HS30-H

Can you define what you mean by "purists", and suggest who these "purists" might be?

Gav, How about a 'period-look' bucket seat? Something that looks like it might have been roughly contemporary with the car? The CORBEAU GT-8 was always a good choice ( especially in black corduroy and vinyl with the chrome vents ). I think Corbeau still make them, and you can get them to make you a 'custom' colourway / fabric combo as far as I remember. I'd honestly advise you to stay away from anything that looks too modern unless you have other details on the car that fit with that look. To my mind, modern race-style seats can look very jarring in an otherwise early-Seventies period car. Ben, I can tell you that ( honestly! ) the "U0175" Sports Option 'Datsun Bucket' seats are not actually all that comfortable......... As you know, I have them in my car - and I have to say that it can be pretty difficult to get totally set in them over a long journey. I think I'm going to re-install mine and see if I can get them mounted a bit lower. Its not so bad for me ( only 176cm ) but anyone fairly tall will probably feel even more uncomfortable! Here's a pic of mine in the car:

Here's a ( bad ) pic of the Factory 5-speed gear knob. I have an NOS one that might be for sale at the right price ( which would probably be the wrong price for most people...:classic: ). Sorry. I have a couple of used ones, but they are a bit messed up. I doubt that you would want one of those.

Bruce, if you think your MK63's are too narrow for a vented rotor then you may well have the non-vented version of the MK63 caliper. They came in both vented and non-vented ( narrow ) versions. They didn't use any kind of spacer on the vented version - the castings themselves were different. Alan T.

Another angle:

Here's a pic of the components on my car. That's a Peugeot 306 / 505 GTI vented disc, used in conjunction with the Nissan Sports Option Sumitomo "MK63" 4-pot caliper. You have to re-drill the PCD for the hub mounting bolts, but other than that its a bolt-on job.

A little background info on 26th-Z's pic of the Kobe Seiko wheels in the Japanese auction: Kobe Seiko were the original manufacturers of many of Nissan's competition and Sports Option wheels. They made the original equipment magnesium wheels for the 432, as well as the Works "Rally Mags" used on the Factory rally cars. The pictured wheels are a later ( modified ) version of the moulds and tooling for the 432 mags. Kobe Seiko marketed this design themselves under the "MAGLLOY" design name ( which you can see cast into the rim ) after production of the 432 had stopped. Just in case anyone is interested.............

Many of the Japanese plastic model kits of the Seventies and Eighties were re-hashes of previous mouldings. I'm no expert, but I've made a few models over the years. I used to watch my dad making old Monogram hot rod kits in the Sixties. Those kits were great, and I've still got some of the ones he made. I've also got a fair few unmade plastic model kits of the first-generation Z. Maybe I'm saving them for the future?....... This particular issue is a kind of pastiche of the car that ran at Le Mans in 1976, and was entered by "SION AUTOS 2001". The same car ( with different paint and details ) also ran in the 1975 event. In fact it was an ex-Works SCCN circuit race car ( not an ex-Works rally car, as has been widely claimed ). We went through the story in a previous thread on this site, I remember. As I say, the paint and decals of this kit are similar to - but not 100% accurate - the 1976 Le Mans car. The real one was using the full Works "Type B" aero package ( G Nose, super wide Overfenders, and three piece rear spoiler ) but the kit shows a car with no G Nose. The real car had the super-rare Kobe Seiko magnesium 4-spoke Works wheels, but those of the kit are different. The kit shows an LHD configuration, but the Le Mans car was RHD. Lots of other small differences too. Its probably a rare kit, but does not accurately represent the car that it is ( roughly! ) based on. I think that's fair enough for a 'hobby' kit, as opposed to a serious scale-modeller's kit. Come on 26th-Z, you know you want it!:classic:

