Z Store 240ZR, rarest of the rare

[SpeedRoo]

With all the talk of the Z Store "Vintage" Z cars there seems to be a unicorn that is loose in the wild somewhere. It's the 38th car of 37 built but not officially on the list. Would be great to get more details on it and see some pictures. Anyone know where it is?

Peter Evanow who ran the Z Store for Nissan had this to say about it:

"I certainly remember when Nissan bought up a bunch of old 240Zs because I was the guy doing it, as I ran The Z Store from 1996-1998, when we ended up building 38 cars (there’s a 240ZR that was the last one built for a private buyer that was never officially recorded)."  "No matter what list – and Carl Beck’s is good – of restored Zs there is, there’s always a joker in the deck. The one not listed was built as an “R” which Marc Jones handled in his Datsun Alley shop, with a front lip and custom interior, shipped to a customer in NJ. It was run through the program in terms of parts ordered, but off the books for reasons I’m not sure why at this point."

 

[Jason240z]

Strange one,  so nissan 'sanctioned' 37, surely this just makes this a car that was built by the same people? same as if they built one now?  Also given the others were 'standard', this seems to be nothing other than a shop special?

[HS30-H]

This is what a real '240ZR' looks like:

 

(it's the one on the right...)

[SpeedRoo]

To quote: 

2 hours ago, SpeedRoo said: The Z Store 240Z I want to know more about is the rarest one, number 38 of 37. The 240ZR as the Z Store likes to refer to it!

How is it "the rarest one"? It's an individual car - like they all are, given that they each have unique chassis prefix and body serial number - and the only difference is that it got a few additions and an extra nickname a good 20+ years after it left the production line. Since that nickname was not anything to do with the manufacturer and it was not an official series variant, it's hard to take it seriously as anything over and above any other car. 

'240ZR' was an internal Nissan race department soubriquet for a factory Works-prepped S30-series Z race car with an L24-based engine. What's the betting that the Z Store people didn't think about the name clash, or simply didn't know?  

 

 

So let me get this right "No '240ZR' model was sold to the general public, but '240ZR' was the designation given to some of the factory Nissan 'Works' HS30 race cars". 

There's nothing in the chassis number to indicate these race cars are 240ZR; however the Z432R did have its own chassis number designation. Nissan insiders gave the 240ZR the designation, to some not all cars. Nissan in the USA, owned by Nissan Japan obviously, through their Z Store program built up the USA 240ZR and some insiders employed by Nissan gave it the designation. Am I missing anything?

Still makes it a rare car in my book, probably the rarest as Nissan quietly kept it under wraps and off the records.

[Jason240z]

1 hour ago, Jason240z said:

Strange one,  so nissan 'sanctioned' 37, surely this just makes this a car that was built by the same people? same as if they built one now?  Also given the others were 'standard', this seems to be nothing other than a shop special?

so its just a car from a car 'shop' that did restore cars?

[26th-Z]

Ahhh...you're chasing windmills.  HLS30-08808 is the 240Z-R you are looking for.  It was sold through Lynne's Nissan, according to Pete Evanow, which wasn't one of the named dealers in the Nissan documents.  Displayed at the 1988 Z Car Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it was a specialized "high-performance" version of the standard specification and build number 23 according to Pete Evanow's list.  According to Carl Beck, it is in Stanhope, New Jersey and has an original build date of August, 1970.

I don't know what was so "high-performance" about the build.  It looks to be very similar to the car that was built for Keith Crane, publisher of "AutoWeek".  I believe it is supposed to have distinctive upholstery, front spook, polished valve cover, and wheels.  Carl's photograph of the car shows stock wheels and Pete's photograph shows the polished slots.  No telling.

[26th-Z]

Oh, Seedroo,

I just went back and read what you quoted.  Ha!  Just goes to show you.  Don't believe everything you read on the internet!  Ha!

[SpeedRoo]

Fantastic stuff, thanks for that 26th-Z. I bought 08802 a few weeks ago, must have come down the assembly line with 08808.

Must have been pretty special if it had the time machine option added, how else would it appear at the 1988 Z car convention if it went through the Z Store in the mid 1990s!?

