Mike B

They look like Panasports, but its hard to tell from the tiny picture you posted.

Don't forget this other line from the same article "... as the saying goes, success has many fathers and failure is an orphan." -Mike

Here is another online article I came across that was originally published in the Aug/Sept 1997 issue of Sports Car International magazine http://www.theautochannel.com/publications/magazines/sci/aug-sept-97/waywewere.frame. It discusses the 1996 Nissan USA 240Z restoration program. As with most Z related articles, there are some inaccuracies about who gets credit for the design, and the early history, such as removing Fairlady badging on the docks, etc, but I still found the part about the restoration program interesting, so hopefully some others will too. -Mike

I found this online article titled "Z Beginning: Datsun 240Z Racing" http://www.theautochannel.com/publications/magazines/sci/aug-sept-97/datsun.frame. It was published in the Aug/Sept 1997 issue of Sports Car International magazine and documents the roundtable discussion that took place in 1996 the morning after Nissan USA's celebration of the Z (which was being discontinued in the US). Participants included Mr. K, Peter Brock, Bob Sharp, Trevor Harris, John Knepp and John Morton from the BRE race team, Bob Thomas who handled Datsun public relations at the time, and Les Cannaday (CDM). I thought it gave some interesting insight into the early days of racing Datsuns in the US, as told by some of the key players, even though I have heard a lot of it before and some may question the context of some of the comments. I especially found the remarks about the competition with Porsche interesting, given some of the recent comments in the "poor man's Porsche" thread. -Mike

Looks like someone did the buy-it-now on this car for $7,900 this morning. -Mike

Yes, I am aware of Paul Newman's connection with Datsun and Bob Sharp, but I'm not sure what that has to do with the original post. He made it sound like his 240Z had been used in racing and driven by Bob Sharp. -Mike

So what is the race history and Paul Newman connection you mentioned? -Mike

Looks like Biker Trash gave up on bringing this one back to life. Its on ebay now with no reserve and a current bid of $510.01 with 6 days left (probably just listed today) http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-Z-Series-GT-33-1976-Bob-Sharp-Racing-Datsun-280Z-GT-33-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem3f06e92d3fQQitemZ270698884415QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks. -Mike

Here is a photo of what looks to be some series 1 240Zs being inspected at the port of LA by DAS. It is from the book "NISSAN DATSUN A History OF Nissan Motor Corporation In U.S.A. 1960-1980" by John Rae. Its the only photo of early Z's at the dock I have seen, but I don't know that it is the "first boatload". -Mike

I imagine the full restoration by CDM helps justify the price too. -Mike

Video from the 1973 runoffs and other vintage footage with Bob Sharp and Paul Newman .-Mike

This is isn't really a Datsun jacket, but it's Datsun related. Its from the 1971 ARRC. There was a guy wearing one around the Mitty last year that had patches on it from every year he had been there and it didn't look like he had missed any. -Mike

Here is the earlier US Dealer jacket (as modeled by on ebay). These were also sold through Interpart/BRE and the old Interpart catalog says these were designed by Peter Brock. Not sure if that is accurate or not. -Mike

Here's the Australian Datsun Rally jacket I bought from WingZr0. -Mike

Here's a European rally team jacket from the early 1980's I believe. -Mike

Here's one from a Canadian Datsun dealer - Brasso. They had dealerships in Calgary and Vancouver I believe. In fact, the S30 pre-production test crew stopped by the Calgary location during their northern cold weather test trip in 1969. -Mike

There have been other threads with posts about Datsun jackets, but I thought I would start one solely decided to the subject. I have several vintage jackets. Here's one that I got on ebay recently (for less than $18). It says it belonged to someone that was part of the Datsun pace car crew for the 1974 Ontario 500, which I believe is actually the California 500 race held at Ontario Motor Speedway. Other than the embroidery on the front and the patches on the sleeve, it appears to be the same jacket that was given away or sold by dealers in the US. It still has the red quilted liner that many of the jackets are missing. -Mike

I bought one of each, but I ended up installing the vinyl one on that car. -Mike

I agree with Ron and Arne. Bryan did a great job making these before any other repros were available and I still think his are as good, if not better, than any of them. That reminds me, I'll probably need to order another one or two since my white car will be done with paint soon. Here's a picture of one installed in my blue car. -Mike

From the interior pictures, it definitely looks like a series 2 (late 1971 model) and not a series 3 (1972 model). You didn't include a picture of the door sill VIN tag. Is that where you got the build date of 12/71? If so, I would agree with Carl that is about 6 months too late for a HLS30-035147 VIN. It looks like it could be a 10K mile car to me. Its hard to tell how good the repairs were just from the pictures. If I were interested in it I would definitely get it checked out by a good shop. You may need to remove the outer fender too to see what the repair looks like underneath. -Mike

No, I wouldn't. Congratulations. Not all of us have two weeks to devote to driving that far and back. Yes, I have done that the past two years. The comments were related to HOSTING the convention however. No one said anything about east vs west coast bias. Arne and I both acknowledged the problem is getting a club on the west coast to host. -Mike

Not for me. -Mike

Yep, that is the problem Arne. Maybe California will host one again some day, but none of the clubs in OR, WA or Vancouver BC appear to be interested. -Mike

Steve, I would have sworn that 904 white always had black interiors as an option, with blue interiors also available on the 1970 and 1971 and red available on the 1972 and 1973 model years. Here is a page from TS71-47, which introduced the 1972 model year. Notice that it only lists one color interior for each exterior color, but it has asterisks for the new colors, so maybe they are just listing the new color combinations for those new colors? The zhome site lists the following references for the information listed: Documentation Of Exterior and Interior Colors Note 1: Factory Service Bulletin, May 1970 Vol. 125 - "Introduction of Datsun 240Z Sports Model S30 Series". Note 2: Factory Service Bulletin, February 1971, Vol. 137 -"Introduction Of Datsun 240Z Sports Model S30 Series (1971 Late Models) Note 3: Factory Service Bulletin, Volume 171 -"Introduction Of Datsun 240Z Model S30 Series (1973 Models) Volume 171 states the following: Please note: The Foreword states that " This Service Bulletin has incorporated only the descriptions and specifications for the modification parts and newly designed mechanism and others, but has not introduced the items continued from the present model vehicle." There is no source listed for the 1972 model year information and the "Note 3" regarding the 1973 information says it "has not introduced the items continued from the present model vehicle." I wonder if that is the same for the 1972 model introduction? -Mike

I remember that car from when it was listed on zcars.com before you bought it. Like you said the original pics didn't show a lot of detail about the condition of the car. I think the salvage title also scared some people away when it was listed by the original owner and will probably affect the value some now. $7k to $10k is probably reasonable depending on how well the repairs were done. Wasn't it originally listed by the original owner for something like $5k to $7K? -Mike