26th-Z

And the crowd they were running with.

Pics of the Zs.

Yes, the pics are from the Festival of Speed in St. Petersburg last Saturday. Beautiful day. Great show. Frank Rygel brought his ultra rare 280ZX. Of, course ZWolf was there with both his cars. It was good to see that many Zs mixed in with the crowd of exotics. The Festival of Speed is getting better every year. I'll post some pics.

Just picked up a copy of "Sports Car Market" magazine published in Portland, OR and thought of this thread. www.sportscarmarket.com Check out the site as they discuss cars in the terms Carl posted. They use +/- indications to describe what may be the grey areas between condition ratings. I also found thier explanations and grading of particular cars to be a little more lenient than the sounds of descriptions posted above. For instance, their description of a #1 car or a #1- included particular flaws or "nitpicking points". Also this graph describing current market value of the 240Z in America.

I picked up a copy of "Sports Car Market" magazine the other day and thought of this thread. "Sports Car Market" is published in Portland, OR. www.sportscarmarket.com They had an article about the Porsche 914 which included this value graph. There is another thread about current market values. I'll go looking for it. CW- (This graph in no way implies that Her Majesty the 26th or Princess 27th are by any means cheap sluts. They are worth far more than any Porsche and much more than what the graph shows)

That Datsun logo is available on eBay. I have seen it used on hubcaps before.

Thanks for the heads-up. I wonder if the fuse box is the long pig tail. Probably is. The dual hand throttle / choke style is the later version with the square knobs.

Suncoast Z Car Club http://www.suncoastzcarclub.com/index.php or the South Florida Z Car Club http://www.sfzcc.com/ The last Statewide event was the 2007 Z Car Club Association national convention in Daytona. We have been doing Z-Fest in Orlando, but I don't know what the future is for that event. Everyone is burnt from the convention? I don't know. South Florida announces events and meets on this site. Suncoast IS very active also.

I got tired of door dings a long time ago and did two things that changed this whole way of life. First, I started parking my car very far away from the parking lot hord; in the most protected spot I could find. I was actually a prick about it a couple of times, telling people not to park in MY spot. I put a car cover on my car regularly. Second, I use a ding man about once a year to fix any dings I get. It costs me less than $25 per year. There is no way I would put ding molding on my Z. It looks horrible IMO.

To put this in perspective, you guys are talking about automatic transmissions in America or HLS30 models. Automatic transmissions were available from day one in Japan. One of the North American test vehicles had an automatic transmission.

I could not have put it better, Alan. So I got my April 1970 edition of Road & Track out and there is no reference to the Porsche 911T. The 914 is mentioned because they featured a road test of it in the issue. Furthermore, the 240Z was introduced in the January issue of Road & Track. The April issue was the road test. Trivia question of the day. Who owned the Porsche in the picture Carl posted? And why is it sitting next to the Z in the picture? Factory picture? Hardly. That's from a private collection. Carl! Scold, scold. What I am leaning to believe is that you guys don't know your Porsches very well. Hate to sound like a schmuck, but this conversation is opinion based. Denise McCluggage put it very well recently when she said Nissan was the best Italian of designs in all of Japan.

Hi kats! Porsche was a very well known sports car with racing lineage well before (20 years) the introduction of the Z. The 914 type was introduced at about the same time as the S30 and I recall comments about the choice between the two. Road & Track magazine did an article in July 1971 comparing 4 GT cars of the period with the 240 Z; MGB-GT, Fiat 124 Sports, Opel GT, and Triumph's GT6 Mk3. The Porsche 914 was comparably priced with the 240 Z, however it was the 914-6 and the smaller displacement 911s that raced in the same class (C Production). They were far more expensive than the 240 Z. Of course, we all know how the 240 Z performed in the hands of John Morton at the SCCA "Road Race of Champions" in 1970 and 1971. In fact, the 240 Z enjoyed a very similar reputation with the Porsche as a "giant killer", out performing cars of much higher horsepower. I never realized the "poor man's Porsche" expression was used in Japan, but I see why. The S30 was not built to the same quality level as the Porsche but it held the same if not higher performance level. The S30 is nimble, quick, and responsive like a Porsche at much less cost. It is less costly to maintain as well. I imagine the expression means the same in any culture. One does not have to pay such a high price to get the level of performance and reliability.

