HS30-H

Key point in bold above. We are talking about a 1970 S30 Fairlady Z-L here, not anything else. And if the car in question was to have your quoted 50k USD spent in bringing it back to very presentable condition then I think your 'valuation' of 25k USD would be, er, unenlightened to say the least. And I don't think it would even require 50k USD to make a nice car out of it anyway. Everybody knows we can get into negative equity with these cars (I'm no different), but that's for a future restoring owner to worry about, isn't it? Early S30 and S30-S Fairlady Zs are changing hands for more than their contemporary build date HLS30Us (they pretty much always have done...) so for anybody who actually desires one - that will be people who have legs that can hold them up whilst they lean against the wall at the ATM and the indoor counter of their preferred fast food supplier - the market price is what they will usually have to pay. My observation is that the market price is still rising.

I reckon there's a good possibility of a sale as-is in the range of 18k to 20k USD or more if recent interest is anything to go on. It needs a lot of work and some rare parts for a 100% factory-correct restoration, but there's no imperative for such a car to be bone stock and it's a great candidate for a Japanese home market style period-modified project. I believe there are a fair few people looking for such a blank canvas these days. If it were priced around 15k USD or so it would almost be a no-brainer purchase for export. The 5k USD comment further up-thread is just trolling.

So you think a fully restored car that just had 50k USD spent on it is only worth 25k USD? Point me at 'em. I'll take three. Ha Ha! Deal breaker! Personally I leave that kind of stuff to my butler.

I think it got 'personal' when you started the thread with your "rust bucket" comment. I didn't think you'd be scared of differing opinions though? You say "if it were a series 1...". You think it doesn't qualify for that soubriquet? Why can't it be a "Series 1" and a Fairlady Z? Do the two things have to be mutually exclusive? I'd say that this is probably a better car - structurally for sure - than the Fairlady Z-L which was bid up 20k USD on Bring A Trailer a couple of weeks ago. If local people don't want them/don't know what they are looking at, then they'll probably end up being sold for export.

I wouldn't necessarily call it a "rust bucket". I've seen a lot, lot, LOT worse and it is still eminently restoreable. It has rust in the floors for sure, but it still looks structurally sound and relatively good in some areas. I'm currently rebuilding something that started out far worse. Certainly wouldn't frighten off anyone who is used to serious repair. That tow bar and fender mirror/door mirror combo will elicit some throwaway lines from the peanut gallery, but this car looks like it could be a bit of a diamond-in-the rough to me. The asking price may well be a little high (probably a good strategy for the vendor), but what do you value it at? I would be willing to bet that it sells for more than your valuation. Let's hear it. Here's a current market reference point for you: https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g317504338?fbclid=IwAR2i0nT_GnctmANNPj4kbi65FzHPxYZzAPCdMjw150LGMIV1426zIwZxjtg

Kats, The S20 main bearing caps are "cross bolted". Enthusiasts of high performance engines are familiar with these as many 'Extra Duty' engines were designed like this from the factory. The advantages are in helping to eliminate 'crank walk' and 'fretting' (where the crankshaft deforms the main bearing caps and block casting) and helping to keep the engine block casting's shape and size during heat cycles and high rpm use. As you will notice, the machinists at the factory marked the block/oil pan mating face with the 'grading' measurement for the correct shim size on each cross-bolt to help the engine builder. This is a labour-intensive operation of the type still performed by Nissan's 'Takumi' engine builders for the VR38 engine, and it is a mark of quality. 'Hand Made' still means something today too. That's a wonderful pile of NOS shims you have found there! You can become a specialist supplier now. When I rebuilt my ex-432 S20 engine it was very hard to find these kinds of parts (valve lash caps in various sizes were also a problem) but the situation seems much better these days. Now I know where to go when I build engine no.3...

If you're expecting a groundswell of Japanese owners to start converting their cars from RHD to LHD, from 5-speed to 4-speed, from 3.9:1 diff ratios to 3.3:1, fast steering rack ratios to slow etc etc - with a special premium on adding Amco 'towel rail' bumper bars - then don't hold your breath. Emblems are one thing, but it tends not to go much further than that.

The first three could equally apply to the stock Mirror(s) on the HLS30U. The fourth wasn't and isn't an issue for owners of Japanese market models as the factory didn't charge extra for them. Seriously, if they "get in the way" of working on the engine then it must be a hell of a job that needs doing? I find that they don't get in the way at all. Of course, you can reach underneath, undo just one nut and remove them in a jiffy if it's that much of an issue. Try that with the stock Export door mirror...

What harm? I'd rather have that than the flood of "My cousin's friend's tap-dancing teacher used to have one of those, GLWS!" type comments. If anything grates it's the people who seem to regard themselves as high roller 'collectors', adding to their "portfolio" (pfft) and talking about 'Pebble' when it's likely their collection is more of a box-ticking exercise of third rate 'cool investment' pension fund hardware, hardly touched by anybody except the local handyman and destined to be liquidated as also-ran lots in an auction where Wayne Carini is selling a Fiat Jolly. I get the feeling these people are money men rather than car guys.

Which part do you object to most, the fact that they are making "snarky" comments, the fact that they are not bidding, or the "experts" bit? Looks to me like even other Scarab owners don't qualify as "Scarab experts", and it's hardly surprising given the nature of the story...

So what's really behind the "armchair experts" comment then? To whom are you referring? You've pitched up on a 'net based forum, asking questions. Are you expecting to find the Z-world equivalent of Griffith Borgeson to be at your beck and call? By definition, we are all "armchair experts" here, all scholars on the same voyage of discovery. I suggest you at least wipe your feet before you cross the threshold.

Would you classify him as one of your "armchair experts", or not?

