HLS30 00008 Hot Wheels to be released

[HS30-H]

HLS30 00013 is the lowest VIN Datsun 240Z released for sale to the public, that we know of at this time. That is supported by some Factory Documents as well.

Point of order: If we are talking 'Datsun 240Z' and concentrating purely on "lowest VIN released for sale to the public", then the RHD HS30-prefixed 'Datsun 240Z' export market variants would be in with a good shout to claim the low VIN bingo prize: HS30-00003, HS30-00004, HS30-00005, HS30-00006, HS30-00007, HS30-00008, HS30-00009, HS30-00010, HS30-00011, HS30-00012 and HS30-00013 were all - according to Nissan - sold to the general public.

I've seen the VIN tag ( and firewall-engraved chassis number ) of HS30-00013 hanging on the notice board of a friend's garage....

S30 and PS30-prefixed chassis numbers lower than 00013 were also sold to the general public in Japan.

S30-00002 was almost certainly a factory 'mule' of some sort, used for testing / experimentation / instruction, and never originally intended to be sold to the general public.

HLS30 00012 down to HLS30 00009 - are at this point MIA - so not accounted for. Rumor was that they went to Canada for extended cold weather testing...but who knows?

I can't help thinking that this Canadian "extended cold weather testing" thing was actually the 'Kaku-U' North American 'test' ( publicity tour ) itself, and not another trip based on it or an extension of the original trip. Is it not more likely that the two things are one and the same? It seems to make more sense to me.

First of all, it was a bit late in the day to be doing any real testing ( this would have been late 1969, and the start of production was already underway ) and Nissan had already been conducting extended cold weather tests up in Hokkaido, Japan. It's not like Japan is short of cold weather in the winter months....