HS30-H

Are you still thinking only of your local market? That's my point made for me. When I'm talking about the family, I'm talking about a family that starts right from the beginning of production and sales in ( theoretically if not in practice ) late 1969. That family - through concept, design, engineering, production and finally sales ( let's say 'sales' in early 1970, to keep it real for all territories ) - featured no less than seven distinct domestic and export model variants. Looks like it was purely a business decision. Just sell a Margherita pizza with effectively no choice of extra toppings, and keep production, supply and sales for export markets simple. If you want extra cheese or anchovy, go to the deli down the road and get it yourself.

As has been pointed out already, most of the points being put forward were taken into account with the models and sub variants produced for the Japanese market. More power, more ( sporty ) gearing, 'better' handling and sharper steering, more showroom options and race/sports options, multi-position seating ( with less dish on the steering wheel to compensate ) and all manner of other considerations. Rather than talk to the design and engineering team, I think I'd rather talk to the press and publicity department and try to get them to be more forceful in pushing the truth of the background design / styling story, the engineering story and the fact - still largely ignored ( witness this thread ) - that this was a range of cars, a family of models, as designed, at launch and all through production. People still don't seem to get it.

And gtom, are you trying to set a record for the highest number of edited posts.....?

Can only speak for myself and say that I'm certainly not as god as some people, but I'm always trying to be godder....

Anyway, I think this thread is a can of worms that doesn't necessarily need to be opened. One man's meat is another man's poison ( "....and my favourite car is an Avions Voisin", as the rhyme goes ), after all. To my mind, some of the most heinous 'molestations' of the S30-series Z come in the written and verbal form. People who don't know what they are talking about can be serial offenders.

So it's from one of the 'anime' versions, rather than the 'manga'. 'Manga' being the original book form.

Looks like a still from one of the many live action film representations of the 'Devil Z' from the 'Wangan Midnight' manga. And it's wearing non-Factory fitment overfenders, so it's been "molested".

I own two 'HS30-H' model Nissan Fairlady 240ZGs, which came from the Factory with riveted on 'overfenders'. I wouldn't class this as a "molestation" in the case of official Factory model variants. And as Nissan themselves sold several different designs of Overfenders for the S30-series Z as 'Sports Option' and race parts, and they were all homologated by both JAF and the FIA in period, it seems to me that they don't fall into the same category as some of the other things you are proscribing here.... Alan T.

Nah, I'm too old. Need to get the literature out to be sure. FS5C71-A trans ratios as used in PS30 Fairlady Z432 were same as the 5-speed equipped 'SR311' & 'SRL311' roadsters, and therefore give you the option of sourcing a 'Roadster' A-type 5-speed in the States and simply swapping the bellhousing for your S20 version: 2.957 / 1.858 / 1.311 / 1.000 / 0.852 ( R 2.922 ) As mentioned before, I have some used FS5C71-As on the shelf, but shipping would be $$$ and they'd need checking / rebuilding anyway. Probably best to leave as a last resort? Alan T.

Ron, I disagree. The 4.44 ratio was stock equipment on the PGC10, KPGC10 and KPGC110 Skyline GT-Rs, and on the PS30 Fairlady Z432 and PS30-SB Fairlady Z432-R. The S20 engine is very happy to rev. Alan T.

