HS30-H

Carl, That's a bit of a strange list to my eyes. I don't know what data you used to set that price range ( $100K + ) for the Works rally 240Zs ( I noticed you didn't include any Works 260Zs? ) as I am not aware of any that have come onto the open market in the last ten years or more - although a couple have changed hands privately. Surely you can't put a Works-built ( and therefore fundamentally different to a modified standard road bodyshell ) rally car of international significance - such as the 1971 and 1973 East African Safari Rally winners - into the same price bracket as others? It's something of a moot point, as Nissan surely have no intention of selling their Safari-winning 240Zs, but I think an insurance valuation alone would show that those cars would most likely top any list you care to make. Even Nissan's ex-Aaltonen '72 Monte Carlo Rallye third place finisher would be right up there, without even having won a race. There are other ex-Works cars in captivity, but they really have to be judged on a case-by-case basis. There was a very large variation in build detail depending on the season they were built in, and what event they were aimed at. I noticed too that you quoted a price range of "$75K to "$125K" for "any of the Fairlady Z 432s" - which is also a bit out of focus. For many years now, it has been the much rarer Fairlady Z432R models that have been leading the way as far as high sale prices are concerned. With a fundamentally different bodyshell to the 'ordinary' Z432 model, it is hard to lump the 'PZR' model in with its 'PZ' sister. And $125K US is only going to net you a 432R restoration project these days. It might not be enough to buy a really nice 432 either, as prices are on a steep upward curve. Even original factory 240ZGs are starting to command pretty serious money in Japan these days. Alan T.

......... In the USA. ......... In the USA. .......... In the USA. Gentlemen, Just a little reminder that this is ( supposedly ) an international forum, dedicated to the subject of a Japanese car. Thank you! Alan T.

Quoted from: http://www.240rs.jp/HXI%207635.html ? I'm sad to report that Bill Blydenstein passed away just a few weeks ago. RIP. Alan T.

You already have most of the information in the photo caption. There's not much more in it. My translation of the caption: "Second from the left is Katayama. On the far right is his younger sister. The car is a '35 ( as in 1935 ) year-style Phaeton. Photograph taken in the first year of ( Katayama ) joining the company." To be honest - as far as the other articles in this 'Mook' ( a compilation of previously published articles from Nostalgic Hero magazine ) are concerned - I found the article on Nissan staff engineer TAKEI Michio of greatest interest. Here is somebody who had direct - hands-on - involvement in the development of the S30-series Z, and who travelled extensively outside Japan in his work. A story that has not been told before, and from the horse's mouth so to speak. Great stuff. Alan T.

I've seen this comment from Katayama in other articles, and I have to say that I have always found it breathtakingly gauche and ................... well, disappointing to say the least. First of all it is rather a long way from the truth, and secondly it amounts to a fairly big smack in the face for the team(s) of people who really can claim to be the 'hands on' people involved in the concept, design, engineering and production of the cars, let alone the company that actually employed them all. Alan T.

Quite a lot of the 'data' in that "432R" article is wrong, and the article has been pretty much debunked. In actual fact, the car in question appears to have been a plain vanilla PS30'Fairlady Z432' rather than the much rarer and basically quite different PS30-SB 'Fairlady Z432-R'. The article was discussed on this forum here: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17507 Alan T.

Discussed several times on this forum in the past. Here's at least one thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7697

jmark, Fourways Engineering over here in the UK bought a lot of the remaining stock of 'Option' direct-drive B-type transmission parts from NISMO USA a few years back. They will almost certainly have this third gear ( and the counter gear ) in stock. Fourways Engineering 10-12 Maidstone Road, Borough Green, Kent, England TN15 8BD Tel: +(44) 1732 884288 Fax: +(44) 1732 883244 Email: fourwayeng@aol.com http://www.fourways-engineering.co.uk/ You need to speak to Mr Geoff Jackson. Alan T.

Hooray for.........

Exactly. I don't think that is any excuse whatsoever, and in fact it even scares me a little ( albeit vicariously ). If these people are proper, professional used car importers then they HAVE to know what they are selling. Ignorance is absolutely NO excuse. They are going to mislead people by mis-describing these cars, and I'm sure that there are laws that they will fall foul of in doing so. At the very least I'd hope that a company selling such a car would lead the way in educating / advising their potential customers on what they are selling. It is a lovely car and I'm sure it represents a fair return for the price, but they are not selling a 'GT-R' and therefore they should not describe the car as one. I don't see the magic words 'lookalike' or 'replica', and there's no mention of the VIN prefix or true model type either. Lachlan, I believe I told you the sad story of the young lady here in the UK who spent almost all of her inheritance on buying and importing what she was led to believe was a real C10 GT-R? Turned out to be a GT that was dressed up as a GT-R, and a completely rotten one at that. It looked good in photos. She was more than a little naive, but was it completely her fault? I don't think so........... I've got absolutely nothing against replicas or lookalikes ( quite the opposite! ) and it is the right of the owner to put whatever badges or emblems he likes on his car. But when he comes to sell it, he needs to describe it as what it really is. Better for him, and better for all of us too. Alan T.

