HS30-H

Where is it?

I don't think the HKS Zero-R counts as a rare *Nissan* product, as it was produced by HKS based on a standard production model R32 GT-R. I'm thinking closer to home, and within the S30-series Z range. Top of the rarity pile for me - and qualifying as a truly special model in terms of spec and details - is the PS30-SB 'Fairlady Z432-R'. Quite, quite different from the PS30 'Fairlady Z432', and only a handful sold to the general public for road use. Certainly less than 20 examples.

One particular personality attempting to dominate the room there again I see. "...IMO since only 38 were built .. they are the single rarest Product sold by Nissan..." Clueless.

Jeff, That gear stick looks awfully, er, long.... (said the actress to the bishop). Is it in fact from a Skyline, like your steering wheel?

I'd go with the plater's offer of 'Yellow Zinc' (they call it 'Gold Passivated Zinc' where I come from) if I were you. It's the most correct finish. Lots of people - even on Bring a Troller - talk about "Cad" plating on these cars, but use of Cadmium was already on its way out in Japan and had been linked to some pretty scandalous poisoning/pollution cases (look up 'Itai Itai Byo'). I believe Nissan and the majority of its suppliers had already dropped its use when these cars were being made. Nissan referred to the plating as '亜鉛' ('A-en') which is Zinc.

What makes you think that the plated engine parts are 'Yellow Cadmium'? Nissan said that it's all Zinc, with differing passivated finishes depending on location and use.

I'm more than ready to learn something new. That's the buzz. And every day is a school day with these cars, isn't it? What I don't get is people being happy to accept anecdotal evidence (from 1973 or something...) trumping primary-source evidence. That primary-source evidence isn't mine, it's Nissan's. We need to be open-minded and pragmatic about this kind of stuff, and we all know that Nissan juggled suppliers to give us endless fun trying to make sense of it 50 years down the line, but I want to see evidence to back up a claim like that. School me! I want to see a photo of one of these sooper dooper Hitachi batteries in an S30-series Z body in 1969/1970.

As has been pointed out before now, comments on BaT auctions are pre-moderated so there are already hurdles to jump before they get thrown in front of the lions for the 'discussion'. How many 'not constructive' flags does it take for a comment to be deleted? Seems to me that its only a handful, so its easy to make it happen even if the comment is on-topic, correct and constructive. Quite a lot of scope there for sharp practice from all sides and a small cadre - or even an individual with several BaT log-ins - can make them evaporate. In fact the whole format is weird. Biggest comments spammer in this car's case was the winning bidder. I'd be interested to hear who your "self proclaimed experts" are. Would they be the type of people who claim that the car in question would have arrived from Japan with a Hitachi battery, and that Yuasa batteries were not supplied until at least 1973? Or are they the people who pointed out that the hood/bonnet is not necessarily correct for the production date of the car, or that the factory blacking of the radiator support panel has not been replicated? Is that "baiting", or fair comment? Plenty of life left in this horse, I'd say.

Tsunamis on the other hand... There's an old Japanese proverb which translates along the lines of "Too many oarsmen will row the boat up a mountain."

Hi Kats, They both look 'period correct' to me, but I find it's often hard to give 100% positive identification on such parts because they tended to supersede the design quite quickly and there could be several versions. Added to which - as you have noted - privateer users tended to have their own theories and experience, and would modify to their own specifications. And then there were copies, and copies of copies. Yours look trustworthy and correct to me. As a reference point, here's a photo of some genuine Works team S20 cam sprockets which were used in period. Complicated!

Unless you know two of these cars with the same prefix and body serial number combination, they are each - by definition - unique.

I have a box full of Hitachi radios (both MW and MW/FM) liberated from UK market HS30Us. If you look at the factory R-Drive Export parts manuals you can see that all the Hitachi audio equipment (including the stereo receivers and the 8-tracks) were available as optional equipment. European sales brochures and spec lists show the Hitachi AM radio as standard equipment.

I rather suspect that you just ate Grandma.

I think you might want to re-punctuate that sentence. It's a perfect "Let's eat Grandma".

The comments section on Bring-a-Trailer auctions can be a bizarre watch. Having live bidders commenting on the very thing they are [potentially] buying opens up the way for all sorts of trouble. Vintage automobile values require slow cooking. Blitzing the dish in a microwave is a mistake.

Punchline: In this unique case, the G in G-nose stands for Grille. Yes. It's a genuine Fairlady ZGrille.

Vehicular midlife crisis. In Fire Appliance Red, no less.

Are you talking about this forum? If so, you might want to reserve your opinion until you are a little better acquainted with it.

Except that UV effect would be stronger on exposed surfaces vs shaded surfaces, leading to marked differences in shade. I don't buy it.

I would agree with the likelihood pointing to that. Don't forget though that the seller says he took it off his new GS31, which points to a production date on, or after, mid 1976. Some may find that a reason to mistrust it as a reference for earlier cars. You think he refurbed the wood composite, but didn't bother to strip and repaint the spokes? I think its the original (Izumi) factory finish. Not to add weight to your argument, but here's one of the brochure images for the mid-'76 up S31-series cars in Japan. I have no evidence to support the theory, but I have a hunch that they might well have used specially made 'blond' steering wheels for brochures and advertising, simply because they showed up better for contrast than the production items:

But that's my point. It's not his 'English translation', is it? It's a third party algorithm which is not really up to the job of understanding the nuances of the Japanese language.

Maybe that's why the seller isn't describing it as NOS?

That's because it's not a "translation". Machine software simply isn't up to the task of 'translating' a small ad like this one. Nowhere does the seller describe this as 'NOS', and the steering wheel itself is not an Export specification item (the seller specifically states that he took it from his late model GS31 Fairlady Z-T 2/2) so it will be the shallow dish Japanese market type. The horn button however is an Export type 'Datsun' logo version, which the seller states was taken off of a Datsun Competition steering wheel he bought at the time and swapped onto his car. So it's pretty simple. He bought a GS31 Fairlady Z-T 2/2, took off the steering wheel and replaced it with a smaller diameter Datsun Competition item, but switched the 'Z' logo [plus 'trumpet' horn mark] horn button from the original steering wheel onto the new Datsun Compe item, leaving the original steering wheel - mated with the 'Datsun' horn button from the Compe wheel - in storage for possible use when the car had its inspection. The asking price might be a bit fanciful, but let's not put words in his mouth.

Interesting that you should cite that car. I shared some correspondence with John Coffey when it was being built, as he was interested in period data as well as reference rates for modern Bilstein monotube type struts, which he chose to use for the car. Of course, the P2P event is something quite different to the period special stage rallies like the RAC, Monte and Safari. They were pretty brutal by nature and highly competitive. Real car breakers. In some events the Works team were changing all four corners of the car more than once during servicing.

I don't think anyone is saying that. On the other hand, some people seem happy to dismiss factory settings and data without even knowing what they are. It's all useful. And when you are restricted to period-correct and/or FIA homologated parts then the parts that the factory used in period are far more relevant than any fancy remote-reservoir WRC type struts. Personally speaking, one of the things I like about owning old cars is the fact that they are old. Period tuning parts appeal to me. I don't necessarily care about "what works now", and I certainly won't be fitting that new inboard rocker arm design rear suspension system to any of my cars. Yes we all have to be pragmatic - I am pretty much forced to use modern tyres, oils and fuel in my cars - but a '32 coupe with an Ardun headed flattie is much more my cup of tea than a '32 coupe with an LSX crate engine, even if the LSX is "better"...