guess it would be hard to put a price on something that hardly ever surfaces though!

Regards

Lee

[HS30-H]

Hi Lee,

Kevin's one of my best mates.

His genuine Works car ( it was entered in the 1971 RAC Rally here in the UK ) is now painted and is pretty much a rolling shell. Next things on the 'to do' list are the engine and transmission.

When he got it, it was like finding an Egyptian mummy. It had competed in the 1971 RAC, and then went on a promotional tour of Datsun dealerships in the UK. Nissan then decided to sell it - taking off its original Japanese registration number ( in accordance with Japanese Export law ) and re-registering it with a UK-issued number, and it passed into the hands of a well-to-do privateer rally driver who did a few UK club events in it. Only a very few things were changed on it ( the exhaust got smashed off - that kind of thing ) and eventually it got parked up in storage. During storage it narrowly escaped a fire ( got a little bit scorched around the offside rear quarter ) and just sat for 20 odd years - poor thing.

Kevin purchased it around 7 years ago, and embarked on a major restoration - and I must say he has done a wonderful job. He aimed at keeping as much of the original car as possible, and luckily it was indeed 99% complete when he bought it. Being locked away for 20 years took its toll, but it preserved it from being pirated for parts.

You would not believe just how different the genuine Works cars were from the road cars. The basic shell alone has hundreds if not thousands of detail differences, and is something like a cross between the 432R shell and the HS30 shell.

Kevin's nature was the perfect type for somebody taking on such a marathon task. Anybody else would have just re-shelled the car or taken all the good stuff off and sold it. Kevin has managed to preserve a little ( big ) bit of Nissan's competition heritage.

I've been lucky enough to be involved in some of the research for the project, and its been totally fascinating.

As far as we can ascertain ( and one has to be careful here, as sometimes cars do crop up out of the ether ) there are basically only FOUR genuine Works rally 240Z cars still in existence. There is also one 260Z here in the UK. The deciding factor is the actual bodyshell. All in all, the bodyshell has to be classified as Part Number One, as it carries the unique VIN identity of a shell that was especially put together by the Competitions Department inside Nissan. Make no mistake - these are not "standard" shells by any means, and have different gauge pressings ( both thicker and thinnner ) in relevant positions. Any car that has been re-shelled does not count.

Nissan in Japan have three cars ( two Safari cars and one Monte car ) and then there's Kevin's '71 RAC car.

The 260Z here in the UK is of a rather obscure provenance, and I have not seen it in person.

"BIG SAM" - the famous circuit race car here in the UK is based on a genuine Works rally shell that was purchased in a crashed state from Nissan here in the UK ( built LHD and then converted to RHD by Samuri Conversions ). This shell ( incidentally, the second "Works" shell that Big Sam has used ) was always reputed to have been a Safari Rally entry driven by Shekhar Mehta, but our research says different. We think we know exactly what car it was and what event it was crashed on, but the current owner insists that it was a Safari car - but there you go. Of course, over the years it has been rebuilt and improved so many times that it has lost most of its Works mechanicals and detail parts. Essentially it now constitutes a rather drastically changed Works LHD 240Z bodyshell converted to RHD and missing most of its original parts, and I would say that its history as "Big Sam" is probably more important to it now rather than its Works bodyshell.

There are two other cars in the UK that the owner claims to be genuine Works cars, and claims they are two of the three Works-entered cars from the 1970 RAC Rally. In fact, both cars have been re-shelled and the VIN numbers and VIN plates swapped onto standard road bodyshells. Many of the parts that are on the cars are genuine Works rally parts ( and that alone makes them very special ) but the bodyshells have been lost and as far as I am concerned that is the main claim to their identity gone.

There always seems to be talk of cars that are "genuine" Works shells cropping up. I saw one a good few years ago here in the UK that the owner was claiming to be a genuine Works-built car. It was nothing of the sort. Once you have seen the details on these cars its difficult to mistake a fake for the real thing.

As for the price of one, well - how long is a piece of string? That's a really hard one to answer - especially as the real thing just does not come up for sale. Nissan would not sell any of their three cars, you can be sure of that, and Kevin will want to hold onto his car and enjoy it for a while. The amount of man-hours he has in it would make it mega expensive anyway. I'm sure if he wanted to sell it he'd prefer that it went to the Factory to join its friends.

So - difficult to put a price on one, but we know it would surely be HIGH. This kind of thing is so rare.

Kevin and I are in the middle of some really detailed research about these cars, and one day a book or something similar might come out of it.

All the best,

Alan T.

[24OZ]

I really enjoyed reading all of that Alan, especially the last sentence. Good luck with the research, I am sure you will discover a whole lot more about the car..

[turbo240]

if a book did ever come out of it i'd be in line to buy it, seems like it'd be very informative.

[24OZ]

Alan,

I think you'd be able to get orders in before this book is even written! Please hurry! I want one too!! Special edition one if possible, must be signed by the author.

PS: Can my Z be in it?

Now stop wasting time reading this post and get to work:finger:

[HS30-H]

Thanks for the kind words guys,

However - don't hold your breath! I think its still a long way away.

So far I've just been gathering information and photos for personal research. Corroborating the data and clearing the photos for publishing can be a nightmare.

Difficult too to decide on the slant of the theme; should it be the Japanese side of things ( my personal area of interest ) or should it have wider scope ( perhaps leaving me out of my depth )?

Frankly I'd rather see a Japanese author cover the area of the Works circuit race and rally cars in depth. I've got a great deal of magazine articles and the odd chapter in books, but nobody has ever done the definitive job on the subject. The TRUE story would ruffle quite a lot of feathers in Japan and rake over a lot of hot coals. I'm not sure if I want to be the one to get my fingers burned!

Maybe this is a job for my retirement. Perhaps by that time I might feel like I'm starting to know enough about the subject....

All the best,

Alan T.

[Z-point]

I also visited Kevin at his workplace.

We came specially to see the works car. At that time the car was totally striped. But Kevin showed us everything in detail. The original tyres, rims, mud flaps, engine with the three mikuni’s, etc.etc.

It was a lovely afternoon and very educating

[Z-point]

the unrestored engine

[LEE240ZPERTH]

Thanks for the info Alan

I saw the car about three years ago, it's good to keep track of it's progress.

Regards

Lee

[Zedrally]

Originally posted by Z-point

I also visited Kevin at his workplace.

We came specially to see the works car. At that time the car was totally striped.

Those brackets coming off the front of the bumper are interesting.

Are they for a light pod or Roo bar?

[Z-point]

Hi Mike,

These where indeed to hold the light pods. The brackets are 'new' made as you can see.

I wonder if this is allowed by law as you can see they are spears for pedestrians!!

The hunting season is now open…hihih.

[Alfadog]

Geeezaloo they do look kinda menacing! Can't imagine they would be good for kneecaps at 60 kmph....