HS30-H

Wow Carl, 20 months ago - on this very forum - you were dismissing Hiroshi Iida and that Nostalgic Hero article in favour of your own '1966 as Year Zero' theories. What happened? Did you have another Road To Damascus* moment? ( * not to be confused with any old movies starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby ). Sorry, are you talking about TonyD or CarlB here? Tony, Watch out for the stragglers from the HUAC that are still at large - they'll be knocking on your door soon if you are not careful. They'd have been knocking on my door too by now, 'cept none of them seem to own a valid passport............. Alan T.

You might be causing some confusion by writing "NISMO" ( NISsan MOtorsports International ) when I think you probably mean just plain old Nissan replacement ( OEM ) parts. Am I right? As far as I am aware, you won't be able to get any replacement clutch hydraulic parts for your particular car from NISMO. But I'd always recommend OEM if it is still available, and if you can afford it.

You're quite sure about that........? With regard to tinted glass and early North American market HLS30-U models and their sub-variants: I think there's an interesting story still to be told about this. It seems that the first few hundred ( ? ) cars that were sent to USA/Canada had ( cheaper to produce ) clear glass and ( cheaper to produce ) non-heated rear windows, and it would be easy to see this as part of the cost-cutting measures / market sector 'tuning' that was first applied to the HLS30-U and its sub-variants. Tinted glass and heated rear windows were available in the Japanese home market right from the beginning of production in the 'S30' Fairlady Z-L and 'PS30' Fairlady Z432 models, with clear / unheated glass on the budget 'S30-S' Fairlady Z model ( but an extra-cost option should the buyer choose to specify it ). The super-lightweight 'PS30-SB' got heat-formed acrylic windows all round, apart from the windscreen - which was untinted. There was no last-minute introduction or spec switch. Tinted / heated glass was on the S30-series Z spec sheet from the design stage. We often see people approaching this subject of clear / unheated glass on the early USA/Canada cars as though tinted / heated glass simply did not exist for the S30-series Z range until it was introduced later. Of course this is incorrect, because it clearly did exist and the decision was chosen not to fit it to those first few hundred ( ? ) USA/Canada models. Somebody made that decision for a reason........ I think these little sub-plots give us a glimpse of the goings-on behind closed doors in the early days of planning and production. I'd certainly be interested to hear who made the decisions to first fit clear / unheated, and then who made the decision to fit tinted / heated, and why. I think I can make an educated guess as to why each decision could have been made ( it's not rocket science ) but it would be nice to see it confirmed. Alan T.

Are you interested in the last of all, or just the last North American market model? S31 and GS31 production continued until late July 1978, so there's a good chance that the last of those models might actually be the last S30-series Z produced. I have no idea how you could discern which was last produced just by going on the highest body serial number........?

Guus, You need the corresponding Option gears for that 32212-E9601 cluster: *1st Main: 32343-E9601 ( 28t ) *2nd Main: 32242-E9601 ( 25t ) *3rd Main: 32252-E9601 ( 24t ) Good luck finding them..............

classiczcars.com got there first: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7385 I think all the pictures that were originally linked to that 'Front Page News' article are still in my Gallery. I certainly have not deleted any of them. I've got over 800 on disc too. Looks like they've got on top of the electricity supply and lighting situation since I was there, which is nice. Edit: Here's a better link to some images in my Gallery: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showgallery.php?si=Zama&limit=&thumbsonly=0&perpage=24&cat=all&ppuser=&thumbcheck=0&page=1&sortby=&sorttime=&way=&cat=all

Carl, Colour: A slightly metallic gunmetal grey, with a lot of matting agent. Hard to describe properly in words. Texture: Smooth to the touch - nothing like the finish on the rear garnish / tail lamp surround for example. Pictures don't do them justice really; They tend to react to flash and get affected by strong sunlight ( fading badly ). They are almost impossible to keep clean and original looking in service, and that's why - in my experience anyway - many ZG owners over the years have painted their original overfenders with metallic gunmetal paint and a gloss clear coat. Mine are like this. See below pics for reference. White ( gel coat ) overfender is an NOS factory 'Sports Option' item for the PS30-SB Fairlady Z432-R. This is a really nice quality moulding, made from roving: Woven glass cloth, and is nicely sculpted in the corners. Factory part number label is still intact. Dark coloured overfender is an NOS HS30-H Fairlady 240ZG item. Again, very nicely moulded, but this time in chopped strand. External finish is exactly as they came from the factory. Factory part label was on the plastic bag that this came in, and the 'FR' sticker on the inside of the part indicates where it goes on the car. Both these overfenders are for the front right corner of the cars.

