HS30-H

Kats, Is that picture upside down?

Short answer - no. The air inlets on the air cleaners simply allow the engine to suck as much air as they need. No tangible 'ram air' effect under a bonnet like that, no matter which direction the air cleaner inlets are pointing in. Don't worry yourself with it. The designers knew what they were doing......... Literally hundreds. If you counted all variants and all years you might even get up into the thousands. The good news is that spares for 'proper' SU carbs are plentiful, and spares for AH Sprites and MG Midgets and their like are no problem either. If only the situation for 'our' cars was so good.....

Ah, you mean S30-00769 for the S30 pics? I think that's a case of owner preference, and the car isn't as it would have left the Factory. As far as non-rubbered bumpers go, Nissan's intended spec for the models released in October 1969 was that only the S30-S and PS30-SB had them. What the owners subsequently fitted was their own business........ Sure it had bumpers. It was an official production model intended for limited sale to the General Public specifically to aid homologation of race cars and race parts. It had to have bumpers. They took them off of the race cars... You can call them 432-R bumpers if you want, but its probably more truthful to call them S30-S bumpers. At least it would be good accompaniment to the "432" mesh grilles which are exactly the same as the mesh grilles on other models......

Austin Healey Sprite or MG Midget.

I see the vertical bumper guards ( we call them "Over riders" over here ) quoted as "Option" parts in all the Nissan parts lists and brochures that I have. They cover the Japanese market, Europe ( inc. UK ) and Australia. However, in practice I think the non-USA / Canada Export market cars were not 100% consistent in their specs with regard to details such as these. Some dealers seemed to be aware of the dealer 'Option' parts, and some did not. You can imagine that this - combined with other factors - probably led to customers not knowing what they could have had..... I've never seen the USA-style aftermarket 'towel rail' bumper additions in any other market.

Feel the Force, Guus. Feel the Force.....:

A few more Japanese police cars:

Hi Michael, Yes, they are not 'Z' emblems - they are all wearing the Chrysanthemum ( Kiku ) emblem of the Japanese police force. In fact, the Kiku emblem has something of a nationalistic meaning in Japan. Your wife - being Japanese - will be able to explain its significance far better than I can. I tried to scan a close-up as best I could:

No Mike, all of the first-gen European market models did have the rubber bumper trim. The smooth non-rubbered bumpers were first seen on the no frills base-level 'Fairlady Z' ( S30-S ) and lightweight 'Fairlady Z432-R' ( PS30-SB ) models at launch in October 1969. I agree with 26th-Z's thoughts that this might be a crossover from the USA-speak surrounding marques such as Porsche and VW. Sometimes the "European" market spec parts were seen as 'cool' or at least different enough to be of interest. Ironic that the "European" bumpers were not actually used on European models........

Hi Ben, I think this is the article that you were referring to? In 1972, Nissan donated a new Fairlady 240ZG to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department. Kanagawa prefecture's most famous city is probably Yokohama, and the ZG patrol car would most likely have spent some time prowling the fastest sections of the Tomei Expressway. Nissan's backyard, if you like. Kanagawa police seem to have kept the car in storage after it was retired from duty. Recently it was cleaned up and returned to Nissan, and it will be kept in the 'Nissan Memorial Sports Hall' at Zama. It will probably make guest appearances at Nissan shows and exhibitions in the future, and should be a good candidate for showing in the planned museum section at Nissan's new Yokohama HQ building. Here are the pics from the 'handover' as published by OLD TIMER magazine:

Wow Kats, I'm speechless. Love it.

Ah OK Curtis, I know the part you mean. I'm always slightly reluctant to get involved in making suggestions or recommendations in relation to carburettor setting and jettings online. Its seems a Damned-If-You-Do, Damned-If-You-Don't no-win situation to me. You know just as well as I do that there are too many case-by-case variables in each individual application, and that typing a few words on this screen isn't necessarily going to convey what you are experiencing let alone the results that you might be aiming at. However, why don't you start by telling us what you had in the carbs before? Were they 'OA' or '8' emulsion tubes? When you changed to the new emulsion tubes, did you change or tweak anything else on the carbs? And did you speak to Kameari when you bought the new emulsion tubes? I'm wondering if they gave you any advice? Or maybe you bought the Kameari parts from Pit Road or somebody else? PM me if you want to take this offline. Cheers, Alan T.

