HS30-H

Rhetorical questions: How were the quoted power figures tested? UK/Aus/Euro/NZ 240Z models had the L24 engine without the smog pump-equipment, had retarded timing (check out the different distributors) of the HLS30U, but power figures are all quoted as being the same. Which is correct? My money is on the HLS30U giving way less power at the wheels than the PS30, but also way less than the HS30U/HLS30. Did you miss the point about the stock package? I'm talking about the whole car. These are supposed to be sports cars. You don't win sports car Top Trumps by being less sporty.

Taking the implications of your first sentence to its logical conclusion, each North American dealer had their own version of the '240Z'. This is, of course, nonsense. I like your "same power" for the L24 vs S20. If you honestly think the retarded-timing, anti smog-equipped L24 in the HLS30U was kicking out the same as the S20 then - as we say over here - I have a bridge to sell you. It would be fun to have a theoretical race. Lets pick a race track with some corners rather than a drag strip. How about the old Watkins Glen? Or maybe Suzuka? You can have a 1970-spec HLS30U (complete with smog pump, 4-speed trans, 3.36:1 open diff, Amco towel rail bumper add-ons and rear window louvers) and I'll choose a 1970-spec PS30 (I could have chosen a PS30-SB, but I'll be nice) with its close ratio 5-speed Servo-synchro trans and 4.44:1 LSD. No gew-gaws on the 432 as - buying in Japan - the buyer gets to spec the car rather than the dealer. Lets race... Now I don't claim to be a race car driver, but I've had lessons. Hopefully I was paying attention. Don't know your pedigree, but I'm willing to bet there's a good chance that I'll lap the track faster and smoother than you will. Because its all about the PS30 package. You think different?

But how late would the planning for the smog pump system have been? It must have been planned well in advance, surely? It's a fairly complex system that has implications for several linked components, and some cost to the company.

I've long wondered - when all overheads were factored in - just how much Nissan made on each HLS30U/UN/UV in, for example, 1970. There might well have been occasions where their selling dealers were making more per-car than Nissan Japan were getting back. No doubt the dealers were happy. Maybe that was part of the thinking...? We've talked about it in the past, but I still think that at least TWO models of '240Z' would have been suitable for the North American market; One 'Hot' one, and one 'Deluxe' one. Nissan themselves could have loaded the Deluxe with all sorts of fun stuff to charge more for. Like carpets, for instance... ?

Charles, It's the RHD-specific layout as fitted to RHD production cars. Since the RHD heater/blower system (including the 'chimney' air inlet in the lower cowl part of the bodyshell) is RHD-specific and will not fit/work in LHD layout, it stands to reason that an LHD-specific version of factory aircon would be designed to fit the LHD layout. I can't show you a picture of an LHD-specific version because an LHD-specific version never made it to production in 1969... My point about the nascent air-con hose cut-outs in the firewall jute pad of the green BaT car is that - I'm willing to bet - they indicate that LHD-specific factory aircon must have been on the cards until quite late in the design/engineering processes. If not, why include the cut-out templates in the LHD-specific (it won't fit RHD) firewall jute pad? We know that there was a certain amount of de-contenting of the very first deliveries to North America, and - granted - some of the details will have been regarded as 'won't be missed', 'not necessary' or 'too expensive'. I believe there was a Tug-O'-War going on between NMC USA and NMC Japan over how to keep costs down whilst still making profit with a very competitive selling price. There were also - clearly - efforts made to simplify options and limit differences to the U/N/V variants which would help to maximise daily production volumes. I think factory aircon for North American market variants was a victim of all this. The wider point is that all the 'Made For USA' and 'Designed for USA' talk is not the whole story. Anybody who looks at these cars closely enough must realise that 'Made for Japan' and 'Designed for Japan' also happened, and so did made/designed for Australia, NZ, NL, Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, UK, Scandinavia and others. S30, PS30, PS30-SB, HS30, HS30U, HLS30, HLS30U/UN/UV were all designed/engineered at the same time. That's why Nissan called it the 'S30-Series' at launch. It's a family.

Its an RT55 Corona 1600GT, running in the TS-III class. DNF'd in Heat one and classified last in aggregate results after Heat two.

Fully integrated factory air conditioning was part of the 'original' design for the S30-series Z. There's a chapter on the system in the November 1969-dated Nissan 'Service Shuho' booklet. Here are scans of some selected pages: But.... "Designed For USA" / "Made For USA", right....?

AirCon. Not fitted. There's a little hole with a rubber plug in the top of the trans tunnel, under the dash. AirCon drain hole. Edited to add: S20-engined cars used same two heater hose holes as L20A/L24-engined cars. Universal. Good engineering!

