HS30-H

BOW illustrated the invitation and poster for the "Sports Car Graffiti" event at Nissan's Ginza showroom last year too:

One of my favourite automotive illustrators goes by the pen-name of "BOW". He first came to prominence with his pen and ink illustrations for the cover of "Scramble Car Magazine" in Japan during the late 1970s. He still illustrated the cover when it morphed into "Car" magazine, and still has his own monthy page in the mag.

Guus has it right. Nissan's Works rally Z cars used some very distinctive mud flaps. On some events, they even had an extra pair of flaps rolled up behind the main pair as finishing the rally without intact flaps would have meant time penalties being added as punishment. Some reference pics to back Guus up:

How's about that for a comprehensive and accurate reply to a request for help and advice? Too often this kind of effort goes unthanked, unreplied to, and ( seemingly ) unappreciated. Nice posting, Ben. People like yourself are what makes a site like this a valuable resource. :classic:

Hi Ben, The pictures on the Watanabe site don't illustrate full-blown 'Works' race cars. Most of the pictures are of Yoshihiro Taniguchi in his Yokohama-sponsored 240ZG. This was race-entered and supported by SCCN, but was not strictly a full Works car. Before this car he had a PZR fitted with an LR24 engine and the full Group 4 body kit - so you can see how race cars get born, get changed, become obsolete and get forgotten. Around 19 PS30-SBs were sold to the general public. No cast iron figures I'm afraid. A little bit of skullduggery with figures is probably behind that. Nissan built their own PZRs as dedicated race cars from the body panels up. Again, apparently no cast iron figures exist. They were of course quite different in many respects to the model that was on sale to the general public. That is to be expected. Legend has it that some of the Works cars were technically slightly outside the rules of the class that they were entered in ( shhhh! ). As you say, the 432R was a homologation special - produced simply to allow the Factory race cars to legally use parts that would otherwise be illegal. By making the PZR available to the general public, and selling the Sports Option parts that they wanted to use in racing, they legitimised their race cars. Strong parallels can be drawn with Works Porsche homologation specials of the same period ( such as the 911R and 911S/T ) and in fact you can see where Nissan drew a lot of their inspiration for nomenclature and the type of parts needed if you look at those models. I can answer this one if its OK with Chris. That photo is an official Nissan publicity shot, taken just before the "All Japan Suzuka 300km" race ( at Suzuka Circuit ) on 18th January 1970. This was the race debut of the PZR - and therefore the world debut race for the S30-series Z. I wrote a little about this event in a previous reply on this thread. The Works cars only raced in the guise shown in the photo once. By their second race, they were already wearing the Sports Option type Overfenders and Sports Option 8j Kobe Seiko 8-spoke magnesium wheels. The Works cars changed spec and appearance for almost every race they entered. Hope that was of interest. Cheers, Alan T.

Direct links to the Gallery sections that contain images from past Nissan Ginza showroom / Gallery events: 'Sports Car Graffiti' 2003 Nissan Style Week 2004 - 'The Racing Spirits' Some of the cars that will be on display at the latest event can be seen in the above photos.

Drunkenmaster, Here's a link to a thread that might help you find the two Nissan sites in Ginza: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8503&highlight=Ginza There are probably no exact 'dates' for what's on; they usually have a kind of rolling rotation of exhibits for any particular 'event' that takes place - even to the extent of moving cars and exhibits around each day. If the weather is nice, you'll even see cars outside on the courtyard along with the new demonstration models.

In a word, no. Unfortunately.

Hello Goncalo, Your wheels look like this, yes?:

Hi Goncalo, I'm not sure what you mean about the back of your car. Can you give more details? Photos would be good. Here is a picture of the two used front brake calipers that I have selected for you. Next step is to pack and weigh them. I will PM you with the postage cost. Cheers, Alan T.

My gut feeling is that the car is still in Japan, and has not actually been shipped to the USA yet. I could be wrong, but that's a strong possibility considering the situation regarding viewing - and the photos ( no in-USA photos - why not? ). I can sympathise with the seller to some extent. Having sold more than a few cars in my time, I know what it's like having to deal with time-wasters, dreamers and test pilots. However, if you want to sell something as specialised as this particular car, you need to have LOTS of good accurate and recent pics, have all the back-up data and information at hand for answering every possible question, and be able to prove that its in-country too.

Here are some pics relevant to the races I mentioned. First one is from one of the races at that "All Japan Stock Car Fuji 300km" meeting on 22nd March 1970, and depicts the two Works 432-Rs of Kitano and Hasemi with the Porsche 910 of Kazato behind them. Second pic is from the "Race De Nippon" event held on 12th March 1970, and depicts the Sunako / Kunimitsu GT-R being followed by the Yokoyama / Teranishi 432-R ( which was destined to retire from the race ).

SCCN = "Sports Car Club of Nissan" Nissan's 'Works' circuit race team.

