I believe Nissan knew what they were doing by exporting the 240's with the missing "Sports car" equipment (rear sway bar, 5 speed, lower rear ratio). Why should they have? What did Americans know about sports cars anyway? Now, I'm not talking about people like us. We are a nitch market at best. In the 60's, 70's and 80's, American (taken as a whole) wanted "Sporty" cars, not Sports cars. comfortable cars with a sporty look. "Look at me!" I'm young and sporty!" What would have been the cost benifit of installing equipment the main body of buyers would not have appriciated in the first place? Then there's the market in Europe, who I'm sure Nissan felt was smaller and more savy to what a sports car was about. The home market was VERY tiny. Those who could afford to buy an S30 wanted a Japanese supercar. The closer to the real thing, the acuall race cars winning the Japanese GP, the better. The HLS30 was not an "American car built in Japan", It was a Japanese sports car, dressed down and packaged for the American market.