HS30-H

Hi Gary ( how are you?), Could have been an 'E30' head if it was an early L20A engine. Later L20 engines had several different heads, and 'Y70' castings were common - sometimes seen in Australia I hear. Occasionally these crop up around the world, and cause a little headscratching amongst those not so familiar with the smaller capacity Nissan L6 engines. Cheers, Alan T.

Thank you Kats. Your kind words of support are very much appreciated. I too learned to refer to my cars as "S44", "S45", "S46" etc etc and I have to say that it makes a lot more sense to look at the build date rather than the somewhat abstract terminology of "Model Year" and "Title" etc when the point of the discussion is the specification of the car as it left the factory. When you look at all the available sources of information ( TSBs, sales brochures, parts lists and workshop manuals, as well as the extremely informative Nissan 'Service Shuho' documents issued in Japan ) it is fairly easy to see that a fair few of the rolling amendments / updates / improvements that were applied to the cars where phased in when convenient or prudent for the factory, rather than with thought to "Model Year" or any "Series". We can also see anomalous cars that are what we could call 'in-betweenies' - with details that don't tie-in with our pigeonholing. I believe that looking at the whole picture, rather than just one market or one model, can be educational for all of us. I don't see what is so controversial about that? Yes, it is indeed. But when I read quotes like that I sometimes wonder whether people forget that these cars were designed, engineered and built in Japan. Now, when you read that I can't be 100% sure that you think about this in the same way that I do. In my opinion, the Japanese story encompasses ALL of the stories. It is a Japanese product. Fred, I'd like nothing better. I consider that an open invitation, and it would be GREAT fun if it were in Japan. Two Mohammeds going to the mountain, so to speak :classic: Cheers, Alan T.

L20A / L20E crank stroke = 69.7mm L24 crank stroke = 73.7mm So putting an L20A or E crank into an L24 block effectively de-strokes it. You'll need longer con rods, and/or custom pistons ( with a different pin height to stock ). This conversion can create a nice revvy and responsive engine when all other factors are maximised, but it might not actually be what you are looking for?

Arne, That's not my impression overall. I don't mean just on this thread in particular ( and to give you your due - you yourself have been very specific on this thread ) but overall the implication is that one model is the only one that counts when discussing matters historical. Especially when one of the main people involved in defining the "Series" terms on this very thread also comes out elsewhere with quotes like these: Do you see what I mean? To me, that is a very warped perspective. In my opinion, looking at all contemporary models as a family will help us to understand some of these rolling detail changes / updates / improvements a little better. As an example, I'd say that this is certainly borne out by the questions over the 'clear' hatch glass on this thread - where the fact that both heated and non-heated glass versions were being sold alongside eachother in other markets can help to reveal one of the reasons why the earliest USA market cars came with non-heated hatch glass. If you were looking at JUST the USA market cars empirically, you would come to the ( wrong ) conclusion that the factory did not make heated rear glass until after several hundred cars had been produced - wouldn't you? In fact, the heated rear glass existed - but there was a decision made not to fit them to the first HLS30U models which was soon reversed. Chris, To be frank, I think there are only a very few people that are willing to take the wider 'S30 family' view. It seems that it is much easier for people to believe that one market model was the single consideration of the designers and engineers, and that all other market models were forced to follow. We know from talking to the people involved that this is certainly not the case, do we not? It appears to be anathema to some people. Look at our fellow member 'moonpup' for example. Alan T.

Carl, I hope you're not quoting figures from the dreaded 'Datsun 280ZX' book again? I didn't spot any mention of the non-USA/Canada market LHD cars yet in this thread. Might be worth reminding ourselves of the HLS30 models that were exported to countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal etc etc, and which don't fit all that neatly into the "Series" pigeonholes. Makes things a little more complicated when you start looking at the details of those cars. And I'm still interested to see an official Nissan Japan-sourced document that mentions "Series" numbers. Anybody got something that mentions the 'S' word specifically? No mention either of the other S30-series Z models that were contemporary with the '240Z' ( apart from 26th-Z; who will be mentioned in despatches ) - but that's par for the course here I guess. My mantra: Look at the whole family to fully understand each family member.............. Alan T.

That only applied to the 'HS30-H' Fairlady 240ZG model. All other models ( Fairlady Z, Fairlady Z-L, Fairlady Z432, Fairlady 240Z, Fairlady 240Z-L etc etc ) were available in #907 Grand Prix Green during the appropriate years. The Fairlady Z432-R was only sold to the general public in #918 Grand Prix Orange. #116 Grand Prix Maroon was available as an extra-cost option on all Japanese market models in 1973. Previous to that it was only available on the ZG. I don't understand the hatch emblems on this car either. Either its replicating a 'Fairlady Z' model or its replicating a 'Fairlady 240Z' model. It can't be both. I'd have thought the 'Fairlady 240Z' emblems would be more appropriate to an L24-engined car, surely? Looks like a really nice car though, and I think the 'Buy It Now' price is very reasonable if the structure is as good as it looks. Alan T.