Carl Beck supposedly took his BRE Baja Z. Did you see him?

I'm surprised Six Shooter has never heard of the PS term also. But I am not surprised with the confusion of what was normally fitted to the S30 model variant and what was "optional". In America, in the begining, the 240 Z was a standardized import with no "options". "Options" as we Americans are acustomed to, were what we call "dealer enhancements" mostly of aftermarket parts. In fact, it can be argued that Datsun was instrumental in the development of the American aftermarket parts business. I know Carl and I go back and forth over the carpeting / rubber mats issue even though my bill of sale clearly states carpeting as a standard feature. I recall trying to establish a connection between the features included in the S30-S model ahd the HLS30 model with no real conclusion. I think it might be pertinent to say that in Japan, the S30 could be ordered with "option" features when this opportunity was not available in America even though the parts catalogs included the "optional" items. Indeed the whole thing is so confusing. Case in point, and I'm certain you will agree Alan; a Japanese customer could order the S30-S model with all the options that would make it an S30 (Z-L) model. There seems no doubt that Kerrigan has a Z-L model - the delux version. I would comment that it would be shocking to see a Fairlady at a ZCCA judged show in the first place! I have one question that has not been covered so far. Is the road hazard flashlight (hand held torch) optional or standard? The Z-L I know of in Tampa has the flashlight. Chris

Alan, The "man-from-Z-Therapy's wife" has a very nice collection of literature and techmical information. Be gentle. :-)

Very Nice Kats! Greetings!

Ummm...

Here is what you are looking for. From the 11/69 service manual.

Interesting conversation...my comments: There are professional appraisers who will prepare an appraisal for the insurance you desire. This proceedure is quite common. I concur that there are examples of Zs currently trading in the 30k range. I expect that to go much higher in the next five years. But we aren't talking about cars that are driven. The generational buyer profile is but one of many reasons people buy cars for collector purposes. CW-

East African Safari 1971 is the first thing that comes to mind. But I'm not the expert. Take advantage of the search function on this site and discover Nissan rally history! Here are two pictures I cherish: HS30-00026 and HS30-00027

You are not wrong and Will properly identified the chap. I have seen the car and I would say that the Ebay ad properly describes it.

Hard to tell about the reclining seat from the picture. I don't see a shoulder belt or hook on the seat. I know that the automatic was available at the time. To the best of my knowledge it was not published in America as an option but we got a standard clock and radio. Interesting.

A low VIN is but one of many possible "conversation points" that will ad value to a car. I think Carl called it "bragging rights". No question about it, Carl offered an excellent illustration; a low VIN will help a car sell faster and for more money. Gosh guys, everybody knows that ! ! ! #1 of 3000 is far more collectible than #2345 of 3000. And then the comments about "if someone wants that sort of thing" are spot on. Couldn't agree more.

Mike, I'll bet John Parker could tell you all about that brochure and it would be worth contacting him about it. John is one of the Datsun Gang and was the original advertising consultant (Parker Advertising, Inc.) for Datsun North America. The e-mail I have for him is johnegerparker at aol.

Filipe, I did not get a chance to answer your PM so I will do it here. My parts are wrapped up in the shop on the other side of town and I dont' get there very often. You will probably get cable measurements faster from this thread before I get out to the shop. I have a couple of pictures from taking 26th apart that will help, though. THe first is the firewall with the dash removed and the pedal cluster still in place. THe next is a close-up of the firewall with the pedal cluster removed. You can see the cable hanger in the lower right part of the picture. This hanger is peculiar to chassis fitted with the hand throttle originally. Of course, we have had the conversation about the wisdom of the hand throttle and how they were removed very soon after the HLS30 was imported into America. We had a conversation about the reference to the hand throttle being covered up in the early owner manuals. You all might get a kick out of the close-up picture. You can see a couple of rust spots I had to take care of. But notice the dark green painted areas around some of the other brackets. Evidently, after 26th was painted, spot welds around the pedal cluster brackets were added and then covered up by hand paint. Also, inside the bracket there is no paint. Just primer and some bare metal with surface rust. I still have to take 27th apart, so I am anxious to see if there is something similar lurking beneath the dash.