I'm perhaps not the ideal person to try to reply to this ( I've never really been a fan of the whole 'Samuri Conversions' story.... ) but in the absence of any other replies I'll take a shot at it. First thing you have to understand is that the story of 'Big Sam' encompasses more than one car / bodyshell, but that the bodyshells concerned ( including the one that 'Big Sam' uses now ) were ex-Works Nissan rally car bodyshells, and therefore rather special - not to mention the fact that they had their own history..... The first iteration of what would later become 'Big Sam' actually started life as one of the Works entries in the 1970 RAC Rally. These were based on the super lightweight 'PZR' bodies ( the cars effectively being Fairlady Z432-Rs with L-series engines ) and were built up by Nissan's competitions department at Oppama in Japan, then shipped to Belgium and driven over to the UK via commercial car ferry by the works team's Japanese mechanics and team manager. Note that this first batch of works team rally cars was all RHD. After the rally, the cars stayed in the UK and one of them was acquired by Englishman Rob Grant and prepped to go circuit racing. Grant took the car far and wide across Europe, living off entry and prize money with a little bit of sponsorship money, and even venturing as far as north Africa. In one of the north African races ( in Angola ) the car was crashed comprehensively and brought home to the UK. A replacement bodyshell was necessary and another of the ex-Works 1970 RAC Rally cars was acquired in order to donate its body to the cause. Grant even made it as far as racing at Kyalami in South Africa, and attempting to qualify for the Le Mans 24hrs in 1972 ( failing to make the cut ). A gallant privateer racer of the Old School. The Grant car ( which had already encompassed two ex-Works cars, remember ) was later acquired by Englishman Bob Gathercole, who had an interest in 'Samuri Conversions Ltd', a tuning / conversions company fronted by ex-Broadspeed man and cylinder head specialist Spike Anderson. The car was re-painted in the 'Samuri Conversions' colours and signwriting, and went UK club racing. Driver was a young Win Percy ( who you will have heard of....... ) and Percy's driving talent along with the preparation of the car brought some success and a national Modsports championship in 1974, along with a great deal of UK automotive press attention. The success of 'Big Sam' was a great advertisement for the 'Samuri Conversions' business, and the company became synonymous with fast road tuned 'Samuri' and 'Super Samuri' conversions for the 240Z and 260Z here in the UK. During the '74 season in which the Modsports championship title was won, Percy had a heavy accident at Brands Hatch. The crash was serious enough to write off the bodyshell ( this was already the second bodyshell, remember... ) and yet another ex-Works rally bodyshell was sourced - this time an LHD bodyshell that had started life as one of the Recce / Chase cars on the 1973 Monte Carlo Rallye, had been brought to the UK after the Monte in order to take part in some UK rallies, and had been crashed by Shekhar Mehta on the 1973 Burmah Rally ( with a little bit of masquerade between the Burmah Rally crash and it finally ending up as a stripped 'shell at the Datsun UK Concessionaires compound ). So this was the third ex-Works rally 240Z bodyshell, although this time a 'full fat' non-lightweight HLS30 bodyshell ( note the fact that this was LHD ). A hasty conversion to RHD, some radical bodyshell mods and the transplant of the running gear from the crashed car allowed the team to get the car out for the next round in the championship. This ex-Works, ex-Monte recce car HLS30 'shell - converted to RHD - is what forms the basis of the 'Big Sam' car as it exists today. It was sold off but carried on racing in several pairs of private hands ( including those of Martin Sharpe, Ben's father ) and was eventually acquired by Nick Howell. I think Nick owned the car the longest out of anybody, took great care of it whilst it was in his hands, and who had Tim Riley rebuild it for him. Nick used the car in race events himself but also allowed Win Percy to get back behind the wheel of the car for a race at Silverstone. Nick was also invited to take part in the Goodwood Festival of Speed with the car, which was no small honour. As I mentioned in a previous post, Nick sold the car at auction last year and 'J.D. Classics' have bought it, refurbed it, and have taken it racing again. The 'Big Sam' story got a lot of attention here in the UK in period, and people remembered it. That's why it has always been popular here, and why it got a lot of press when it went to auction last year. Very few people realise the full story behind the 'Big Sam' identity, and it's that all but unknown pre-Samuri Conversions story that I personally find so interesting. It's really a story of no less than three ex-Works cars/bodyshells, each with their own individual stories, combined. Complicated and messy, but fascinating. Hope that helps. Alan T.

Ben, Just in case Nick does not see your message........ Nick sold 'Big Sam' last year. It was entered into the Bonham's auction at the Silverstone Classic historic race meeting in July 2010, and was bought by J.D. Classics of Maldon, Essex http://www.jdclassics.co.uk/home If you want to get in touch with Nick ( if he doesn't see this ) I can give you his e-mail address. I'm sure he'd be interested to hear from you. Cheers, Alan T.

"Limey know it alls" like Mr George Herbert Skinner of 154 Kentish Town Road, London NW5, perhaps? I think Healey Z is more likely to meet 'Yank know nothings', given his location......

The same was true for many other marques and models of sports cars and GTs in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. A very large proportion out of total production ended up in north America and the USA in particular, but we are often told that the high proportion of S30-series Z production that went to the USA is "proof" of the car being "built for the USA", as though it was some kind of exception. It was - in fact - pretty much the norm for that type of vehicle...

