26th-Z

Sebring 12-hour, 1972. Ross Racing Ltd. Craig Ross and Jacques Groleau in front of the Kirk F. White Motor Racing Ferrari driven by David Hobbs and Skip Scott. The Ferrari DNF'd and the Z did not complete enough laps to be classified (138 laps behind the leader)

I'm amazed nobody has listed this link. http://www.zhome.com/History/ZColorGallary/ 903 is the one of the original colors offered in 1970. It is solid blue. 115 is metallic. Introduced in 1972 or 1973, it sparkles. The 903 example photo is actually a vintage Z, repainted in PPG paint with their color matching. This is Kats' car - 903 blue

Wow! And it isn't even brand new. I have three of those and one is brand spank'n new.

I also have this drawing. I attached a .dxf file to download? Datsun 240Z.bmp Datsun 240Z.dxf

Vicky Zrush's Vintage Z from 2004

I agree. It IS 'like' roof underlayment but with much more asphaltic bitumen composition. It needs to be quite hot to work with it. Hotter than a hair dryer. I don't see any problem with the Wurth mat.

It's a comic book interpretation of historical facts. Fun to read but far from an historical document. Yes, buy it for your collection.

This is mine. Kats did a big write-up about the FM tuner insert. It's somewhere in the archives.

The thread posted by Zup is very good. I don't think I have ever posted pictures of the real stuff. I was fortunate enough to buy this many, many years ago. These pictures have been brightened enough so that you can see what the actual material is. The insulation material is an asphaltic impregnated felt material; very thin and brittle in a room temperature state. It is around 1/32" thick - like a #120 0r #140 felt paper, however it is much more bitumen than felt. The brown spots of fibrous felt can be seen as more of a binder material. You can see that it is manufactured through a roller process. The surface finish is rough which indicates to me that the material was heated during the rolling process. The sheets I show are for replacement floor insulation. Applied with a heat gun - of course.

There is no documentation that I am aware of. In fact, there is strong evidence that the cars were NOT imported in sequential VIN. Consider that the car (s) delivered to Peter Brock, supposedly from the first shipment of cars in January 1970, had a three digit serial number. I have records of HLS30U-00026 which was imported in April 1970. This seller may very well have HLS30U-00054 which would give the impression of the 54th. Either way, it's a two-digit VIN.

PPG was the paint supplier for the Vintage Z restoration program. I would imagine that there is a well established / common knowledge PPG code to reference.

There you go! That's the thread with the answers. Thanks for the link.

I want to say no, those valve covers came with the OIL cap. My cars have the OIL cap. Every photo reference I have shows the OIL cap.

Ahh...! When I wrote my previous post, I had looked at Nissan Japan competition parts catalogs, (3 of them) and they all listed gears and shafts for the oil pump but not the whole unit like it was sold in the USA. Interesting.

Fits L24. That part is listed in the 1972 Nissan Fairlady Z parts catalog along with the oil cooler optional parts. It is also listed in the 1974 Datsun (NMC in USA) Competition Parts catalog. I also have it in a 1970 Datsun Competition Parts bulletin for $19.41. In today's value, that's about $120.

Sold it for $450, eh?

Were you the one who sent me the PM? I haven't the mental capacity to attach pictures to a PM evidently. Minilites were a very popular wheel at the time; would be surprised if these are not Minilites. I took the picture on the track; Paul Whiteman Trophy Races, SCCA National, Daytona 1971. The other one is the American Road Race of Champions, Road Atlanta, 1971.

Hey! I saw you post this on Facebook and thought; "shame on you, Mike, for not telling us that this is the start of the Suzuka 1000km race in 1970". Here's Nishino Fujita.

The wheels are called 'slots' and they come in many different variations. Slots were very popular at the time and many dealers sold them as aftermarket options. They were never supplied from Nissan. My slots are 14"x6" Japanese aluminum and the lug bolts have the washers press-fitted. I have center caps but they fall off all the time. I would want to say that slots are probably the most common Z wheel. You should be able to find a set in decent condition for a reasonable price. Always beware of people selling bent or broken wheels.

The two styles of early knobs. The ones on the bottom "teardrop shape" are the earliest.

My son-in-law did the same thing when I commented about the word "irregardless". Thank you for the interpretation, Alan! I didn't know WHAT he was talking about.

"You have to dumb yourself down to conversate with 95% of the people." Conversate!?!! You're dumbing down to "conversate"? What!?! Are you some Shakespearian type? Making up words again? The word is converse. Love ya SIteunseen, but I just can't help it. Thanks for the chuckle, Archie! http://www.wordgenerator.net/fake-word-generator.php

I saw the Japanese Art Deco exhibit and recognized the rabbit sculpture. That's what got me started. I bought a book on Japanese Art Deco and began to recognize a whole bunch about Datsun design and advertising. Dan Banks has a wonderful collection of Datsun "art" and we discussed the correlation. Thanks to Dan, I have reproductions of most of the posters. As a student of design, Matsuo san would certainly be aware of the style. I never got the chance to ask Katayama about his thoughts and some day I may go to a ZCON and ask Matsuo. Makes you wonder what was influencing the lines of the S30, eh?

I don't believe the story is that simple. The "story" is cute, quite memorable, and a reasonable sort of marketing response to the question about the Fairlady name. In 1958, Katsuji Kawamata, the president of Nissan Motors, Ltd. attended the Broadway hit musical “My Fair Lady”. It has been said that the performance influenced Kawamata san to name the Datsun brand sports car (SPL212) “Fairlady”. Brian Long wrote in his book; Fairlady Roadster to 280ZX, “He thought people would relate to the beauty of the leading lady in the play to the car!” Indeed. I wonder if Kawamata san didn’t view Eliza Doolittle as a Moga; the icon of modern Japan, embracing Western culture, jazzy and sporting, stronger, showier, and independent. I see too many parallels to ignore the inference. Kawamata san would have been fully aware of the impact Art Deco had on the global sophistication of Japanese culture. In the relationship between “fairlady” and “moga” would characterize the intention of Nissan at the time; to strengthen their exports with the introduction of a sports car and symbolize it with a name that promotes excitement. The name “Fairlady” remains to this day and represents a succession of highly successful Nissan sports cars; faster, stronger, jazzy and very Western. I can't think of a better place to post this: Deco-Japan_Release.pdf

Thanks for the links. I grabbed a bunch of pictures.