Hi Ben, LY was first seen late in 1971. First raced seriously in 1972. '240ZR' was Nissan's internal code for their race cars using the HS30 bodyshell ( and usually the LR24 engine ) but it was not applied consistently in race entries - and therefore is not consistently noted in race reports. I guess we just have to accept that - typically for Nissan in that period - there were no hard and fast rules to this kind of thing. In effect, it was used more like a nickname. The Toyota 2000GT was really at the end of its race career by the time the Z debuted. A few carried on racing in the hands of privateers, but they were out of their league against Nissan's factory efforts. For example, in that "All Japan Suzuka 300km" event in January 1970 I mentioned above ( the first race for the PZR ), a lone Toyota 2000GT came home in 25th overall place ( although admittedly in a creditable second place in the "R" class ). There were a few races where they went head-to-head, but the Toyota was at the end of its career whilst the Z was at the beginning of its own.

Here are some examples of the first true head-to-head battles between 'Works' prepped and entered Skyline GT-Rs and Fairlady 432-Rs: The first actual race for the Fairlady 432-R ( and incidentally, the World race debut for the S30-series Z ) took place on 18th January 1970 at the "All Japan Suzuka 300km" race ( at Suzuka Circuit ). Works SCCN ace driver Moto Kitano showed well in qualifying, but was T-boned by another car in the race and retired ( with the car a write-off and Kitano lucky to escape injury ). The car was entered in the "R" class. That race was won by a Porsche 908 ( also in the "R" class ), with a Porsche 910 following home in second position ( running in the "S" class ) with a PGC10 GT-R taking third position ( driven by Takahashi Kunimitsu and entered in the "T" class ). Second 'Works' race for the PZR was the "All Japan Stock Car Fuji 300km Race" on 22nd March 1970. Kitano brought the car home in second place behind the Porsche 910 of Hiroshi Kazato, with the other SCCN PZR of Masahiro Hasemi taking third. All the cars were in the same "S2" class. A brace of Fairlady 2000s ( SR311 ) followed them home ( also in the "S2" class ) and behind the Fairladies was a gaggle of Honda S800 racers ( in the "S1" class ). The Works GT-Rs were in a different race ( for "T1" & "T2" classes ) that day. No head-to-head comparison between PZR and GT-R. Third Works outing for the PZR was where it finally took a win, at the "Race De Nippon" event held at Fuji Speedway on 12th April 1970. I believe I am correct in saying that this was the first racing win of an S30-series Z worldwide. Kitano and Hasemi took their SCCN-entered PZR to an overall and class win in the "GTS" class after 6 hours of racing. They covered 959km and 159 laps. Second place overall ( and first in the "TS3" class ) went to Kurosawa and Sunako in a Works-entered GT-R, which was two laps down on the winning PZR at the end of the race. Third place was also taken by a GT-R. The second SCCN PZR in the race retired. That was pretty much the first time a PZR and GT-R had raced head-to-head to the finish of a race. The PZR came out on top.

"LR24" was Nissan's code for the Factory race versions of the L24 engine. Specs varied depending on what they were for, and when they were built. The LY crossflows came after these. We have to be careful here, as when the SCCN Factory race team put the LR24 engines into some of their PZR bodies, they could not call them 432-Rs any more. This was a delicate situation; essentially they were now neither fish nor fowl and Nissan had to be careful that they did not infringe the rules of each particular race, and each particular race class, that they entered. The cars ( both S20 engined, and later on LR24 engined ) were entered in different classes for different races. I shall write down some examples in the next post. Again, it depended on the particular race and the classes included in that race. Sometimes - at the larger race meetings - different races would be run for certain classes, and then a 'top of the bill' main event race with several classes running on track at the same time would be run.

Technically speaking, you could say that more than two 'models' got the S20 engine: *PGC10 Skyline GT-R ( the 4-door ) *PS30 Fairlady Z432 *PS30-SB Fairlady Z432-R *KPGC10 Skyline GT-R ( the 2-door ) *KPGC110 Skyline GT-R Out of these, Nissan only 'officially' raced the PGC10, KPGC10 & PS30-SB in 'Works' form. But you have to ask the question, "Why does an auto manufacturer go racing?" before you can begin to deconstruct what Nissan did with these cars, and why....... Like most auto manufacturers they went racing to promote their product, sell cars, and improve the breed as a spin-off. The greatest benefit from this would be to be seen to be beating the similar product of a rival in a straight race. For Nissan in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this meant beating Toyota. The hottest area of competition in the marketplace was for small family saloons and coupes, and this was consequently where racing was most hotly and seriously contested; Celicas against Sunnies, Corollas against Cherries. The S20-powered Skyline GT-Rs and Fairlady 432-Rs raced in different classes, and like-for-like comparisons are in many ways difficult. The 432-R actually had very little direct competition in its class, and was often seen cleaning up in its class and taking the fight to the next class up ( usually consisting of dedicated sports racing cars such as Lolas and Chevrons ). After a year and a half of this in domestic racing, Nissan changed tack and installed LR24 engines in the 432-R bodies - taking them up into yet another class. Once again, they did well - but had little direct competition in-class. The domestic race career of the S20-powered Skyline was longer, and therefore the cars became more developed. You would have to say that a full-house Works KPGC10 GT-R would level-peg a full-house Works PZR, but there would be a difference of the best part of a year of development between them. For most of its domestic Works race career, the 432-R really had nothing much to race against in its class. In a straight race, I think the Z would take it - but it would depend on the circuit and the driver too

Careful Alfadog, You don't want to fall foul of the classiczcars.com Patriot Act........ :eek:

OK Goncalo, I have your PM. Thank you. Next step is to find out the cost of the postage. I will PM you when I have a figure. Cheers, Alan T.