I hope you Skyline owners don't mind if I poke my nose in here occasionally.........:classic: The pic of the 4-door with flares seems to be from one of the Japanese auctions. Probably USS by the looks of the photo angle. They drive the cars through the photo booths at the auction and take front and rear shots while the car is momentarily stationary. These photos go on the website along with the auction grading sheet, and the same photos are used on screen when the car goes through the actual auction. I've been to some of the Japanese auctions ( USS Kobe and Osaka, and another rival auction in Nagoya ) and it was somewhat mind-blowing. The volume of cars they get through is amazing. Llama, Be careful about the Overfenders for the 4-door cars. They are shaped differently to the 2-door versions. You can indeed get two-piece Overfenders for the rear of the 4-door cars, and they are still being made by the aftermarket in Japan. You don't have to cut up the sheetmetal of the body unless you need clearance for wider wheels / tyres. This is not easy on the 4-door, as you have to cut the door and door opening if you want to go particularly wide ( don't do it! ). I've seen this done on a couple of cars in Japan and it looks like a real lot of work. My advice would be to fit the Overfenders if you want to, but don't get into the sheetmetal around the door opening. Good luck! Alan T.

Hi Alfadog, I believe its a bug deflector. You can see them on lots of cars in Japan - epecially big 4x4's. It probably stuffs the aerodynamics, but the trade-off between air resistance and annoying bug squash must be considered worth it. I remember when I was living in Japan and we'd go out racing at night. Quite often had to stop at the rest areas on the expressways to get the bug mess off the windscreen. The wash / wipe wouldn't clean it effectively and they just gummed up the wiper blades making it much worse. Don't they have these deflectors in Australia? I've seen them in other sub-tropical countries, so I would have thought they'd be handy in the climate you have out there ( lucky sods! ). Cheers, Alan T.

Some of the best dealerships in Japan though........ That's not so bad is it? They are almost identical anyway. I should imagine ( as Alfadog pointed out ) that Kobe Seiko or Nissan themselves took a lot of 'inspiration' from the Minilite and Brabham designs, just like Watanabe did............. Prince would have brought a lot of this preference with them when they joined Nissan. Take a look at the wheels on the R380:

:classic:

I believe that Kobe Seiko used to make all sorts of forgings and castings for companies like Nissan - not just wheels. They launched their own brand wheels in the mid Seventies ( quite similar to the 432 mags, actually ) but I'm not sure what happened to them after that. I can imagine that they are probably still making castings and forgings, but I don't know about wheels. I certainly haven't seen any under the Kobe Seiko name ( it sounds a bit industrial, and I think the best translation for "seiko" would be "precision engineering" - so, "Kobe Precision Engineering"............. Hmmmm, maybe not so bad? ). Cheers! Alan T.

Hi v12horse & Alfadog, Sorry to nitpick, but the eight-spoke wheels on the 1970 Sports Option lists for the Z432-R were not actually made by R.S. Watanabe. They were made by Kobe Seiko, and did not have any identifying marks on them whatsoever. They looked VERY similar to the classic Minilite and Watanabe shape, and were made from Magnesium. First of all they were only offered in 8j x 14 size, but the later Sports Option lists for the HS30 and RS30 offered the same wheel in 10j x 14 size. I am told that a few Nissan dealers in Japan actually sold R.S. Watanabe wheels in the early Seventies, and offered them in fitments for the first-generation Z. The wheels in the Sports Option lists were made by Kobe Seiko, who also made the magnesium 432 wheels and the Works "Rally" mags used on the Factory rally cars. Cheers! Alan T. ( Nitpicking Dept. ):classic:

Heavier, but probably not slower:

It was supposed to be appropriate! I have an old magazine article about Japanese police cars, so I thought I'd put a pic up. Here's a later and uglier one:

Z Police are ready to chase...............

Hi Carl, Unfortunately, people like you seem to be something of an exception on ebay. Very often my enquiries have gone unanswered, despite my efforts to let the vendor know that I understand about international shipping and what it costs ( its part of my job ). I have 100% good feedback - 95% of which is from sellers outside my home country. Does this count for anything with these vendors? Does it hell!............ However, I do understand that there are a fair amount of idiots on ebay ( both buyers AND sellers ) - so I really should not be so surprised. Its just a microcosm of the World, after all................ Alan T.

texasz, ebay username "navyzero" should be a clue to you. He's Japanese alright, and that's the Japanese navy ( Kaigun ) and not the US Navy, British Navy or indeed the Swiss Navy. I think you know what a Zero sen is too?......... The answer is that he's buying the "2400 OHC" valve covers and selling them in Japan. They are fairly collectable over there, and some of the Factory race cars used them - so they have a small following. I sourced a pair for a Japanese friend of mine a couple of years ago. He kept one and sold the other. Alan T.