Halberstam's book (note the spelling) is history as schmistory. It's not a reference source. It is tabloid-level entertainment - more National Enquirer than National Geographic. History reduced to soap opera. . John B. Rae's 'A History Of Nissan Motor Corporation In USA 1960-1980' is a proper reference-level tome and impeccably researched and written, but it's not a 'Z' book. Brian Long's efforts for Veloce Publishing get a mention in dispatches, but would benefit from major re-writes as new information has thrown light where there was otherwise darkness. The fact is, there is NO 'definitive' tome on these cars. In my opinion - take that as you want - the most accurate story of these Japanese cars would be best told by Japanese sources and in the Japanese language, but so far most Japanese publications have been written with a somewhat skewed viewpoint and keeping the "Thanks Mr K." status quo rather than being revelatory. Hitoshi Uemura's 2014-published 'Fairlady Z Kaihatsu No Kiroku' ('Fairlady Z Development Record') got "translated" into 'Datsun 240Z Engineering Development - The Journey From Concept To Reality', which gives a clue to the Bowdlerisation involved in an already skewed narrative. The short answer? There isn't one. I don't think there is a 'definitive' book on the Porsche 911 either, despite what people might claim. Even Karl Ludvigsen got a lot wrong. If you volunteer to write one, you'll soon be disabused of the idea that a 'definitive' tome is even possible. In my view it's only going to be possible to be a specialist in one aspect of such a wide subject, and even then you're on a hiding to nothing. Welcome to the party. Take a drink from the tray over there. Choose your 'guru'. It won't take long before you - turning up out of the blue as an impetuous arriviste - are an "armchair expert" too... Bottoms up!

Now, is that a 'replica' or a proper 'fake'...? Here's The Real Thing, for reference: Just in case anyone is confused, the funny one is on the right.

Q.E.D.

If I were you, I'd stick to fondling your basketball. You simply have no clue what you are wittering (yes!) on aboot. Och aye the noo. If you have some free time sit-down time between 'shooting hoops' (tee hee), try getting your head around the idea of what the word "fake" actually means to everybody else except you.

I built a 'Fairlady 240Z' emblem-ed car (based on a UK market HS30) back in the 1990s. Sounds similar to what you are planning to do: Key points: You need the correct S30-series specific 'Z' bonnet emblem, not the flatter S130-series type. Good thing is that the vented-quarter Japanese market models used the same 'Z' vent emblems as the vented-quarter Export market cars, so two less emblems to source. Your 'Fairlady Z' glovebox emblem was also used on the 'Fairlady 240Z' models, so that's correct.

One of the 'concerns' - although it doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things - is that you will sometimes have to listen to the ill-informed and/or plain stupid witterings of people who don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes down to the nitty gritty. As you have already seen from our basketball-fondling friend further up the thread... But how about this? Your car is a 1973 build, right? Why not put factory-style 'Fairlady 240Z' emblems on it? To me, 'Fairlady Z' emblems indicate a 2-litre car. The Japanese market L24-engined cars (1971 through 1973 Fairlady 240Z, Fairlady 240Z-L and Fairlady 240ZG) all wore two-piece 'Fairlady 240Z' emblems rather than 'Fairlady Z' emblems. If anything, it would make it a little bit *more correct* as an hommage/lookalike/tip o' the hat and it's arguably more appropriate to the car. Naysayers - again, as you've seen upthread - fixate on the RHD vs LHD aspect of all this, but it's neither here nor there really. Nissan themselves put 'Fairlady Z' emblems on a few special 240Zs, so you have a precedent. Here's an example of the 'Fairlady 240Z' emblems. The '240Z' part is the same as that used on Export market 240Zs, and the 'Fairlady' emblem (without the attached 'Z') was a dedicated item for the Japanese market L24-engined models. You *could* cut the 'Z' off of your 'Fairlady Z' emblems and make something very very close...

As has been pointed out, this is not the case. We need to qualify the market/model/production date if we want to be accurate.

Toyota's MF10 2000GT was never envisioned as a mass-market product, so the high costs of press tooling for a unitary body were out of the question. Instead, a relatively modern and fairly sophisticated backbone chassis was chosen - similar to that in the Lotus Type 26 Elan, which debuted in 1962. I wouldn't say that the S30-series Z unibody/unitary body was "way ahead of its time". In principle the unit body idea was established and in use in the 1930s, but if we are looking at relatively inexpensive sports/GT cars then the MGB, which debuted in 1962, is a good example of prior use a good 8 years before the Z.

UK and 'Europe' (I suspect some exceptions, perhaps Portugal and other 'hot' areas) were specified with a similar - but perhaps slightly simpler - Idle Compensator/Vacuum Can/Temp Sensor-equipped system from August 1973 onwards:

Sorry but, with respect (you are usually a saint in this respect, rturbo 930), "240Z (1972)" is not refined enough for this discussion. As I've pointed out, North American market got a 'slow' steering rack ratio from the get-go, whilst other markets got a relatively 'quick' ratio during the same period. Market and/or variant needs to be specified if any of this is to be accurate.

Different between contemporary-build market/models too. EG 1970 FSM for north American market HLS30U models gives rack ratio as 17.8:1 whilst 'rest of the world' got 15.8:1 and the 432-R model got the 'quick' knuckles as stock equipment.

With respect, "the source" in relation to my - largely rhetorical - questions would not necessarily be the one that you are suggesting. Whilst I have the utmost respect and admiration for Pete Brock, BRE and all they achieved, I tend to look at such stories more from the broader viewpoint. I'm sure a lot of people will be very satisfied and entertained by the article in question, but it just doesn't cut it for me. The statement "Nissan’s management, including Katayama, was completely unaware that American racing rules required the use of engines and components as delivered in their production cars and sold to the public." is just not credible. I very much doubt that this was said/written by Pete Brock.