1970 240Z Works Rally - the road to restoration

[HS30-H]

Not wishing to divert attention from 'TKS 33 SA 986', but to give a little extra context on the Works cars and a similar case of a Lazarus-like revival, please let me add a post to tell the tale of 'TKS 33 SA 3640'. I hope it will encourage @xs10shlin his task and help drive him along his road to restoration.

'TKS 33 SA 3640' was one of a batch of four RHD lightweight HS30 Datsun 240Z rally cars built up by the Works team at Oppama during the third quarter of 1971, for the express purpose of taking part in the 1971 RAC Rally here in the UK in late November. It was driven on the event by German-born Kenyan national Edgar Herrmann and his German co-driver/navigator Hans Schuller who had won the East African Safari Rally in their lightweight HS30 Datsun 240Z 'TKS 33 SA 1223' in April. That Safari win gave them a high seeding and a start number of '5', which would be something of an advantage on a forest type rally. But Herrmann - famously - had never rallied on snow before, and it was something of a certainty on the RAC. In fact, unusually heavy snow caused so much disruption on the event that a high number of special stages were cancelled/annulled halfway through and service crews struggled to make rendezvous with their team cars. There was a high rate of attrition. Herrmann/Schuller finished, but were classified 17th overall and 5th in the Group 4 class. Team members Rauno Aaltonen and Tony Fall were both non-finishers, but Shekhar Mehta - driving one of the previous year's RAC cars - finished 19th overall and 6th in Group 4. Privateer Rob Janssen - driving ex-'TKS 33 SA 986', now registered on Dutch plates '67-54-RU' and the subject of this thread - also retired.

After the RAC 'TKS 33 SA 3640' stayed in the UK and was used for promotional duties by Datsun UK. Eventually it was sold to a Datsun dealership and was used on various UK rally events during the following years. It changed hands a couple of times, but eventually ended up in storage on a farm in the far north east of England. It stayed there - narrowly escaping a fire at one point - until bought by my dear friend Kevin Bristow in 1996. Decrepit, somewhat rusty (to say the least...) but largely complete, intact and authentic. Kevin started a long and slow process of research, parts (re)acquisition and restoration. I had the pleasure of being a small part in all of that. 

To cut a long story short, Kevin finished the car in 2008. Twelve years! The result is stunning. It was featured in the August 2009 edition of OCTANE Magazine with studio shots and a great write-up by Paul Hardiman (see attached). Kevin also took it to the 2009 Chatsworth Rally Show in Derbyshire, and demonstrated the car on the short Special Stage in the grounds of Chatsworth House. I got the honour of pretending to be the navigator (or Self Loading Freight perhaps...) whilst Kevin didn't hold back. The car got wet and muddy, as it was built to do. Fully alive again.

'3640' on the 1971 RAC Rally:

 

Classic & Sport Car Magazine 'as found' report:

Post-restoration OCTANE Magazine feature:

"Forensics". Pretty much, yes:

And in action at the 2009 Chatsworth Rally Show:

 

I hope the above is an inspiration and encouragement to @xs10shlin his journey to restore and refurbish 'TKS 33 SA 986'.

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by HS30-H

[xs10shl]

Thanks for the encouragement, @HS30-H! I'm familiar with Kevin's car, and its fascinating to consider that these cars rallied together (one from the front of the pack, and one waaaay in the back!)  Although they are only one year apart in assembly, we can already begin to see some product development occurring. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Kevin's must be one of the last lightweight spec cars produced, prior to going to steel and glass?

[26th-Z]

Fun to see us talking about rally cars again.  We had some great discussions back in 2006 - 2007.  I was told that this car is HS30-00026 adding a little pedigree to my beauty.  I still have a massive collection of images which were 'hoovered' back in the day.  Hope the restoration is the best of times.

[kats]

Congratulations on your attendance at a car show ! And thank you so much for sharing your car’s details with us .

I am so excited about seeing your genuine Works rally car , it is so fascinating. You must have been dedicated to the car  , I just imagine how difficult it is to collect the rare of the rare parts . Also you must have spent a lot of time to confirm it’s provenance.

You have Alan , he is the best enthusiast to ask , I am enjoying this thread , a lot of new things to learn .