That's a long time from "....at the end of WWII" though, isn't it? Just a figure of speech, I'm sure. I understand the scenario ( such 'souvenirs' were very common up until even quite recently ), just the time frame didn't seem to fit with the "end" of WWII. When I think of the early Fifties I think Cold War, Iron Curtain, Checkpont Charlie and all that.... No matter.

I'm wondering what model of Healey that could have been? Even the Nash Healeys were not made until the early Fifties.....

Take a look at these old threads, where I think we covered the Japanese home market showroom options in more detail: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?14422-Home-market-S30-Factory-Options http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?14501-Home-market-HS30-options

R192 ( & R190 ) pinion oil seal part number was 38332-A0100, whilst R180 pinion oil seal part number ( from the same GC10 series parts list ) was 38332-21100, so certainly not the same part and - without having both in front of me, so take this with a pinch of salt - I would have thought the R192 / R190 seal would be slightly bigger than the R180. Pretty much everything else on the R192/R190 is bigger than the R180 anyway..... Useless diversions department: See if you can spot my KPGC10 on the Rubber Soul website. Previous owner my good friend Dr Shimizu is a Kyoto resident, and always had his GT-Rs looked after by Rubber Soul, Revolver, Help! and Sergeant et al in the Osaka area. There's a lot of their work in the car, and some quite special parts. Alan T.

Remember that the PGC10 and KPGC10 Skyline GT-Rs, and the PS30 Fairlady Z432 ( and PS30-SB Fairlady Z432-R ) all used the R192 diff as standard equipment. The R192 is virtually identical to your R190. Part number for the side flange oil seals was 38342-A0100. RUBBER SOUL still had them in stock just a few months ago: http://www.rubber-soul.net/

'carrott', I don't know much - if indeed anything at all - about you ( you don't even tell us your location ), but you giving me the title of "Mr Knowledge" leaves me with a fairly high mountain to climb. I'm ALWAYS aiming to obtain knowledge wherever and whenever I can. It pains me to see - once again - so many myths and misconceptions about these cars and the story around them being perpetuated, and I WILL try to do something about it. If you on the other hand don't want to try to do anything about it, so be it. But do me one favour, please? At the very least, do me the honour of spelling my name correctly? It was spelled correctly at the bottom of my first post on this thread, and I don't think it should be too much bother for you to copy it. But on the subject of the AUTOSPEED.com article that Blue liniked to, can I try to convince you that it's not fit for purpose? It's a fairly brief article, so I reckon if we could find two or three mistakes in it we could safely say that it was flawed. If five or six, then even more so. How about TEN? It would start to be getting silly, wouldn't it? How about more? Twelve, 'lucky' thirteen? More? Starting to sound like garbage now. Want me to go further? You seem to think there's nothing wrong with it. Not only that, but that page is bombarding me with advertisements and inviting me to make a financial 'contribution' into the bargain... Sorry, but I think it's a very poor article and I feel justified in making that point on this thread - which would otherwise recommend it. This is a forum dedicated to the cars in question, after all. Alan T.

Trying to turn the focus onto me is to miss the point. And it lets that crap autospeed.com article off the hook too.

Dreadful. Full of the usual misconceptions and myths, and appearing to contain large sections lifted almost verbatim from other writings on the subject. The thought that 99.999% of early Z enthusiasts will lap it up, call it delicious and ask for second helpings is heartbreaking. And this in the week when 'Octane' magazine served up re-heated version of the abysmal 'Moto-Man' online "interview" with Yoshihiko Matsuo and Randy Rodriguez, too. Alan T.

The numbers stamped into the top surface of the bellhousing are not the transmission type codes. They are quality control / casting batch number stampings that were for internal use, and not intended for the use / reference of the general public. What you might see occasionally is a part number ink-stamped onto the front mating face of a transmission. Cross-referencing this part number will tell you the type of transmission and the ratios inside, but I have only ever seen this ink stamp on transmissions that were supplied as service replacements or as Sports Option / 'Competition' parts, and never on a transmission fitted as standard equipment on a car as it left the factory.

".....other ZG owners..."? Your car appears to be an HLS30-U model, modified. It's not a ZG. How's that for some "feedback"?

Maybe when I know a little more about you, and a little more about your project. I try not to put out on a first date.....