Carl Beck

That should concern you. The shape of the doors and door opening on the body are different between the 72's and the 78's. I don't know if the seals from a 78 could be made to work or not - but I wouldn't attempt it - no reason to mess up expensive parts - when the correct parts can still be ordered. No question the Precision Kit is a lot less money than OEM seals, but I'd recommend getting the Precision Kit for your model. FWIW, Carl B.

Most Likely - - - 240SX transmission - stronger, new and improved design - gearing 1st through 4th closer to original - easier to find low mileage examples today - usually not too expensive - rebuild parts still easily available FWIW, Carl B.

The complete article by Steve Heimsouth, related to the 240ZX Transmission swap - is hosted on the Z Car Home Page http:ZHome.com in "the Z Car Technical Library" section. The direct URL is: http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/240SX5spd/transmission.htm FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Pascal: From the time you started looking - to now - that was a fairly quick process compared to many people. Sometimes it takes a year or more to find and then purchase a car here in the States - and then have a car shipped to Europe. The pictures are great. It looks like a pretty stock example and it looks like it is in pretty good condition. Did you get someone to look it over physically before you bought it? Sounds fine on the video as well. You will learn that the 240-Z's are cool blooded - it takes a while to warm them up, and they usually don't run too well until they are warm. The white over-spray on the fuel tank would indicate that some paint work has been done, at least in the rear of the car. {not at all unusual for a 37 year old Z}. The engine compartment looks pretty clean as well. Give me the VIN and I'll see if I have any information on it. In the mean time tell us more about the car - how many miles are on it, how did you find and buy it etc. Also what problems did you have getting it shipped from California and what was the cost of doing that? Should be a pleasure refreshing or restoring it... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Mike - lets make that a day this month... Jim doesn't live too far from the Tampa Air Port... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Jim: Thanks for Posting the video - and you'll have to thank Mr. Osborn for the peek into Z Meca. If anyone wants to see Z Meca being built - I have it on my web site.. http://becksystems.com/Dream/Dream.htm Enigma - right. High resolution video's are needed to do justice to Jim's collection - however it would take a one hour show at least. Maybe I'll make that one of my first video projects for the Dream Garage Section.. as soon as I get a high resolution video camera. Keep in mind - you only saw what was in that garage... FWIW, Carl B.

That's Great - and to think - one of our members started that and owns one of the models.. That video has to be added to any Z Car Video collection.... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Ron: I wondered the same thing. In July of 2007 Lew Kinse, of Canepa Design called, as a follow-up to an e-mail I had sent earlier related to the VIN on the Frisselle Z. He ask where he could find the VIN on the chassis, as the dash and data tags were all missing. I told him where to look on the firewall, then sent a follow-up e-mail with photo's of other cars VIN's stamped into their firewall, and a brief explanation of the VIN structure etc. He replied that he would let me know what they found, if they could remove any of the paint. I never did get an answer from him after that. Could be that it was no longer an issue after the new owner paid for it. Nonetheless an amazing piece of SCCA and Datsun Racing History. FWIW, Carl B.

TrackSide Photo has tons of vintage race cars/trucks on their web site now. See: http://Tracksidephoto.com Remember the "BRE Datsun 510" that was on e-bay last year... and it was disputed that BRE built the car? Well here is a picture of the Baja Truck the seller ran at the Baja... Conner's efforts were pretty successful for Datsun.. Also a picture of the BRE Baja 510 that John Morton and Peter Brock ran in 1972. FWIW, Carl B. Trackside Photo's shown with credits/copyright notice - and with permission.

OK - great Mike. That gives us a good list of what you have and now we can start looking for the missing pages, as well as other issues. I wonder if Will received any when he was working on that CD/DVD with all the historic documents, books, manuals etc etc. I'll go dig through some of my "stuff" and see if any turn up.. Great effort Mike... thanks, Carl

Hi Mike: Wanted to check to see if my downloads came though correctly or not. Of if your PDF software left some pages out etc. I seem to be missing some pages as follows: Only page 1 for 06-04-72 Only page 3 & 4 for 08-27-72 Only page 1 for 09-03-72 Only page 3 & 4 for 09-15-72 Only page 1 for 09-17-72 Only page 2,3&4 for 10-07-72 Only page 2 for 11-01-72 Is it possible that Page 1 of 09-15-72 goes with Pages 3&4 of 09-17-72 ? FWIW, Carl B.