THIS site - and more specifically the Gallery section here - has to be one of the best English-language sites on the 'net to find such photos. Try looking in the 'events' folders for Japanese meetings like the annual Sagamiko picnics. I've posted literally hundreds of photos, which should keep you occupied for hours. Using the site's SEARCH function should lead you to plenty. Old Japanese saying: "The darkest place is at the foot of the Light House".

OK - good luck. If you get stuck with the translation I'd be happy to take a shot if you think it might help. Cheers, Alan T.

I happened to be at the garages this afternoon, so I took some measurements from the NOS 'Booster': Overall length of the 'box' itself ( measured to the outer edges ) is 350mm, and it has a diameter of 165mm ( it is perfectly round ). The pipes going in and coming out are actually 50mm diameter. The slash-cut and chrome plated exit pipes measure 220mm ( top one ) and 180mm ( lower one ) at their longest points. I forgot to get an idea of that slash-cut angle. sorry. I looked down the exit pipes to see what I could see and it was DARK in there. I didn't have a torch with me either, so you'll have to wait a couple of days until I go over there again armed with a torch. Sorry I can't be of more help with regard to what's going on inside there, but it certainly doesn't seem to be hollow ( must have some sound-deadening material in there I'd think ) and I can't see any evidence in the way of spotwelds on the outer casing that would show the presence of a 'divider' inside........... Alan T.

Tony, Thanks for the update, and congrats for getting this accepted and the matter settled in your favour. In truth I suspect that the FIA Gr.4 homologation was really all that was needed. There can be little argument that the 'HS30-H' Fairlady 240ZG model existed, and was sold to the general public in high enough numbers to satisfy the homologation. If other competitors are legally mixing and matching parts and specs from other variants of the models they are using, then the factory-style G-nose on your team's car has to be legal too. I suspect the main problem - and this is something that we see so often with our cars - is the basic lack of knowledge on the variants that were sold outside the English-speaking world. Maybe you should now start saving up for an S20 engine!? Cheers, Alan T.

Ron, The centre section that you pictured is part of the Optional system for the L-series engined cars in the Japanese market, which was standard equipment on the S20-engined cars. It wasn't a 'Sports Option' part - it was in the standard sales brochures. It did however mate with the L-series Sports Option exhaust manifolds. Original part number for the centre section in your picture was: 20010-E4201 arse'Y-TUBE, exhaust with muffler ....which was paired with: 20050-E4200 arse'Y-TUBE, exhaust with booster ....which was superseded by: 20050-E8710 arse'Y-TUBE, exhaust with booster ....in 1973, and I believe the difference was simply detail in the mounting points. That 'booster' is simply a fat round box which the two pipes run through. The two pipes that run through it are perforated with multiple holes, but become solid again where they exit the box - so in effect it is a two-pipe system all the way through. The last six inches or so of the pipes are chrome plated and slash cut. These systems sound rather nice on the car. I have a complete NOS system hanging in the roof of one of my garages. I can take some measurements and detail photos of it if you want to try and replicate it - but the shape of the pipes is rather complicated.........

You can find the appropriate wiring schematic on the Nagai Denshi website: http://www.nagaidenshi.co.jp/ The MDI, MDI-R and MDI-RR wiring diagrams are listed on the left hand side of the home page.

Which I think would be a really odd situation. It would be a real shame for it to be 'judged' if the expertise and knowledge to accurately appraise originality and finish etc was not there. OK, theoretical 'Internet Car Show' mode ON: I think it would be a travesty if a 432 was forced to join a "240Z" class. Ideally, there would be an S30-series Z class ( which both models could join ) and that could be divided up into subsections where the PS30 could find its natural home, and the '240Z' sections could ideally be split into subgroups according to model and market. You'd need to do that because it would ( I think ) be daft to group distinctly different models according to such a catch-all title as '240Z' - if you consider that my Fairlady 240ZG is arguably a '240Z' too for example...... So either it needs to be divided up into all the distinct model variants, or all joined together in an 'S30-series Z' group. Does that make sense?

I don't understand your comment. As far as I can tell, Kats is saying that this car - PS30-00087 - is a good car; ( "..... unrestored body,still great original painting with remaining lots of early original small parts." ) but that some of the modifications are not to his taste. Like it or not, it is for sale at 8 million yen and will probably find a buyer at something close to that price if not the full whack. There's a finite amount of such cars on the road, and the prices of them are on an upward trend. Alan T.