I might be interested in a couple of those bridges. Factory-fitment triple Weber 40DCOEs on Prince G7 engine ( Skyline S54B-2 model ):

Kats, Thank you very much indeed for your kind words. I have received your e-mail message, and will reply to it. Alan T.

Jack, Usually, the oscillators are either living or dead. There's no in-between. If it still 'hums' and gets slightly warm - rather like the reassuring behaviour of an old valve radio - then it is alive. If it is quiet, then it is most likely dead I'm afraid. Bringing them back from the dead is very difficult I'm told, as the internal parts that can be replaced are not the ones that cause the problems........... Somewhere I have a Nissan-sourced circuit diagram for the oscillator internals which might aid replication, but I can't find it for the life of me. I'll have to see if I can dig it out. NICE car, by the way. Alan T.

Well, first of all I'm not sure which 'Carl' you are referring to. But might I suggest that a better bet - somebody with a grasp of the way that Japanese industry works, and with the language skills and social graces that the culture requires - might be our fellow member Katsuhiko 'Kats' Endo. Or how about putting the idea to our fellow member - also Japanese - who has just started a company called 'Datsun Spirit' and is planning on reproducing certain parts that are NLA? If I sound as though I'm pouring scorn on your idea regarding the original moulds then I apologise, but it did make me wonder what the point of it was? The part in question could be reproduced by reverse-engineering an original component, and I'm taking an educated guess that the tooling could be produced for little more than the cost of shipping, handling and duties for that original tooling ( should it ever be released by Koito - which is 'pie in the sky' anyway ) to be sent from Japan. All things considered, these trim pieces are not the most complicated items on the car, are they? Not like a complete rear lamp assembly or anything.......... In my experience ( having sourced a few rare or No Longer Available parts from Japan over the years ) you will possibly find that people will expect these re-pop parts to cost them peanuts. That's the culture with a lot of people in this 'scene'. Watch them take the p*ss out of anything rare or interesting that turns up for a high price on eBay now and then. Its a herd mentality that keeps businesses from tooling-up to make good repro parts for these cars in my opinion, and leaves us with second-rate quality junk that is made in the third world. Well, hats off to you for having such a responsible and important job. My line of work is not quite a life or death situation, so maybe I have a different mindset? Good luck

Why would Koito sell their original tooling, or even consider lending it to somebody in the USA? I don't understand this line of thinking. They don't owe anything to anybody. Koito will have made them for Nissan under a contractual agreement. The tooling and design probably *belongs* to Nissan under that agreement, and I very much doubt that approaching Koito direct will do any good. You'd probably have to approach Nissan ( in Japan ) about the subject before short-circuiting the process and talking to Koito first. People have tried to lobby for certain things to be put back into even limited production before now ( there's a small but relatively powerful old car following in Japan. let's not forget ) but the regime at Nissan doesn't behave very receptively to such lobbying.............

Have you considered the possibility that it might be from a market other than the USA / Canada? Early Japanese home-market ( L20A engined ) cars did not always have the silver sticker. They often had just the Tsuchiya filter info sticker, and the very earliest press and show cars had no stickers at all. My feeling is that you might have purchased the combination of an NOS Japanese-market outer casing and the HLS30-U type back plate. It doesn't seem out of the realms of possibility if you look at the seller's eBay user name.......... Food for thought? Alan T.

Mystery solved I think; g72s20 and Mr Camouflage appear to have nailed it. Looks 100% like the 240K GT steering wheel, and the horn pad is correct to boot. Is it my imagination, or do the 'spokes' on the C-110 version look slightly fatter than the older C-10 wheel?

Victor, I believe that it is a C10-series Skyline steering wheel, and more specifically was first seen on the GC10 'Skyline GT' ( 4 door ) model. This design was fitted to a few other C10-series models too, and the stylised 'D' for Datsun could have been original if the wheel in the car in question was originally an Export model ( the Domestic C10-series Skyline would not have had 'Datsun' or 'D' on it anywhere...... only 'Nissan' or the stylised 'N' that looked like a 'P' as a nod to Prince ). Here's a scan from the 1968 GC10 sales brochure:

Hosomi san's car is absolutely beautiful, with superb attention to detail and finish, but can we please remember that it is not correct to call it a "ZG" ( as in the title of this thread ).

The 2006 event will take place on Sunday 3rd December, at Fuji International Speedway. Long way to go for a one day event.........