At Post #15 Chris posted a picture of a Z at Daytona with #81. At Post #16 Phillip commented that he was fairly sure that was HLS30 00008. At Post #17 Chris replies: At Post #29 -after some confusion among different pictures I replied in part: At Post #31 Chris replied: Well - actually appearances can be misleading. Looking farther... it seems that Bob Bell was a sponsor. He didn't run the car - Dave Duda did. At the time wasn't 1984 ... it was 90, 92. At least per the reference site you listed: http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/David-Duda-USA.html Interesting that Mike Speakman, Bob Speakman and Jim Novotne are listed as "Most frequent co-drivers". We also have to assume that at that time Dave Duda only had one Z, and that he did in fact modify HLS30 00008 so extensively moving it from SCCA C-Production to IMSA. Looking back at my e-mail exchange with Mr. Speakman - he said he sold the car to Dave Duda, and as I recall, Dr. Bork bought the car from Mr. Duda. {I'll have to go review all the messages from Dr. Bork to affirm} I believe your response here - is a carry-over from my confusion as to which "picture" I was originally looking at. My comment about the body was originally about the Bondurant entry being a 260Z body... again sorry for the confusion. Interesting about the uni-body being cut up beyond recognition however. Dr. Bork did not say that the original body had been so completely cut up.. Dr. Bork restored the car to it's as raced in the early 70's condition. It sounds like only the firewall was left . At any rate - I'll update the Z Car Home Page when we get back from Jim's... Are you going to make it to the show in Lakeland first?... I'm going to run over and meet some of the guys there in the morning. FWIW, Carl B.

I ask Mr. Brock the same thing a year or so ago. Isn't this all to common in the automotive media? I can just hear it now.... "Good Morning, this is Frank at American Racing Wheel - how can I help you?" "Hello - this is Peter Brock at BRE Racing. I need 12 LeMans wheels with the Datsun bolt pattern, in a 14" diameter, 7" width and with a 4" backspace. Can you get them out to me by next week?" "Sure Mr. Brock, did you want the outer lips polished as usual?" "Yes, and just put them on our account" "Ok Mr. Brock, we will have them cast to your specifications and you can expect them next week. Thanks for the order." So as we can see - If you ask Mr. Brock if he "designed" the Le Mans wheels - being primarily a Designer - he would of course say no. It is more than likely the original story from American Racing was that Peter Brock "specified" the LeMans wheels for his BRE cars. Along the way, someone in the media got sloppy with the use of terms, and by word of mouth or whatever - the act of specification became "design"..... Kind of like Mr. Goertz telling a writer about getting a one year contract for Design Consulting with Nissan Motors in 1963, and that being later reported as - being hired to design cars.... Huge difference however in that Mr. Brock refused to take credit for the design, where Mr. Goertz told, twisted and retold the story so many times - I think he believed the lie himself years later ... kind of like his "stint" at Porsche.... later being reported as "Goertz designed the 911" BTW - Mike - what happened to Terry??? Where do we get the center caps now? FWIW, Carl B.

Oh Mike.. .two sets! - you are smitten:love: Carl B.

Hi Mike: Thanks for publishing that issue of the Datsun Competition News... among other names my eye went directly to Craig Ross... I ran into Craig Ross a few weeks ago - at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club's Annual Classic Car Show. I hadn't seen him in decades! I first meet Craig at the races at Daytona circa 1975, and he is the guy that finally - fine tuned my triple Webers.... No one has touched them since. He still has his 65 Shelby Mustang!! Dan Parkinson called me several months ago to talk about BRE and the Z he bought when they shut down. {and we all know it wasn't a 260Z as mentioned in the article} I'm getting "old" but it still amazes me how many of the "older" guys are showing up on the Internet. Now Greg of course - is young enough that he can't remember a time when there was no Internet, and racing a car that is older than him - - how the world has changed, yet remained the same... Tradition........ Great going Greg... that is quite an honor.. to recognize quite an accomplishment... FWIW, Carl B.