It would. But the car that 'Prestige Motorsport' are trying to sell is a GT-R 'replica', based on a GT or GT-X. Quite different. I've seen them doing this before. Somebody should take them to task for it. If they described an R32 GTS as a 'GT-R' they'd get laughed at long and hard, but with the older stuff less people are willing to pull them up on it. Don't know why............?

As far as I'm aware, this 'Fairlady 260ZE 2by2' model never actually made it into a sales showroom - although it must have got within an inch of being released. Even if it did, it would have soon been recalled just like those 2-seater 'Fairlady 260Z' models that got retro-fitted with L20 engines and their VIN numbers re-stamped. Early 1974 was - by all accounts - a pretty turbulent time at Nissan. The Yom Kippur War of late 1973 had created what was called the 'Oil Shock' in Japan ( Japan having no domestic oil supply ) and there was a massive swing away from 'performance' image models of car. Nissan curbed much of their domestic racing activity in an effort to make it look as though they were taking the subject of economy seriously. Strange times, with some parallels to what we are going through today......... They don't appear to have much in common with the Japanese 'factory' items though. I would have thought race teams such as these would have produced their own simplified and lightened versions ( with the bumper moulded in ) that incorporated / accommodated the wider wheelarches and the front air dams / spoilers. Question: Were such cars allowed to use these front ends in IMSA GTU races because the 'Fairlady 240ZG' model in Japan had been homologated for FIA Group 4 competition, or was it simply because similar items were 'available' for the general public to buy from Datsun Competition USA? Alan T.

Yes, there was a small 'street tuning' shop called 'Speed Shop Shinohara' - but there was/is absolutely no connection between that business and Nissan's 'SSS' ( Super Sports Sedan ) spec models. Mr Shinohara would have still been in Kindergarten when the 411 SSS Bluebird debuted in May 1965. 411 SSS followed on from the 1200 'SS' ( Sports Sedan ) of March 1964. Alan T.

Actually, that isn't strictly true. The FOS organisers announced that the GT-R would be attending ( it was even on the FOS pre-event website for a while ) and there was a lot of gossip that it was going to be there anyway. My personal impression was that probably only around 5% of the showgoers spotted the GT-R and even fewer cared about it. The rest either didn't notice it, or didn't care anyway. There's always too much interesting stuff going on at the FOS for a single proto ( in disguise, and being purposely elusive ) to stop the show. I got the distinct impression myself that it lacked 'presence'. Some of those gaffes caused a few guffaws in the group I was in. I think the organisers need a new editor...... Alan T.

More pics:

Tony, This young lady ( see pic ) says she can help you. :classic: Clue: Take a close look at that front 'number' plate, and the emblem on the right hand side of the nose. One of Nissan's long lost aborted models.......... More pics to follow. Alan T.

Carl, I did think of Ron when I made that last post. It figures that the story is at least partly apocryphal ( to be expected really ), but I sometimes wonder just how many kits Datsun Competition USA actually sold, and where they have all gone (?). They don't seem to pop up all that often, do they? Maybe time has been harsh on their numbers.......... It's a real shame, because they are really nicely made parts. Nothing to do with oil cooling as far as I'm aware. The factory race cars certainly didn't use them ( they had comprehensive ducting and sealed sections inside the 'mouth' of the nose ) and they would not have been needed to be fitted to the road cars to aid in any homologation issues ( ducting was 'free' on the Japanese race cars ). I've got a Japanese technical bulletin section from one of the Nissan 'Service Shuho' booklets that details the duct update in connection with aircon function. I'll see if I can find it and scan it. Alan T.

Carl, The additional ducts ( which simply bolted onto the original ZG lower panel ) were not on the early production ZG models ( my car never had them, for example ) and were added to the later production models in an attempt to help cure poor performance of the aircon, and other heat-related issues that were showing up as fuel percolation etc. I am told that some early production ZGs had these ducts retro-fitted by Nissan mechanics when they went in for routine servicing. Later factory-supplied spare parts did have the ducts on them: see attached pic of my NOS spare lower panel - which probably dates from around 1974/75 I would guess. This is an usued factory item, still with the part number sticker on it. I was told in Japan that only the very first deliveries of G-nose kits sent to Datsun Competition in the USA were the 'real thing', and that Datsun Competition USA soon made their own ( locally produced ) versions that were a simplified ( and therefore cheaper ) version of the OEM Japanese parts. I can't vouch for the accuracy of that story though. Alan T.

As far as the FIA are concerned, it is the final version of the amendment ( ie 9/8V ) that carries most weight, as it is the one that is on the most up-to-date version of homologation no. 3023. As far as Tony's problem is concerned, 9/8V should help him the most I think.