The Japanese market started out with four distinct models in October 1969: *Fairlady Z ( 'S30-S' model ) = 'S30' VIN prefix *Fairlady Z-L ( 'S30' model ) = 'S30' VIN prefix *Fairlady Z432 ( 'PS30' model ) = 'PS30' VIN prefix *Fairlady Z432-R ( 'PS30-SB' model ) = 'PS30' VIN prefix Then in October 1971 the L24 engine was introduced to the range. The above four models continued to be sold, but the three models below were added: *Fairlady 240Z ( 'HS30-S' model ) = 'HS30' VIN prefix *Fairlady 240Z-L ( 'HS30' model ) = 'HS30' VIN prefix *Fairlady 240ZG ( 'HS30-H' model ) = HS30' VIN prefix The above continued to be sold until September 1973, when the L24 and S20 engined models were withdrawn and the L26 engine was introduced. Two models were then sold alongside the L20A engined versions: *Fairlady 260Z ( 'RS30-S' model ) = 'RS30' VIN prefix *Fairlady 260Z-L ( 'RS30' model ) = 'RS30' VIN prefix However, these L26-engined models were soon found to suffer from severe fuel vapourisation problems and overheating ( especially when equipped with Air Con ) and had great trouble passing the stringent Japanese emissions standards of the time. After just a few weeks of sales, all of the L26-engined models that had been sold to the general public were re-called, their L26 engines replaced with L20s, and their firewall VIN stamps were altered to 'S30' numbers. The whole episode was somewhat hushed up by Nissan. Thereafter, the Japanese market only got a variety of models with L20 engines ( carbed and then injected ) through to the end of S30/S31-series Z production in 1978. Alan T.

Larry, You don't need to apologise for anything - except perhaps for your spelling of my name. What I'm worried about is that these things we write here get preserved for electronic posterity ( however long that will be ) and people may be led to use them for reference material in the future. With your added weight of having been so deeply involved in design - and in the Nissan fold to boot - people will take extra notice of what you write. Stirring the pot for the benefit of debate it may be, but it adds kindling to a fire that some of us have been busy trying to stamp out for quite a while. When you mention "original sources" it worries me again. It seems like you are once again implying that Matsuo and his team must have started from something that was from somebody else's pen ( a 'no smoke without fire' theorem that the great liar Goertz used to his advantage ) almost as though they were in some way incapable of anything more than that. That's the way it reads between the lines to me anyway, and I've seen such things written and discussed before ( so maybe my radar is a little too sensitive ). Excuse me if I am wrong on this - but from reading your other posts on this thread I believe that you joined Nissan more than TEN YEARS after the events in question ( that is, the design, engineering and productionisation of the S30-series Z range that debuted in late 1969 ). Many of the major players had moved on by that time, including the chief designer of the whole project. You were not likely to get their side of the story, or indeed any kind word about them. I'm sorry, but are you talking about the Nineteenth century here? In my opinion and personal experience such sweeping generalisations are way out of date, and were already well out of date during the mid 1960s when the S30-series Z was in the process of being born. You would definitely enjoy taking that bottle of single malt and talking to Matsuo. He would tell you that from his teenage years he had his head buried in every book and magazine that illustrated the work of his heroes; work from styling houses and coachbuilders such as Pinin-Farina, Michelotti, Vignale, Ghia, Touring, Zagato et al. Here's a man ( and many of his team were the same ) who could talk openly about his influences - both positive and negative - and 'fess up about where he took his cues and sourced his inspiration. No artist or craftsman works in a complete vacuum, and Matsuo is very happy to tell you where and what the Z came from. He has very catholic tastes, and they are not limited to the field of automotive styling. As mentioned above, I think you arrived after the hurricane and saw the results of the clean-up effort - not the pre-hurricane regime. Matsuo and some others walked out of the company because of some of the people and things that you were to come into contact with later. Don't underestimate just how much of a shake up had already taken place. I'll leave you in peace to discuss the ( much ) later cars with Carl. Alan T.