I use KAMEARI parts. Are you referring to the 'OA' emulsion tubes for the Mikuni 44PHH carburettor, or something else?

Guus, how come you didn't post a scan of this pic? Those vinyl seats must have given him crotch rot :tapemouth

Oh yes they would. You can't trust plastic model construction kits or their box art to be 100% historically accurate ( although some are more accurate than others ). Guus, that model based loosely on the '76 Le Mans entry Z is a good example - isn't it? The article in Neko's 'Fairlady II' book states that a total of only FIVE Fairlady Z432 cars were used as fast pursuit cars. The 2/2 was more common and - as Ben has spotted - some Fairlady 240ZGs were also utilised.

Ah, you got a preview then 26th-Z? Will we see footage of Katayama san ripping off the 'Fairlady Z' emblems, throwing them on the ground and jumping up and down on them?

Gav, They were not journalists, they were much more important people than that! They were the official test crew for the North American / Canada testing in late 1969. Kats posted some fantastic stuff on this subject back in the "Philosophy" thread ( although it deserves its own thread ). He posted stills of the title sequence of the cine film, and first-hand background stuff from the staff involved. You need to start looking around page 6 or 7 onwards : "North American testing" on 'Philosophy' thread: Kats, Wonderful stuff. Thank you. In the next instalment - they take an engine apart? Fascinating. That's a must-see. Cheers, Alan T.

Will, There were FIVE if you count the 432 and 432R front crossmember ( 54401-E4200 ), which had taller engine-mount 'towers' - mounted at steeper angles to the L-gata versions..... I can't help that much with detailed analysis I'm afraid, but I have found that the 'second' crossmember ( N3402 ) weighed noticably more than E4100 ( I presume slightly thicker gauge of metal? ) and that the welds were much beefier. Also noticed that the captive nuts for the splash pan were slightly differently positioned, and were bigger. The 'jack pad' also seemed to be differently shaped, and again thicker than the earlier type. If not worried about weight or originality, I'd say the N3402 would be a good substitute for the E4100? They always seem to be in better condition anyway! I don't have any personal experience of post-N3402 supercessions, sorry. Cheers, Alan T.

"Z Mecca" is in Tampa? I never noticed a city called Tampa when I was in Japan...... Christopher, I just want to point out ( although I'm sure you realised ) that most of what you can see on Pit Road's website is actually the product of KAMEARI ENGINE WORKS - a quite different company. Pit Road simply scanned Kameari's catalogue and put it up on their own website.... Pit Road are authorised sellers of Kameari products. I have been buying Kameari's products for many years, and I usually visit them whenever I am in Japan. I can vouch for their commitment to Nissan's L-series engines, and the quality of their products. If anybody wants to know anything about them, then please don't hesitate to ask me. Eric, I think you'll find that the Best Motoring volume 56 DVD is MPEG-2 NTSC - like most Japanese DVDs. The VHS video version is NTSC. My computer seems to play the Japanese MPEG-2 NTSC DVDs just fine. In 1993 I bought a multi-region video machine expressly to play the NTSC VHS tapes I bought in Japan ( UK format is PAL ). Nowadays they seem quite common, and much cheaper.

What's wrong with Cedric anyway? Great name. Almost as good as Boris. My dad wanted to call me Boris ( he was a big Boris Karloff fan ) but mum wouldn't have it. Nissan Boris. Great. Names are better than numbers. How about a Nissan Winston or Nissan Archduke Franz Ferdinand? This could go anywhere. The possibilities are endless! Actually, I reckon the final word in car model names has to go to Honda for the Honda 'Life'. Top that. Advertising slogan: "Get a Life...".

Poor old Sir Cedric was dredged up on Google I'm afraid....

I have it on good authority that the first Nissan Cedric was named after thespian Sir Cedric Hardwicke. A fine figure of a man if ever I saw one.

They were originally light truck jacks, I believe. You assembled the jack by sticking the body into the base plate, and hooking the hook onto either the side jacking hoops, or under the bumper ( or under the window ledge if the car is upside down ) and then pumping like hell. Some modern rally cars use a very similar jack system that is made in Japan. Apparently they are very good. Here's some pics of the jack in a Safari car:

Lachlan, you can discard that piece. Its the jack for the Works rally cars, and its on the sprue because Tamiya shared some moulds between the 1/12 scale ZG and Rally car versions. One less thing for you to assemble, paint and detail - you'll probably be relieved to know! :classic: