kats

Hi Keith, I am thinking like Patcon. The story of the tailor made carpets might apply to the very early cars like up to January or February 1970. My March 1970 240Z and the BAT ultra mint green April 1970 240Z have the same jute and carpets, especially the jute look just like Japanese S30 cars. I would like to have more examples of them to see how they look like. One thing I am suspicious about is the carpets for cars up to middle of 1970 (or late 1970 or early 1971). The carpets for the US cars looks slightly different in the loop pile material than the ones for the Japanese cars. Now we see the US 1969 cars have different type of loop pile material due to the local shop made them for the early cars. But my 03/1970 and the BAT green 04/1970 both have the same carpets which look like the ones for the US 1969 cars. And also the carpets look different than the ones for the Japanese cars. So could they be the US made in those days? Not even a 1969 car could have the US local made carpets? About the jute pads, I am coming to conclusion that the jute for the US 03/1970 and 04/1970 are the same ones with all the other territories. Kats

Hi Patcon, was your car made in November or December 1970? If so, this jute is what your car would have. The picture was taken from a December 1970 Z432 owned by Mr. Watanabe. The car still has a set of jute and carpet seemed came with the car from the factory. Now we can say at least on December 1970, the pattern of jute had already changed to the later one which can be seen on 1972 cars. The difference between the two, the early one has cut outs for the drain plugs and the foot rest, and the seat mount brackets. The later one doesn’t have cut outs for the drain plugs. Kats

Hi Patcon, I can say I am convinced about the jute for cars up to January or February 1971. Our cars have only one jute for both sides of front floor, for any cars Japanese and all the other destinations. That is why there are cut outs for the seat mounts forward brackets to be utilized for all the destinations. And the shape is the one shown here from the Green BAT 240Z (04/1970). My car HLS30-02146 (03/1970) still has the one on the right side. I can make a template for you Patcon (including rear floor and luggage floor) I will send you papers which I draw. Easy homework for me! Kats

Hi Bart, Chris 26th-Z answered to your question, I didn’t know that story when I heard of it here classic Zcar club. And carpeting is always one of my big interest. How did they look like? It is very difficult to find true original, difficult to see good condition originals in person. What I am not clear about is the earliest carpets which were added at the port of entry (dealership ?) in the U.S. Were the carpets made in U.S? Were they exactly the same to the ones which were applied later such as January or February? E4601 is the first number for the carpets for export model (LHD territory), was this number “E4601” for the carpets which was added at the port of entry in the U.S? Or if Nissan would have started to apply new carpets for the export model around January or February etc, were they exactly the same ones for the ones applied to Japanese Fairlady Z series? And were they the ones which got the number E4601 for the first time? I confirmed my 12/1971 North American 240Z and 06/1972 Fairlady 240ZG have the same carpets which were made of the same materials. But I still don’t get it, they have different parts number for each of them for the rear deck carpet which doesn’t seem to be any different. Very confused. Kats

Thanks Roo, I don’t see there is a data for the Europe configuration, I mean the data seems didn’t use Europe 240Z (HS30 and HLS30Q etc). Probably the test team used a S30 which has normal suspension set up (basic coil spring rate and length, and normal hight at the front and the rear). And even the engine could have been L20, I will ask these questions to Mr. Miyazaki. Mr. Miyazaki told me that the test team once tried to reduced Cd as possible as they could. Didn’t need to think about production model, just they tried whatever they could. Finally they achieved Cd 0.30 for a basic body configurations. With two people on board, plugged all the holes around the radiator core support, covered the radiator with card boards as much as it was functional, put an air conditioning condenser, fitted much much stiffer coil springs, lowered front end 15mm etc etc. They did many things to the car to keep the car sits lower. From the words of Mr. Miyazaki in mind, I re-check the side profile view of the Salt Flats Racer. The car sits lower than normal, it must be a lot better in Cd than normal Fairlady 240ZG. Kats

And this is what G-nose performs. Please don't take it seriously my calculations are not accurate. The thesis shows from 140 km/h to 160 km/h, G-nose took 8.0 sec, Basic nose took 9.5 sec. When G-nose reached to 160 km/h, Basic nose was almost 200 ft behind. Does it make sense? Kats

