Z's on BAT and other places collection

[Gav240z]

The sunroof and the arse about flare placement with the questionable wheel choice and tacky grille all detract from the car. I would not pay more than $40k USD for what appears to be a slap together car. For what my opinion is worth of course. And 240zGuild has low credibility IMHO. Given his recent past.

[HS30-H]

42 minutes ago, xs10shl said:

Would "authentic Nissan parts off a period police car" carry a price premium over "authentic Nissan parts off a scrapped 240ZG", or even "authentic Nissan parts of unknown origin"? The way I personally figure it is: the car they were originally bolted on is presumably long-gone, so in my mind they are the same spare part, and therefore worth the same to me, with condition being the primary price differentiator. Other thoughts?

Maybe if it could be backed up with some provenance, there might be some kind of extra minority interest/novelty value. 

This comes back to my belief that the vendor doesn't really know what he's talking about. That would not be a problem if he wasn't making such a big point of the 'ex-Police' provenance in his sales pitch, but he is. Maybe I'm built different, but if I had bought a car with that as a big part of its story (and it seems like that was important to the vendor when he bought the car from Larry Steppe via 'The 240Z Guild'...) then I'd be wanting to research Fairlady 240ZGs in Japanese police use just out of interest if nothing else. Doesn't look like he's built that way...

Here's a scan of a page from Nostalgic Hero Magazine, featuring the remarkably original Fairlady 240ZG which was donated by the Kanagawa Prefectural Police to the Nissan Heritage Collection back in the late 2010s. If you look at the lower cowl panel on the nose you can see a special modification which was carried out on this car. Multiple holes have been drilled into the lower cowl corners which are most likely an attempt to help cool the brakes. Such details are an example of the type of things which would be a help to aid provenance of any Police-specific claims:

 

[HS30-H]

A little closer:

[HS30-H]

The vendor made some other comments which are worth mentioning. He said that the Grande Nose parts turned up from Japan "still in their Police livery". If he could show photos of this, it would help his story. However, the only Police-specific 'livery' paint detail on an original 5-piece Grande Nose would be the white & black paint split on the headlamp cowls. The lower cowl panel would be painted black and the bonnet extension piece would also be black. The urethane front bumper on the Kanagawa Prefectural Police highway patrol Fairlady 240ZG is in its normal factory-supplied shade of metallic charcoal grey. Further, Nissan was still supplying genuine Grande Nose components in Japan right up through the 1990s as factory replacement parts. Unlike earlier factory pieces, the later items were supplied in a black gel coat finish. This would make it harder to identify "ex-Police" parts via colouring. 

He mentioned that the Grande Nose parts languished in US Customs for a long time before being released, as though this was some sort of positive. I don't see how? Is he linking this to their "ex-Police" nature? Seems more likely that they were mis-described in their shipment documentation or that the receiving party didn't know how to deal with international shipment procedures and/or import duties and taxes. Kind of a bizarre detail to add to an auction description either way. 

He also showed the Nissan parts boxes that the headlamp covers came in, and said that they will be supplied with the car to any buyer. So what happened to the originals that that were on the "ex-Police" parts? 

Lastly, which particular "ex-Police" 240ZG did these parts come from? There was no mechanism for ex-Police cars to fall into private hands in Japan, and - so I'm told - Police-specific componentry would be stripped out for possible re-use before the cars were scrapped. Yes, stock parts could theoretically make it onto the used parts market, but where's the paper trail? The number of Fairlady 240ZGs used as Police cars was vanishingly small, so which one was it?

Here's a photo of a Fairlady 240ZG during its transformation into a Police car at (I believe) Nissan-affiliate TONOX's Tonouchi factory. I believe that this is the same car that is now in the Nissan Heritage Collection:

     

[Zed Head]

Seems like he might have paid for the looks and now he's finding out what's underneath as he tries to move it on.  Funny that he says he spent years trying to buy it but knows so little about it.  Wonder where it will end up next.

[Zed Head]

Here's something different.  Only $7,700!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325776092449

 

[Racer X]

On 9/7/2023 at 10:13 AM, Zed Head said:

The comments continue on that red G Nose 72 even though the auction ended yesterday.  Apparently it's meant to be a show car, as The Guild guy inferred earlier.  I copied the image before it gets removed as "non-constructive".  

Kind of feel bad for picking on the guy's car but he doesn't want to let things fade.  He's asking over $40,000 for it, so he can't expect no questions asked.  What does $40,000 get you?  What he should do at this point is put that paper trail together, documentation of it's provenance to remove the mystery, and put it back on the market in the right way.  $40,000 is a risk unless you have money to burn.  Drama!  

The statement by the 240Z Guild is clear.

A known criminal, stating that “only a few” of his customers can attest to his “good” customer service.

 

As for the car bringing such a high number, well, lipstick on a pig, and a sucker is born every minute.

 

[zspert]

Thank you Racer X

[73str86]

HLS30-07631 on the auction block.

 

Bidding starts at $1.00 with modest reserve.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394871508806

[Johnz1971]

10 hours ago, 73str86 said:

HLS30-07631 on the auction block.

 

Bidding starts at $1.00 with modest reserve.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394871508806

Yabba-dabba-doo!

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Johnz1971

[gundee]

On 9/8/2023 at 7:15 PM, Zed Head said:

Seems like he might have paid for the looks and now he's finding out what's underneath as he tries to move it on.  Funny that he says he spent years trying to buy it but knows so little about it.  Wonder where it will end up next.

He mentioned he would move it on to another venue.

It will be hard to find a venue that has the traffic BaT has.

It would have been very helpful it the underside was all removed cleaned and painted. 

All those bits looked pretty bad.

And what can you say about the sunroof other than being a dealbreaker.

Why did he even buy that car if he was just going to sell it?

He must have had some wild idea he was going to flip it for a tidy profit. Big mistake.

[DC871F]

4 hours ago, Johnz1971 said:

Yabba-dabba-doo!

 

Fred and Wilma would be right at home.