HS30-H

You might want to check the bag on that Hoover. It sucked up a picture of a different car on a different event. As you can see on the door, this is from the 1972 RAC Rally and it is a different car.

The man with the clout was Mr Ewold van Bergen of Nissan-Datsun South Africa. Very influential and much respected in Japan.

In a nutshell, yes. I believe that's the most simple and logical explanation, and all the evidence - including that for other Nissan products - points that way.

....except that it isn't. If file photos of Kojyo Shisaku and Seisan Shisaku cars (by definition 'Pre Series Production') are being cited as what is *correct* on full Series Production parts, we will soon descend into a whole new world of reappraisal. Where do we start? No paint code sticker? No voltage regulator shield? There be dragons... Ockham's Razor applies: The air filter housing in the first post is a Nissan replacement part in manufacturer Tsuchiya's house blue. Nissan didn't supply them in the production line orange/red shade when sold as spare parts.

Wrong shape.

Great Magnesium scare stories guys. Meanwhile, Nissan's Kobe Seiko 'Rally Mag' and '432 mag' wheels were made from Elektron. If you find yourself in a situation where your wheels are on fire, you're probably half past cooked in any case. If the 60-odd litres of fuel in the tank, whatever oil is left in your engine and the fumes from the plastics of the interior haven't already killed you, you can at least luxuriate in the white hot expense of burning magnesium alloys turning your bones to dust...

Case in point: My 432 type airbox was supplied as a replacement part via Nissan, in the Tsuchiya house blue. If it had been fitted on a 432 ex-factory, it would have been a particular shade of red.

That blue was manufacturer Tsuchiya's 'house' colour for Nissan product. When parts were supplied as OEM replacement - as opposed to when attached to a new car - they were supplied in Tsuchiya house blue. Happened on other models than S30-series Z cars too. Some Nissans had the Tsuchiya blue as stock equipment, so less impact in those cases.

Stock water pump delete! Love the 'Orange Box', and the Magnesium valve cover must be a Works item. Fantastic!

Nissan Sports/Race Option exhaust manifold! Just like mine. Hand made! Lovely...

Works rally car identities, race entries, crews, start numbers and all the rest of it are a real minefield. Lots of the photos you can find on the 'net are mis-captioned or don't tell the whole story, and even some of the protagonists themselves don't remember as well as would be ideal... Case in point is with Shekhar Mehta on the 1971 and 1972 RAC rallies. Both times he was in a car with start number 26, but they were different cars that often get mixed up. The car he drove on the '71 RAC had also been a 1970 RAC Rally car, so plenty of scope for confusion. Big topic.

Gav, The caption doesn't fit with the event there. The photo is '4541' (originally part of a batch of Works cars built for the 1972 East African Safari Rally, which started in March) on the 1972 Acropolis Rally in Greece (it took place in May). It was an entry in a "borrowed" Works car co-ordinated by Cal Withers, and Shekhar Mehta had negotiated a tyre sponsorship deal with Sears Roebuck. Apparently the tyres were not the best tools for the job (to say the least...) but the money was right. The white roof was an attempt to reflect some of the strong Greek sunlight and keep things a little cooler inside. I doubt it had all that much effect. The data from the Tour Of Dean website for this car relates to when those Tour Of Dean rally stages were used as part of the 1972 RAC Rally (December), where the car had start number 26. It still had the white roof and some of the white banded Sears tyres...

Sorry I could not see you, Kats. Maybe in London next time?

The stock centre mount (numbered 7 in my post above) attaches to captive nuts in the diff crossmember. One on OEM single pipe systems, two on OEM twin pipe systems. I don't know where you read that the new system was "developed for the 280Z"? That might be something a bit lost in translation? Fujitsubo themselves have not mentioned anything about the 280Z in particular as far as I'm aware. I think the new system is designed to work on a wide range of production years, and - as I understand it - they have not welded mount tabs to the system itself because they wanted to allow more scope for custom mounting methods through the use of band clamps which can be positioned on a case-by-case, car-by-car basis.

Which bit in particular? I don't want to scan each individual photo...

Kats, I have had SO many people over the years tell me that my ZG was "damaged" or "wrong" because of this detail. They haven't seen genuine OEM parts before. I was always reassured to see 'the gap'. It was a semi-secret way of telling OEM parts from replicas. Thank you!

Lovely 'ZStd' details. I noted the non-heated rear window and switch blanking plug, rubber mats instead of carpet, no bumper trim and can just about see the clock delete blanking trim (I want!). Rear spoiler would have been a later addition. What a great survivor. Chassis number is probably close to that of my '70 Z-L. Love it!

Hi Kats, Yes, after January 1972 (according to UK market factory documentation) UK market HS30s (and RS30s and GRS30s) received the FS5C71B transmission with the following ratios: 2.906 1.902 1.308 1.000 0.864 REV: 3.820 So, they were the same as yours quoted above, but they had the sliding spline type rear joint instead of the flange type seen on the Japanese market models. Personally speaking, I love the FS5C71A when it is in good condition and well set up. However, the design seems to have a very short ideal operating window and wears relatively quickly, and then it's horrible! The FS5C71B seems to stay nice longer. I think a lot of people only have experience of these transmissions when they are in bad shape, and that's why so many people (especially over here) are changing to later C type transmissions...

I don't know about your version, but my (old) version of the Spirit Garage system was designed to use the stock horizontal Nissan hangers forward of the diff.

No. They originally came with white paint where the red paint is now. Somebody painted them red, that's all. The only factory 'Red Z' for Japanese market S30-series Z models was on the horn pad of the S20-engined 432 and 432-R models.

Your comment being an example of the latter...