Gav240z

For the record my 72 240z has never had vapour lock issues, driving in 40degree (celsius) + Australian weather along the highway in summer. I was dying because of no air con, but the car was fine. My 72 240z at the time still was running twin SU's with factory airbox, heat shield, return fuel line (with no insulation) etc.. I also didn't have an undertray on the car. Factory style radiator (pretty sure re-cored to 3 core from factory 2 core). The car did however have a later style fluted/vented factory bonnet (75+), so that may have helped.

Makes sense to me, which is why it sort of upsets me that so many were likely thrown out over the years. What a waste. Interestingly this 260z 2+2 came onto the market in Australia a while ago and 1 of the things that appealed most to me about it, was the fact it still had the original flat tops and steel wheels and caps! https://photos.app.goo.gl/CWdhoXxY9WjdXoKE2 All the emissions gear was there and in place too. Beautiful.

Good to see flat tops being utilised, I've heard they are actually superior to the early round top SUs as the idle circuit can be set independently of the rest of the throttle range. I think the flat tops suffered from the old grape vine, in that a lot of folks never actually took the time to understand them, restore or fix them so they work properly and just ditched them based on what "other people said". But many of these people would not have verified the facts for themselves. I would be very interested in the opinions of those who have had experience with them and got them running right! The only downside I see with them is that they make the engine bay look a lot more complex than the earlier simpler carbs.

I don't disagree these cars can be "better" or more fun modified. Why do you think I have 4 of them? ? #51 - Will go back as original as possible, but impossible to be a survivor given it's level of rust. #150 - Will be done to as high standard as I can manage (it's my first FULL restoration), but I am looking for a more fun driver quality car than absolutely mint concourse restoration. #1415 - Is very original, but has deteriorated, but I want to keep as much patina as possible, however it may just need a repaint. I will try and resist this. #10552 - I am slowly building towards as Works Rally Tribute car. I personally think all Early S30Z's are worth saving - within reason if possible. But I want to let the seller get on with selling his cars. ?

But remember only dirty hippies with no money drove VW Kombi van's back in the day. Demographics change of course and so does the wealth of certain groups. Exactly, which is why finding a good original example is so difficult. Hence why they will command a premium and hold their values in my opinion. Originality is often what is desired in collector car markets. I don't see many truly original survivors these days.

Time will prove 1 of us right I suppose? Interest in these cars is increasing all the time. In North American there is still a lot out there, but 240z's are getting harder to find and original cars even harder I'm sure. Each market is also different, because input costs vary significantly. Parts access and suppliers are more plentiful over yours side of the pond. Here in Australia we have to import a lot of stuff and that increases the costs of restoration. Good 240z's have already nudged $80k AUD here. Many have spent even more restoring them. Very early 240z's (1970 models, we didn't get 1969 cars here) of which we only got something like 300 here are thin in the ground and supply of parts same. The 1 thing I think we can all agree on, is that you see very few correctly restored cars done to a high standard come up for sale. So it's hard to know where the top end of the market sits at the moment. The important thing is that you enjoy these cars, even if my cars halved in value I'd still hang onto them.

That's because you haven't been watching their values go up over the last 15 or so years... They will get there and many variants of the S30Z series are there already.. Good early S30Z's have already got there...the cost of restoration will only go up over time. Restore now, hold for 20 years and sell in future at a premium, not unlike the stock market or real estate, what matters is time in market.

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Looks like his Grand son is the blogger behind the blog here. https://dattosankureiji.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/the-one-year-anniversary-post/ It looks like he was a successful rally driver, will need to read more into this.

A while ago I heard that HS30 00021 was in South Africa and was a blue colour. The magazine article has a lot of errors but does say the chassis no. is 21. But I think we can conclude it is an HS30 given it's a early 240z and RHD. I have many quite a few early S30z's (HS30s) were dealer demo cars scattered around RH drive regions. #16 was from Norfolk Island and #11 was from Paupau New Guinea and both by chance eventually made their way to Australia. Unfortunately neither of them managed to retain their L24. I've found HS30s with Blue interiors but they were always white. Some had red interiors but they were white or silver cars, this is the first surviving example HS30 that I've seen with Blue/Blue combo. But I have no idea if anymore were configured like this. Since 1998 when I first started looking at these cars in Australia I've never seen such a combination. Which means it's either 1 of 1 or a very rare combination indeed. 903 Blue HS30s are thin on the ground in general and seem to account for around 3% of cars I've counted so far. My guess is that as Alan stated someone in South Africa had a good working relationship with Nissan Japan and was able to make a special order request. That's the suspicion anyway.

