1970 240Z Works Rally - the road to restoration

[xs10shl]

The dash Kanri has a short story, and If I tell all the stories up front, there won't be anything left to discuss in the coming year 😄.  I have so much material to get to and share, and I look forward to discussing it all.  Thanks for your enthusiasm and interest, much more to come!

[xs10shl]

On 6/15/2022 at 3:25 PM, Marty Rogan said:

Can you give us some of the car's history and how you came to own it?

Thanks for your inquiry, Marty.  Here's an snip from my blog, which covers the basics:

Today I'm pretty confident I know most of the big pieces of the car's story. That said, I'm guessing there are still many more pieces to discover. I'll post here what my existing body of research concludes, and if there are any questions, comments, additions (and even rebuttals), I'll take them as they come.

TKS33-SA-986 Rally History

-------------------------------------

07/1970 Tub manufacture – 7/1970 to 8/1970

09/1970 Assembly and outfitting (based on wiring harness date codes)

10/1970 Registered with Carnet plate TKS33-SA-986 (approximate time-period)

01/1971 40th Rallye Monte-Carlo (#70 Fall/Wood): 10th Place overall

03/1971 Sold To Rob Janssen – Datsun Nederland (approximate time-period)

04/1971 Zandvoort Paas Races (#61 Janssen): 4th place overall

09/1971 Registered with plate 67-54-RU

11/1971 RAC Rally of Great Britain (#96 Janssen/Dik): DNF - retired

Post-1971: I've got no data that it was ever rallied again. This makes some sense, due to the 1972 FIA rule changes which prohibited the use of lightweight body panels on rally cars.

 

[Marty Rogan]

Thanks for the info.  This car certainly has an interesting history.  I am still interested to hear how you were able to find and acquire such a significant car.

[xs10shl]

Prior to a teardown and proper restoration, I thought it would be worthwhile to put one more event on my calendar - but this time, instead of showing up unannounced, we've scheduled a (very rudimentary, but hopefully informative!) Nissan Works mini-exhibit featuring the car at this year's JCCS at Long Beach in September.  I hope to have the opportunity to meet other enthusiasts and rally fans there, and have a chance to share with attendees some of the features that I feel help make the Works cars special to me.  JCCS is a great show - probably the best all-Japanese show outside of Japan that I know of, and thankfully it's close enough that we can get there in a day. 

The pressure is on now to get a exhibit ready, and configure a few remaining details to the car that I've yet to make right.  More on that in a bit!

https://japaneseclassiccarshow.com/1970-datsun-240-z-works-rally-lightweight-monte-carlo-spec-at-jccs/

[xs10shl]

@SpeedRoopreviously asked about the Kanri number on the dashboard at the spot where there would normally be a pen holder. It's surmised that this was most likely placed there by a previous owner, as it is not a factory inclusion that appears in any period photos.  @HS30-H had clued me into the fact that these rally pen holders were actually still readily available, so I bought several of them with the thought that I'd have to retrofit one with some sort of mount, in order to properly affix it to the dashboard. In stock form, they appear to be designed as clip-ons for a clipboard, or other hard, thin surface.  With some samples of the pen holder in-hand, I elected to take a chance and finally remove the Kanri badge, and hopefully re-fashion a new pen holder and custom mount to be placed in the same location.

I had always suspected that the Kanri badge was simply a decoration that covered up some form of glue blemish or tear left by the original holder when the car was converted to street use. However, I was happy to be mistaken - after a little careful prying, the badge came off, revealing a precise 1/2" slit and groove that had been cut into the dashboard.  The groove fit the new pen holder snugly, so after a little massaging, I managed to situate the new pen holder pretty much as it appeared in period photos.  Job done!

 

 

 

 

 

[SpeedRoo]

Thanks Thomas @xs10shl appreciate the update. Someone went to a fair bit of effort to make up that Kanri number badge, great to have the background story. 

Edited July 28, 2022 by SpeedRoo

[Gav240z]

I just want to subscribe to follow along. I love seeing details on these cars and learning more about them.

I'm curious if this car ran the competition CDI ignition box (Mitsubishi?) orange / white colour? And if so, where they mounted it? Under the dash? Did they run points distributor or have some kind of electronic / reluctor / pickup signal?

Oh and any photos of the engine bay yet? Or do we need to wait? 🙂

Edited August 24, 2022 by Gav240z

[xs10shl]

On 8/23/2022 at 5:41 PM, Gav240z said:

I just want to subscribe to follow along. I love seeing details on these cars and learning more about them.

I'm curious if this car ran the competition CDI ignition box (Mitsubishi?) orange / white colour? And if so, where they mounted it? Under the dash? Did they run points distributor or have some kind of electronic / reluctor / pickup signal?

Oh and any photos of the engine bay yet? Or do we need to wait? 🙂

With respect to the CDI - the car currently has a special points-based distributor on it, which is the same kind as found on another Works car, and is potentially the same as an early L24 distributor, AFAIK.  I've mapped out the entire wiring harness as shown below - this harness is in 2 parts (split at the fuse boxes) and has 2 Works part numbers, and date codes of 9/70 and 8/70, respectively.  On the assumption that the wiring harness gets installed first, I've used this information to date the Works build as likely being 9/70 to 10/70, which would give the team about 45 days to test and ship the cars off to Monte Carlo.  

This particular harness contains no additional wiring to accommodate a CDI, as would appear in a Z432 with CDI of the same era.  That said, there has been some private discussion about whether a CDI was used via an alternate means, as there is evidence of it's use in similar period Works cars.   In the case of my car, it's use would likely be facilitated via a separately wired harness, which is no longer with the car.  As to an interface to the existing harness: there is a missing 6" sub harness at the steering column that has been replaced with a later-period custom harness. This could very easily have been the junction point where a CDI could have been connected, as much of the relevant wiring would be there. This is marked as "UNKNOWN" on the wiring diagram.  It should be noted that this is just pure speculation at this point.

FYI, the above is my most current information, based on what I've already mapped out.  It's entirely possible we may find more wiring surprises buried under the dash when we start the restoration process.  Barring any revelations re: CDI, I'll likely restore it as-acquired, without it.

Edited August 28, 2022 by xs10shl
Corrected distributor info

[xs10shl]

Engine bay.

Edited August 27, 2022 by xs10shl

[240zadmire]

Does anyone know what type of tires these are? The size and whether it’s street friendly?  They’re looking like they can sink a claw into the asphalt 

 

[240zadmire]

Found the tire size and type

 

http://zhome.com/BRETotal/Tires/BajaTires.htm

[xs10shl]

2 hours ago, 240zadmire said:

Found the tire size and type

 

http://zhome.com/BRETotal/Tires/BajaTires.htm

225/70R14's have a diameter of 26.4". Those tires would be ideally suited for lifted rally cars, and provide great ground clearance, but may be too large a tire for my application. The original Dunlop XP44 are NLA as far as I can tell, so I went with Goodyear Wrangler LT195/75R14s which have an outer circumference of 25.5".  To my eye, even these Wranglers appear to be just slightly too tall, and may rub once I lower the car to it's Monte-Carlo spec ride height.  There are also a few ATV off-road options in 14".