Roo

[Mike B]

3 hours ago, 26th-Z said:

Looks like it had the upper radiator support replaced during the restoration. 

[HS30-H]

9 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

So let me get this right "No '240ZR' model was sold to the general public, but '240ZR' was the designation given to some of the factory Nissan 'Works' HS30 race cars". 

Yes.

9 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

There's nothing in the chassis number to indicate these race cars are 240ZR...

No.

9 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

...however the Z432R did have its own chassis number designation.

No. It didn't. It shared it's 'PS30' chassis number prefix and body serial number combo with the 'ordinary' PS30. You're confusing prefixes with suffixes. 'Ordinary' Nissan Fairlady Z432 was factory build code 'PS30-D', and Nissan Fairlady Z432-R was 'PS30-SB'.

9 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

Nissan insiders gave the 240ZR the designation, to some not all cars.

Nissan's Works race & rally department(s) gave their charges their own designations as they saw fit, for their own purposes. They also gave each car it's own company internal identification (called a Maintenance Number) which is, as civilians, technically none of our business.

9 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

Nissan in the USA, owned by Nissan Japan obviously, through their Z Store program built up the USA 240ZR and some insiders employed by Nissan gave it the designation. Am I missing anything?

Yes you are. You're taking all this 'VZ' hoo-ha too seriously. It's a story that's a bit frilly around the edges. That '240ZR' name is nickname given to a customised [is it/isn't it 'VZ'] car by the people involved with customising it, that's all. A bit of unofficial Droit de seigneur...

Do you think Yutaka Katayama's yellow HLS30U with all its customising (Grande nose, basket wires, fancy paint etc) was any kind of 'factory special'? Of course it wasn't. It was just a car modified to the tastes of an individual long after leaving the production line. If you think that factory designations can be changed on a whim then you're falling into a whole new world of philosophical hurt.

The safest and surest way to deal with official factory designations for the S30-series Z is to stick to the rule that the factory-applied designations cannot be changed after the fact, and that upgrade/downgrade/sideways shuffle of variants is technically impossible. People making up new model names, or re-using old ones unwisely and applying them to custom cars in the former colonies is nothing to be taken too seriously.

9 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

Still makes it a rare car in my book, probably the rarest as Nissan quietly kept it under wraps and off the records.

^Case in point.

Yeah, "rarest" LOL. "Kept it under wraps" ha ha. "Off the records", what records?  

Oh, of course! Penny just dropped! You're prepping the pitch for your own custom car's upgrade from Coach to Business, aren't you? Good luck with that.       

[26th-Z]

1998.  Sorry.  Nissan did not quietly keep the car under wraps and off the records.  Just the opposite.  The 240Z-R was a publicity piece.

[Carl Beck]

Hi SpeedRoo:  Here’s another story and I’m sticking to it -

 

The first time I heard of a Vintage 240ZR was in a discussion with our old pal Ron Johnson (Nissan Competition Parts Dept.) and Charlie Dever, the President of Group Z in California. Ron said that orders came down from the top to build a Vintage Z for Keith Crain (Automotive News etc). Ron said that Mr. Crain wanted Eibach Springs to lower the car a little, 2.5” free flow exhaust and a BRE Spook ie a Vintage 240Z-R (more or less tongue-in-cheek referencing the decal package on the 280ZX-R). That was around 1998…

 

Fast forward to 2009 - I met Mr. Crain at the Amelia Island Concours here in Florida,  and recalled Ron mentioning Mr. Crain having specified and bought one of the Vintage Z’s. Mr Crain said that he was a huge fan of Mr. K as well as a lover of Classic Cars. Indeed he had owned and driven several Z’s over the years and indeed had requested a Vintage Z with the modifications Ron had talked about. Mr. Crain owns   HLS30 29247, the 17th VZ finished in Nov. 1997.

 

 

Mr. Crain’s Vintage Z was featured being parked in front of Nissan’s HQ in California, in a video shot by Nissan as well.  So I guess behind all urban legends there may be a few grains of truth..

FWIW,

Carl B.