The full results of the HybridZ wind tunnel tests have not actually been made public as yet. I believe they are going to be published in an upcoming magazine article, and after that we will be free to discuss them in detail on this and other forums. I suggest we await the publication of the full results before discussing this any further, and respect the wishes of the team that carried out the tests. Alan T.

Carl, They didn't test a proper factory-type G-Nose, did they? Do you honestly believe that Nissan ( and everybody else ) would have used the parts on their Group 4 cars if they were detrimental to aero performance over the 'standard' S30-series Z front end treatment? Alan T.

Yes, I'll scan the pages from the appropriate year's FIA year book and send them direct to you via e-mail. Got some other stuff to back it up with too. I suggest taking most of this discussion offline from here on in. Let's not allow your 'enemy' to get a look through any hole in the fence......... What's that old racing proverb? Something like ".....The REAL racing starts when the rule book is printed." :classic: Alan T.

The Kanji script on the first one reads 'Kyoku To'. That was the original Japanese name ( and one of the trademarks ) of a long-established and well respected company called 'Far East Trading' ( F.E.T. for short ). This is a nice manifold, very close to the original Nissan 'Sports Option' equipment, and with a generic 8mm spindle that is easy to find linkage parts for. However, as jmortensen has pointed out, it is more likely to have been supplied to fit an L20A or L20E six, and therefore will have a lot of meat at the cylinder head joint that would need to be taken out. Carburettor flange end for the 40mm and 44mm carbs ( 45mm Webers and Dell'Ortos too ) is the same though. The second one looks very similar to the 'Sanyo Kiki' / 'S.K' / 'Sanyo Sports Kit' item, although the pic is not that clear and I don't see the telltale 'San Yo' logo on the centre casting. These too were well respected in their time, and the linkage works well enough when set up properly. Again, probably originally made to fit the L20A or L20E sixes - so plenty of meat on the cylinder head end. Neither of them are particularly 'rare' in Japan, but these two eBay auctions are ( currently at least ) at comparatively low prices, and in my opinion they are good value. Alan T.

Tony, I have no idea where this guy came up with the figure of '482' either. I suspect that he might be confusing the 'HS30-H' model 'Fairlady 240ZG' with the 'PS30' and 'PS30-SB' model 'Fairlady Z432' and 'Fairlady Z432-R'. Even then his figures would be based on disputed evidence......... If I were you, I would stake all my chips on the FIA homologation amendment that legalised the factory G-nose for Group 4 competition use. The mere existence of this amendment page proves ( as far as the FIA were concerned ) that over 500 identical cars had been series-produced and were meant for sale to the general public. He can't argue with that. Amendment 9/8V to FIA homologation number 3023 proves that Nissan had complied with Article 251, Category A, Group 4 ( Special Touring Cars section ) of the International Sporting Code, Appendix "J", and had produced the quantity of 500 cars necessary within the time allowed. In the case of Group 4 during the period concerned, this was 24 consecutive months or less. The guys who protested you, and your sanctioning body, can't argue with this if they recognise and adhere to FIA rules. The amendment 9/8V was valid from 1st October 1973, and was retrospectively applied from a start date of August 1972. Factory 'HS30-H' 'Fairlady 240ZG' models were sold to the general public in Japan from late October 1971 through to the end of 1973. I don't believe I have ever seen an official factory-related document that conclusively states the quantities of Fairlady 240ZG models sold - but I have been told by numerous sources over the years ( and many of them ex-Nissan employees ) that just over 1000 were made. This would have made the G-Nose parts eligible for Group 2 ( over 1000 made ) but the factory never bothered with the necessary amendment to the homologation as it would have been pointless. I have in the past been called upon to 'prove' certain things to my insurance company here in the UK with regard to my factory Fairlady 240ZG. I carried out a lot of background research into the model, and had to present it to them as part of an 'agreed value' policy. The car is the only known genuine factory-built 'HS30-H' model in Europe - so it can be troublesome to insure properly. I've made sworn affidavits for presentation to RAC MSA and FIA competition scrutineers in the past, and would be happy to prepare one for you if you think it would help your situation. I can provide copies of all the necessary FIA regulation paragraphs and factory-sourced photos and data to support it. But to be honest, that single page ( amendment 9/8V to homologation number 3023 ) is all you should need. The ZG parts were available from the 'Sports Option' lists in Japan right up until Nissan's competitions departments ( 'Nissan Sports' / 'Nissan Sport Service' et al ) were merged to form NISMO in 1982. From then on, the parts continued to be available from NISMO until at least the mid-Nineties. They were NOT offered as a true 'Factory Option' to be specified on a new car - but one of the authorised 'Nissan Sport Service' dealers in Japan ( there were 17 of these by mid 1973 ) could supply and fit the parts should the Japanese customer wish. This would however have had implications for him on taxation class and other bureacracy that was open to interpretation ( especially by troublesome traffic police officers, apparently! ) so I don't think this will be all that useful to you in your current situation. Let me know what you need. Cheers, Alan T.