No. I'm saying that - much like the guy on BaT who was under the impression that Katayama designed and personally specified 'the 240Z' - they are not necessarily as well informed as they would ideally be. I was watching the BaT auction, following the comments, and it brought it home to me that people you *might* think would be fairly well informed about these cars (you know, like people who profess to own more than 30 of them...) are either dismally ill-informed or just plain lazy. Maybe they have been led somewhat astray by the type of articles you linked to. I think the "American Car, Made In Japan" narrative does not help matters. If people want to own these cars and just drive them, that's fine. They can hang 'em on the wall and just look at them, and that too is fine. But if people want to pipe up and tell us all that headlamp covers were "only aftermarket" then they had better be right, right? And when somebody attempts to straighten that out with a little perspective and hard data, but gets 'flagged as unconstructive' and deleted because three or four people don't like it, that's wrong - right? It strikes me - once again - that there's a deeper discussion to be had, and more research to be done, on how the HLS30U, HLS30UN and HLS30UV variants came to be set in the specification that they were finally sold in. This is something not covered in any depth in Uemura san's book and I believe it would be interesting and educational to get more deeply into. Personally I find it interesting and educational to look at and compare different market variants that were made around the same time period, but some are telling us that's "irrelevant" because "Made For USA"...

Thanks. It's in such good condition in the green BaT auction car* that it looks just like the textured finish of the injection-moulded plastic on the choke/hand throttle mount. Amazing! *Hey, we haven't got a catchy name for it yet, have we? Lstepp4Re's idea to name it didn't fly, did it? He's got "Frankie" The Franklin Mint Cartm. Do I remember him calling this one "Goldie" or "Greenie" or something like that, or did I have too much cheese before bed last night? '310' isn't cutting it for me. That one is already taken.

It was a Nissan product, not a Katayama product. Personally I would congratulate ALL the people at Nissan - even the guys who swept the floor and the ladies in the staff canteens - for doing their bit, however small, in making great products. And I would include everyone at Nissan Shatai, as well as all the component manufactures at companies like Niles, Koito, Toshiba, Yuasa, Mitsubishi, Ampco, Tokico, Everwing, IKI, Izumi, Bridgestone and any number of other companies who were making parts which were small pieces in the jigsaw puzzle which made these - and other - fine cars. I've been lucky and privileged enough to meet some of that generation of people who made these cars - some of them parents and relatives of good friends - and I am full of admiration for their work. I'd rather thank all of them than just one man.

SCCN = Sports Car Club of Nissan TMSC = Toyota Motor Sports Club PMC-S = Prince Motorist Club Sports etc These are all manufacturer-linked racing club organisations. SCCJ was different because it was a national racing club organisation, and not single-brand affiliated.

I chose Kawazoe (I could easily have thrown Soichiro Honda into the ring) because Kawazoe was working RIGHT NEXT to Katayama, was a qualified engineer, and - in answer to your preposterous (Katayama) "knew Americans and America" (when he'd had a wander around for a few days while his ship was in port?) - Kawazoe had graduated from the University of Dayton with a B.S. in Mech. Engineering and from M.I.T. with an M.S. He was a key player in the success of the company. He was fluent in English, knew plenty about America and Americans (as well as plenty about China, having been a POW there for 8 years) and knew how to make and repair cars and trucks - especially GM and Ford products. Katayama, in contrast, knew how to sell stuff. He was - clearly - very good at selling 'Mr K.'... Most of the things you put in your list were not the sole responsibility of one man, and yet you credit him with them. I originally asked "what exactly are we crediting Katayama san with?" in relation to the S30-series Z (transl. "the 240Z"). How was the fabric and detail of HLS30U/HLS30UN/HLS30UV variants influenced DIRECTLY by Katayama? Did he choose the gear ratios? Did he choose the spring and damper rates? Did he choose the seat fabric colours? Exterior paint colours? Did he tell Nissan not to bother offering fully integrated factory aircon? Why is it "thanks Mr K.!" and not "thanks everyone at Nissan"?

This particular example looks a bit more professional than that.

Quite apart from the not-advisable-in-USA/'unsafe' hand throttle being part of the original signed-off design and making production, I wonder whether more than a very few of the people looking at the (wonderful!) photos provided for this auction wonder what the blanked-off double switch on the right of the rear window defroster switch was originally provided for? They are, of course, for the left and right parking light system switches. #S30-Series

While we are on the subject, I'm wondering what the BaT 'experts' think when they looked at this particular car's photos (or their 30+ other cars...) and see something like this: Clue: I'm talking about the two pre-stamped round cutouts (unused) on the firewall jute pad. "Designed for the USA", right?