LEB, Your posts on this thread caused me to furrow my brow and scratch my head. No disprespect intended, but are you just thinking out loud here or something? You seem to have been involved with automotive design, and with Nissan themselves, but seem to be out of touch with what is nowadays - pretty much - common knowledge amongst most serious S30-series Z history fans. I can tell you for SURE that the S30-series Z range was indeed designed and engineered in Japan. Most of the main figures involved in designing, engineering and producing the range are still alive and well, and have been telling their stories over the last few years. You seem to be well behind the game in this respect. You need to do a little catching up. You will soon find the answer as to why the people you met at the Design Centre in Atsugi "never wanted to admit that it wasn't done in Japan". It WAS a Japanese product. But in what way was the S30-series Z design a "breakthrough"? I can tell you that the Chief Designer considered it to be already somewhat out of date in styling terms by the time it hit the market, and mechanically it was not exactly earth shattering. The designer himself admits that its biggest selling point was that such a great package of style and substance could be had for such a low price in its largest export market, and that the penny pinching imposed on his team affected the design almost as much as any other single factor. Yotsumoto "changed the subject"? Is this some kind of allusion to a conspiracy theory or something? I think you need to look a little bit more deeply into the internal company politics of the period in question if you want to get a proper handle on all this. And did Yotsumoto tell you that he "did" the 510? Reading between the lines of the above quote, I get the feeling that you are classing the S30-series Z as some kind of 'cut above' Nissan's other products of the period in pure styling terms. It reminds me of the times one has in the past read comments implying that "the Japanese" could not possibly have designed the Z, as it was too classy / beautiful / sexy ( etc etc ) and must therefore have been from the pen of a non-Japanese stylist ( as though Japanese people were in some way inherently incapable of designing such a thing ). Such thinking is retarded at best, and might well be downright racist at worst. I certainly hope this is not your intention. Your theory seems to be about as accurate as your dating of the B210 design - which debuted in the Japanese market in May 1973. Maybe you meant the B110, which debuted in January 1970? In any case, the S30-series Z was not designed alongside the Sunny, Bluebird, Laurel, Skyline, Cedric or Gloria - it was the product of a different studio within the company. Next time you are in Japan, I suggest you pay a visit to the offices of Mr Yoshihiko Matsuo. Take a bottle of a good single malt Scotch whisky with you, and maybe he will tell you how over thirty six years ago he and his team designed, engineered and productionised a range of cars that some people today still want to try and attribute to somebody - seemingly anybody - else. Respectfully, Alan T.

Jim, *October 18th 1969 - First 'Press Preview' event held at Nissan ( their Ginza, Tokyo offices in this case, I believe ) to introduce the S30-series Z range. *October 24th 1969 - Start of the Tokyo Motor Show, where the S30-series Z range was introduced to the general public for the first time. *November 5th 1969 - First 'Test Drive' day, for the Japanese press to actually get hold of the cars and drive them. The results were seen in many of the November and December 1969, and January 1970 Japanese weeklies and monthlies. All in all, quite a busy and important period for the S30-series Z range......... Would have been nice to have had a grandstand view, I think. Alan T.

Post #2 on this thread might have saved you the bother........ Note to self: Must stop using invisible ink.

Max, I remember the original post over on hybridz.org, and I'm sorry to say that I knew nothing about this particular car then, and I know nothing more about it now. I see that you have been searching for more information using the clues of 'Advan' and 'Monza Corporation' that appear on the car. Can I make some observations about that? *The 'ADVAN' name appears on a race number on the car. It might be stating the obvious, but it seems pertinent to point out that this does not mean that Advan sponsored the car directly or even indirectly. Such number backgrounds and number packs are given out to competitors in races, and it does not always mean that Advan sponsored the race/series, or even that they supplied the 'control' tyre for that race/series. I've even seen these used on track day events in Japan, simply as a means to identifying the participating cars. Looking for data on this car through the Advan link is probably barking up the wrong tree. At the very least it is casting a net too wide. *Likewise, the name 'Monza Corporation' appears on the car - but we have no way of knowing whether this was the name of the garage that built the car, or if they were some kind of sponsor. I've certainly never heard of a company in Japan with that name having any involvement in building S30-series Z based race or street cars, but that means nothing. There are tens of thousands of small operations in Japan that could put together something like this. I think it highly unlikely that the 'Monza Corporation' involved has any direct links outside Japan - but that's just a gut feeling. They could be lot smaller than you might imagine........... I'd also suggest using katakana input with a Japanese search engine rather than 'Romaji'. Try cutting and pasting モンザ　コーポレーション ( that's 'Monza Corporation' written phonetically in katakana characters ) and see what you can come up with. Might be a waste of time, but if you are prepared to wade through lots of dead ends you never know what might turn up. You might want to combine the search with the letter 'Z' or 'S30', or even 'S31'. *I've never noticed a Z with such modifications running in any of the various Japanese race series, and I've kept an eye on many of them. The mods we can see ( let alone what we can't see ) would put it into some very specialised categories - none of which could be described as remotely 'historic' or conforming to the regs of series that I would normally follow. It seems more likely to have been something of a one-off local-built special for an 'anything goes' kind of series. Maybe even 'just' a track day special. Best to keep an open mind I guess. Can I phone a friend?

Hi Kats, Congratulations on your purchase. That must be the earliest version of the Export RHD parts lists. Very very rare I think. Don't feel guilty about the amount you paid, as I think the information and cross-referencing that it provides will keep paying you back for many years to come. The updated editions are also of interest, as they sometimes corrected mistakes or anomalies and gave good clues as to why parts were changed or superseded. My feeling is that in order to fully understand each individual S30/S31-series model you need to try to understand the whole family of contemporary models. And in order to understand the later additions to the family, you need to try to understand everything possible about the models and variants that came before them. Alan T.