Thanks Roo and Alan, The data which Roo showed is exciting for me, I even don't know how to calculate that. This is just A Wild Guess, however I would say Roo's calculation might be something close to "IF" the car had the G-nose. And other cases too, thank you for the calculations. As Alan said, we need to be specific for numbers and units. 150 ps is written in the manual. And the engine performance differs depends on the territory even if the tag says 150 ps. The front end is 15mm lower for Europe model (except Portugees ) will also make certain difference in Cd and Cl. Gearing too, etc etc. Now I am curious about looking back old days, when we were able to buy G-nose from a local Nissan dealership with listed price, would it be the most inexpensive way to get a car faster? Adding 10 mph top speed, 30% more acceleration performance would cost more than just put a G-nose? Fairlady 240Z-L was 1350000 yen, Fairlady 240ZG was 1500000 yen in Oct 1971. The difference is 150000 yen. Now in Japan, you will pay 1 million -2.5 million yen for a complete set of genuine G-nose. Kats

One more quiz, how fast is the G-nose? I always imagine what a great driving experience for Mr.K would be. Now owned by Mr. Kenny Ueda, his car would pass my car easily on the road. The thesis provided the data, acceleration of mid range speed. Please think the yellow car and my blue car have the same gears. Kats

Hi Roo and Carl, By the way, yes if we have a car serviced properly for drive train and suspension components, properly tightened bolts and nuts, assembled carefully just they required in the manual would certainly reduce the chance of the shake issue. The test drive in U.S. and Canada late 1969 the crew noticed the vibration around 80 MPH constant speed cruising. The decision of Tokyo office was anyway just keep making cars, with balancing tire. They knew what they had to do thoroughly by the report of the test crew but needed a year and half for production ready. Let's play Another Wild Guess- about the top speed of "RACER BROWN" 1972 : If the car had a G-nose (with a chin spoiler), what the top speed would have been? How much speed would have been increased from 152.134 mph? Fairlady -Z brochure says G-Nose will give you 5% more top speed, 30% more mid-range speed acceleration. In the brochure, top speed of Fairlady-240Z is 205 km/h. Fairlady-240ZG is 210 km/h. Fairlady-Z432 is 210 km/h too (I think we have to guess there was something behind). Basically, I think it is a Japanese way of thinking. Listing data (numbers and values) must be correct and proved in many ways. Better is acceptable, worse is unacceptable. So, usually those performance data have certain margin in there. Kats

Seems good for reducing pressure in the engine bay! Kats

Hi Carl, Thank you for the data, I have never seen it before. I visited the link provided here, I saw they tested various kinds of body configurations. I am curious about the car stayed on the floor, Nissan engineers set the actual car on the block which makes the car sit higher than sitting on the floor. We know this car, Salt Flats Racer 240Z. Most of people never knew (including me) the G-Nose can be attached with the Europe front spoiler like this car. I think this car has perfect aero dynamic package available from Nissan back in 70's Except one thing, an undercover. If this car had an undercover on that day, it could have much faster top speed on the plaque. Nissan engineers tested a G-nose with a front spoiler in the thesis I showed here. More surprising for me is the car did 152 MPH in 1972 without G-nose. Kats

Hi! SpeedRoo and Alan described it well, I didn't even think about the under cover does such a great job for reducing Drag and Lift. Takeuchi-san (Z432-R owner) used to say he put an undercover on his car but he took it off in a few days. He said it wasn't good for engine cooling. Takeuchi-san, he takes his car on the road no matter how far his friends live, how hard rain falls from the sky. But he normally doesn't need to push his car over 100 MPH. Last time I visited him I saw the cover on his wall like an interior decoration. Me, maybe the same. I want to put it in my car but don't want to make the engine hot in the daily driving. Or winter only will work for me. Kats

Thanks Roo, I have seen the magazine but haven't read through whole pages, thanks! You don't need my drawings but hey, I put it just for fun. I have one interesting story to tell which Mr. Miyazaki told me about "front chin spoiler" later on here. Kats

Thanks Alan, According to the comments of Mr. Uemura and other engineers and styling designers, the 1/4 scale model was tested in the facility of the University of Tokyo. According to the book "Prince/Nissan" Kazuo Higaki (Nigensha), as Alan said Prince used to have a wind tunnel at Ogikubo but it had been abandoned since the end of the world war two, impossible to operate. Just like Nissan, Prince engineers brought their 1/5 scale model to the same place, the University of Tokyo. By the way, 1/5 scale is a tradition of the Prince which used to be as an airplane manufacturer. Nissan's used 1/4 scale... A full scale prototype car was tested in the wind tunnel freshly built at Nissan Oppama Chuo- kenkyujyo (Nissan Central Research Institute) at Dec 1968, started operating from April 1969. Kats Attached picture is testing a Prince R380.