Phillip / Chris: Reviewing our discussion: Post #16 To which I answered Post #25 I now realize that Phillip was taking about the picture Posted by Chris at Post #15. I was responding to the picture Posted by Chris at Post #21. Sorry for the confusion on my part. So the question is: Did Bob Bell run the 00008 car as #81 at Daytona with G-nose and very large IMSA rear fender flairs. At Post #18 At Post #21 - Chris caught that 26th finish.. and questioned it as Bondurant finished 24th in that race. Looks like I was getting my own notes screwed up there as well. That sentence should have said: At the 1978 24 Hours of Daytona, Bob Speckman's Z was the first Z to cross the finish line, taking 16th overall and and 4th in IMSA's GT-U Class. Bondurant finished 24th O/A and 7th in class. Sorry for the confusion Chris. I looked at that "26th" three times and it still looked right!! Should have been 16th... I will now go back to my e-mail archive and see if I can find the pictures of the car we think was the Bondurant car in 78, as well as review everything that Dr. Bork and Mr. Speckman wrote... might be a few clues in there as well. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Phillip: Trying to pin the history of these cars down is always fun. The car that Chris posted is a later body - more like a late 260Z/280Z. That was the car that Bob Bondurant drove. Speckman was in the same race, also sponsored by Bondurant. No problem at all. At one time, we thought that BSR had received both HLS30 00006 and 00008..... That was how I had originally written the information on the Z Car Home Page. I got an e-mail from Mr. Speckman setting me straight on that oneLOL He wanted me to know that Nissan shipped the car directly to him - and Bob Sharp had nothing to do with setting it up:finger: Mr. Speckman seemed to believe that #00008 was the first Z to "finish" 24 hours at Dayton. But as with many of the guys - it's been 35+ years ago - and most of the guys that raced really didn't keep track of weekly, monthly or yearly history.. Their focus was always on running the next race.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Chris: Bondurant finished 24th 0/A in the 78 race and it looks like 7th in Class. He also sponsored Speckman's team. Speckman's car is listed as a Datsun 260Z... but then it couldn't have been in GT-U if it really had been a 260Z. So that was most likely HLS30 00008. Dr. Bork may have the log books from that period... I'll check.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Chris: Dr. Bork and Mr. Speakman provided the history - and it may indeed have been off the tops of their head. Looking at the Site you reference - it looks like the sentence should say; At the 1978 24 Hours of Daytona, Bob Speckman's Z was the first Z to cross the finish line, taking 26th overall and and 4th in IMSA's GT-U Class. Sponsored by Bondurant Racing School, Bob shared driving duties with Chris Doyle and John Maffucci. It looks like the first Z to finish a 24 hour race at Dayton was Bruce Mabrito and Jack Steel's 240Z in 1975. 26th O/A and 7th in GT-U. Interesting site - I'd like to see where their source data comes from - a lot of it seems to be contributed by specators...I wonder if they had access to Daytona's actual records... FWIW, Carl B.

Try This: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=259990&postcount=1

Nissan P/N 41060-R1120 which consists of 4 new M2800 "medium hard" FIA pads for the FIA calipers that use the solid OE rotor. You might e-mail Courtesy Nissan - at one point they had them. See: http://courtesyparts.com/ FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Arne: No - you are correct. I did say "cars" in North America - and in that case the number would have been closer to 36000.. I should have checked the On-line Register... :stupid: I was looking at my personal data base, that is supposed to include the on-line Register, but has about three times as many cars listed - some people that didn't want the info made public, some info gathered by people other than the actual owners, some gathered from on-line discussions etc etc. thanks for the input.. Carl B.

Overall - Brian has done a great job with his web site - documenting what he's found and sharing what he has learned. The drawback is that he hasn't really flushed the information out on a public forum. Usually it's close enough for discussion purposes... If I had to guess - I'd guess he got that 10,000 number confused with the 2400 OHC valve covers... My 46,000 number was off the top of my head, based on Nissan saying that the 72 Production started at HLS30 46000 - - but then I knew better than that - - I have 72 Model year cars on my list with VIN's in the 4300 series.. As you can see - the advantage here is that someone, Arne in this case, is quick to add/correct any data they see as misleading or outright wrong... FWIW, Carl B.

I believe that Jim Wolf used the first part of the Nissan Part Numbers, to show the different heads.. so in that first reference The E88, N33,N33/P50 are part numbers that all carry a CASTING NUMBER of E88. 11041-E3100 Assy-Cylinder Head up to 08/71 11041-E8800 from 9/71 up to 05/72 11041-N3300 from 7/72 11041-P5003 L26 from 08/73 I should add a note to that chart... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Arne: I'll bet your original engine serial number is close to 46,000 - right/wrong? Let me know so I can add it to the data base... thanks, Carl