Kats is that an original Dealer Sales brochure for a North America 240z? I'd love to find a copy.

No it didn't, I was really just guessing as to it's use. I thought it may have been an older method of fuel return line, but I see that's still there on this early prototype. So I can only guess maybe it was an attempt to run cooler fuel through the carb bodies before returning to the tank? I know the Mikuni's have this ability, but few actually utilise it.

Hey Kats, I figure this might be of interest to you. It looks like HS30 00021 in South Africa and it appears to be the first HS30 I've seen in 903 Blue with a Blue interior like your HLS30! https://photos.app.goo.gl/wjZaemBmiz73ygIm1 I was excited to see it because up until this point I have only seen 904 white / blue cars in Australia and I only know of about 6 or 7 such cars.

Perhaps it's a fuel line to run cool fuel through the intake to help lower intake temps? Like the cooling bodies on Mikuni / Solex carbs?

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My experience with Yahoo! Japan sellers is that they rarely answer questions. I have someone who can translate for me, but we rarely get a reply. So I often buy items based on photos and poor Google Translate descriptions. Still I find most items arrive as I expected and I find sellers quite good in general.

Everyone I spoke to basically said they were too far gone. Being made of magnesium there isn't a whole lot you can do to make them viable again. Better off as a garden hose reel. ? Also the person selling them had an unrealistic price expectation considering their condition. Might even still have them.

By the way some time ago I found these in NZ. As you can see they look in very poor shape now. https://goo.gl/photos/aQrBgmbt9P5P9d8P9 I believe they were fitted to HS30 00920 when sold new in NZ. https://photos.app.goo.gl/rKcoZRxRSrwK2B9G3 Must have been a NZ Datsun dealer that managed to swing those optional wheels their way on import. It's the only NZ new car I've seen with them.

Hey Kats, Did you see these? https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u200514512 380,000 yen or so.. They were in rough shape and Alan believes they may have been made by Rose Auto many years ago? I bid on this 1, up to around $320 USD before I pulled the plug. I just wasn't sure it was a the real deal, since it didn't have the yellow/red sweep hand (for redline). https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f270209928 I found this site here: http://acqua-garage.com/NISSAN/Meter/index.html But I'm not sure if they are offering to recreate these gauges or not? (maybe you sent me this link already?)

Thanks Alan, it was the only information I could find on that registration. I was wondering what the "vinyl" roof was all about.

Hey Kats, That wheel pic reminds me of this (what I assume is a "works rally 240z" with the Kobe Seiko Magnesium alloys and white wall tyre). I found this photo on an eBay listing. Never seen it before. I quite like the look.. Driver: Mehta Shekar Rally: Tour of Dean 09/01/1972 Co-Driver: Holmes Martin V W REG: TKS 33 SA4541 Start: 26 Sponsor / Entrant: Withers Castrol Based on this: http://www.thedeanrallies.info/images/stories/M_-_R.pdf

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You can say that again, I have the Zedd Findings piece and it wasn't worth the money spent to buy it in my opinion. Requires too much work to be considered a replacement panel, better off making it if you have to do so much work to wheel it up and shape it right. The metal is too thick compared to OEM and the stampings are different (exhaust cut out is quite different to OEM). Not many would notice I admit, but I am a little disappointed with it to be honest.

What a lovely example, I just love survivors like these you can just see, feel, smell the hsitory of then when you open the door and hop in. It looks like a Fairlady Z-S with 4 speed box, no Rally Clock, Hitachi radio (without power antenna) and auto-seek tuning feature. I haven't seen many Japanese market cars in 919 yellow, in fact is very rare on HS30's sent to Australia also.