Hi Roo, Me neither, and also engineers were shocked when they saw the results of Cd and Cl at that time. I will upload the remaining pages. Before that I will try to explain that Mr. Miyazaki told me about how bad the opening front end of S30 was. Just like you proposed, it was the issue of S30 which engineers had to deal with. I will draw a picture by hand, Mr. Miyazaki said S30 front end is so wide that it leads too much air coming through the radiator. Then the air can't go through under the engine because the air was blocked by the air stream which is flowing underneath of the car. At the end, the pressure of inside of the engine bay becomes positive, it pushes the front end. The higher front end gets more Cd worse. This story I think it relates the story of 15mm lower front end of Europe model (except Portugal model). And Mr. Miyazaki even told me there was a test car which had a factory air conditioning coupled with Z432!! (Z432 was not able to make a choice of air conditioning from the factory). During the test of aerodynamics, one day he was wondering why one car had a better value than other cars. The better one had an air conditioner condenser in front of the radiator. Less air gave less lift. That was a Z432. Kats

Alan, Your explanations made me realize the real meaning of Blunt. Yes the change to "Grand-Nose" is better, even people in the sales department were not fully educated why "Blunt" is literally not suitable for the image of the extension pieces. I think of course Mr. Yoshiyuki and Mr. Uemura knew how NASA's Blunt nose looked like and meaning of "Blunt", they might just wanted to barrow the image of detachable nose piece, not barrowing the meaning of "Blunt". By the way, "Blant" is just a spelling mistake? Kats

Hi Alan, I reviewed it once again to see how it was connected to the University of Tokyo's department of Aerodynamics and Aeronautics. I don't see it as we expected at the moment. I believe before 1969, the University of Tokyo was the only place where had a wind tunnel, but it was for 1/4 models not for full size scale car. So early days of styling development and aerodynamics study, engineers brought their 1/4 scale models to the wind tunnel at the University of Tokyo. In 1969 Nissan built a full size scale wind tunnel at Nissan Oppama. This thesis was made by using the wind tunnel at Nissan Oppama. Some of the engineers graduated the University of Tokyo's department of Aerodynamics and Aeronautics, so we can say the thesis was connected to it, though. Kats

Hi, For someone who is interested in aerodynamics of our S30 cars, here is a thesis made by Nissan engineers in May 21st 1971. Aerodynamic Study on Passenger Car Body Configurations / Michio TAKEI, Hikota SAKAMOTO, Kazuhiko YOSHIYUKI. The effects of G-nose and spoilers are quite noticeable, 7 pages of this thesis is worth to read. I'm not an engineer so some of the numerical formulas are unable to understand but the figures and illustrates work easy for me. So, I tried to show one of their data. Those numbers in pictures are excerption from the thesis. The only thing which I am not for sure is the data of Clr for the rear spoiler only configuration. It shows 0.007, it is too small isn't it? By the way, Mr. Uemura told the story of naming our G-nose in his book. "Blunt-Nose", Mr. Yoshiyuki and Mr. Uemura felt it was a cool name of NASA's Blunt-Nose cone which was attached on top of the satellite. They named their nose extension kit after the NASA's Blunt -Nose but the Sales department worried about that people would not understand what it would be. Finally "Grand- Nose" was used. Kats

Hi Patcon, maybe in Tampa with your car next year? That will be great! Kats

No, we appreciate your knowledge! Kats

Hi, I had a blast!! I am so glad that we got to see each other all at once. Alan, we talked about you a lot. Kats

The spoiler will be correct for your 12/70 car I think. In Japan, the spoiler was an optional item for any car listed in the brochure. Some other destinations had it as an optional item too. Kats

Hi SpeedRoo, thanks too! This picture is my favorite, and fascinating! Thanks Chris (26th-Z) for sharing it with us that was more than a decade ago. Let’s hope we will find more interesting stories and pictures. Kats

Thanks for the link, I am impressed by your wonderful collection of goodies, they are rare, I have never seen them before. And about the attitude of Nissan, not to disclose details about our car. Yes actually I was talking about it with Mr.Miyazaki. Mr.Miyazaki agreed with me, I told him how much we want to know about our car’s birthday and what ship loaded our car to the port. I am still dreaming about to find the record of our car’s history in Japan. Kats