One thing I would like to know is , the speed meter . Max 180 km/h , this is not a usual thing for Fairlady Z series for 1969-1973 . They have Max 240 km/h scale . Is that a Works special or, normal scale for Australia or some other destinations? 
 

Kevin’s Works car has also 180 km/h scale . 
 

Kats

Edited June 18, 2022 by kats

[xs10shl]

On 6/16/2022 at 9:54 AM, HS30-H said:

The silver vertical is only one part of the heated screen system. There are zig-zagging horizontal elements embedded in the glass (just like a modern heated 'screen) which cover at least 90% of the glass. They are very effective.   

Here's a close-up of the lower-right corner of the glass, showing the pattern and coverage.  It's very fine, to the point where one does not notice it when seated in the cockpit, apart from the main vein going up the middle.  

[Patcon]

That makes for a valuable piece of glass!!

[xs10shl]

Hi @kats I'm glad you are joining the conversation!  My Speedo looks exactly like the one you pictured - reading in km/h to 180- as does the 8K Works Tach.  Some of the central gauges differed as development advanced.  Thankfully, 986's gauges seem to match other 1970-build examples, most notably 8D-420, and it's sister car TKS33-SA-988, so I'm guessing the gauges that are installed are correct for this particular batch of cars.

Edited June 18, 2022 by xs10shl

[Perfect240Z]

I’m glad I parked next to this car at the Zonc show. Now I can keep up with its journey.

[kats]

4 hours ago, xs10shl said:

Hi @kats I'm glad you are joining the conversation!  My Speedo looks exactly like the one you pictured - reading in km/h to 180- as does the 8K Works Tach.  Some of the central gauges differed as development advanced.  Thankfully, 986's gauges seem to match other 1970-build examples, most notably 8D-420, and it's sister car TKS33-SA-988, so I'm guessing the gauges that are installed are correct for this particular batch of cars.

Thanks ! I have zero knowledge  and zero experience for rally, but this speedometer makes me think it needs to be . For average speed , no need 240 km/h scale  ? 180 km/h scale gives better read for accurate speed control for time keeping? 
 
Super cool car !

Kats

Edited June 18, 2022 by kats

[HS30-H]

14 hours ago, 26th-Z said:

Fun to see us talking about rally cars again.  We had some great discussions back in 2006 - 2007.  I was told that this car is HS30-00026 adding a little pedigree to my beauty.  I still have a massive collection of images which were 'hoovered' back in the day.  Hope the restoration is the best of times.

Yes, that's Tony Fall and Mike Wood on a typical Forestry Commission track special stage of the 1971 Fram Castrol International Welsh Rally, in 'TKS 33 SA 696' - the Works team car that John Bloxham had used on the 1970 RAC Rally five months previously - which had been loaned by the Works team and was serviced by Old Woking Service Station.

They won outright! This was the second international rally win for the 240Z, following Herrmann & Schuller's win on the East African Safari Rally in April.    

[HS30-H]

5 hours ago, kats said:

Thanks ! I have zero knowledge  and zero experience for rally, but this speedometer makes me think it needs to be . For average speed , no need 240 km/h scale  ? 180 km/h scale gives better read for accurate speed control for time keeping? 

 

I think the pattern was that Safari cars had 240 km/h speedos, probably because some pretty high sustained speeds were possible on certain sections and the was no legal speed limit. Monte and RAC cars would tend to see lower sustained stage speeds, and would have to conform to local speed limits on the road sections which linked the special stages.

Yes, an accurate speedo would be of use to the driver when being required to maintain a certain speed on the road sections, but the navigator had the Haldas and Heuers to help with that too. It was the navigator's job to make sure that they checked in - and out - of time controls, service points and Parc Ferme on time. Navigator is the boss!      

[SpeedRoo]

12 hours ago, xs10shl said:

Thankfully, 986's gauges seem to match other 1970-build examples, most notably 8D-420, and it's sister car TKS33-SA-988

@xs10shl do you have a list of the Kanri numbers for the rally cars? I've seen some that start with "RF" and others with "8D", they must have come out of different workshops. Some of the race cars have the "8D" prefix as well. How did your car end up with the Kanri number on the dashboard?