So what was Katayama's role in the S30? And the sentence in bold above is for the birds. Utter nonsense. I could cite any number of names, but the most obvious comparison would be Katayama's colleague and fellow Vice President of NMC USA at its founding, Soichi Kawazoe.

1. The Flying Feather was conceived and engineered by Ryuichi Tomiya, and manufactured by Suminoe. Katayama was a friend of Tomiya and promoted/advertised the product. It was not a Nissan product, so I don't know what "at Nissan" means above? 2. I think you mean the SCCJ (Sports Car Club of Japan) which was started by a like-minded group of individuals, not just Katayama. 3. As above, an event that the Japanese auto industry agreed it needed, and was put together by more than one person. 4. Participation in the '58 Mobilgas Round Australia Trial was originally the idea of Yasuharu Nanba. 5. So did quite a lot of other people. Soichi Kawazoe in particular. 6. Did he? Are we to suppose that - Nissan having sent this (SPL212?) to the United States - it would not have been sold had it not been for Katayama? 7. OK.... so nobody else was doing anything of any consequence then? None of the above is any attempt at the diminution of Yutaka Katayama. What I'm really saying is that people tend to put Katayama in the frame for things that were often team efforts, and/or conceived and executed by others, and/or including Katayama.

He's not doing very well with the 'expert' part. He seems to be convinced that headlamp covers were "aftermarket only" (they were a showroom option in Japan from the beginning of production, then standard equipment on the Fairlady 240Z-L from October 1971, and always available for Export markets should you wish to purchase from Nissan) and that stripe kits were "aftermarket only" when - again - they were a showroom option in Japan and offered, with a factory part number, for other Export markets. If he's got 30+ of these cars then he can't have been looking very closely at them or the stories behind them.

We all make mistakes. No shame in that. It's part of the learning process, and heaven knows there's plenty of misinformation out there to lead us astray, but I just don't understand how or why people can become so convinced that Yutaka Katayama was a qualified engineer (he wasn't) and/or that he "designed" what people are calling "the 240Z". Can I ask, what makes you say that Katayama san "made it a success in the states"? I'm interested to hear how you think that happened, or how it played out. What did he do to make it a success? I would have thought that the main factors in making the 240Z a sales success in North America were: 1. A good product (and everything that goes with that). 2. A recommended selling price of around $3,800 US. 3. A customer base of the suitable demographic (young or young at heart, with funds or access to credit, 'sporty' enough to live with a 2-seater or having access to other vehicles). 4. Economics (Dollar to Yen exchange rate, shipping logistics, all overheads etc) to make the whole project viable. Yes, it was a great product. I'm still full of admiration for the many people who made Nissan's S30-series Z what it was, but in order to meet the targeted (low!) selling price the content of the HLS30U models was pared down and there was clearly some wrangling and struggle - right down to the wire and, in fact, through the first weeks of production - over what would be included in the final spec of the HLS30U, HLS30UN and HLS30UV variants. Was Katayama lobbying Nissan for *more*, or for *less* content? More content (carpets, heated glass, radio & auto antenna, clock, Deluxe seats, factory aircon etc) would have pushed up the selling price, whilst a simplified pretty much one-spec-fits-all (no 'Standard' and 'Deluxe' choice) with limited options would simplify production, reduce costs and simplify delivery logistics. I believe there's a largely untold story here. What exactly are we crediting Katayama san with?

The comments on BaT continue to intrigue and amaze me. This one in particular: Wow. How does it happen that people come to such misapprehension? Coincidentally, I had an online 'conversation' on another forum recently where my correspondent was telling me that Katayama was "a fully qualified engineer" and had designed and engineered "the 240Z" to his own particular needs. I told him that Yutaka Katayama was an economics graduate with a background in advertising and sales - not an engineer. He would not concede the point.

Perfect! Thanks Kats.

Kats, Just to clarify, on the 1969-on Japanese market 'Deluxe' seats, what I was calling the 'Flip Forward Lever' - if you have the seat fully reclined, and then pull the lever UP, the seat back will flip forward on its own - right? And if you are sitting in the seat and want to quick recline all the way back, you pull the lever up and lean back - right? The big rotary knob still controls incremental seat back angle independently of the lever - right? Or am I wrong?

I might now hold the record for the quickest 'Flagged As Not Constructive' comment on BaT. Those high-rolling 'portfolio collection' guys sure do take themselves seriously. For the record, somebody asked when 240Zs started getting the splash pans. '1969' was apparently the wrong answer. Let's hope nobody asks what all those captive nuts are for...

432-R is likely going to stay premium for years to come, but current bid on this low miles, timewarp condition HLS30U is way below what even an average 432 will command, and roughly around what an average 240ZG will change hands for. HLS30U values have been lagging behind for years.