Ross Dunkerton and Datsun in Australia

[lampy]

I queried my Dad about Tripletts Zed. Dad used to race speedway at Bunbury in those days and knew him well.

 

He said he was sure the Zed was a showroom car from japan that had never seen the road.

 

He is going to do some more investigating

[CBR Jeff]

The current Dunkeron drive

Edited June 19, 2016 by CBR Jeff

[24 Dat]

Here's some shots out of my 1970 Series 1 240Z #183, of the pedals, the front strut set up (out of one of Ross Dunkerton's rally cars)  with Mk63 calipers and the modified gear stick,

 

I never knew the gear stick had been so modified so much until i had to replace the neoprene washers linking the gear stick to the gear box after the ZCCQ Xmas in July Run

 

I am seeing Alan Sean in the coming weeks so i will ask him about all the bits to see if he knows which of Ross's cars they came out of. and what early trip computer he would have used with the pickup on the front strut (which has been obviously silicone up)

Edited August 23, 2016 by 24 Dat

[CBR Jeff]

Here's some shots out of my 1970 Series 1 240Z #183, of the pedals, the front strut set up (out of one of Ross Dunkerton's rally cars)  with Mk63 calipers and the modified gear stick,

 

I never knew the gear stick had been so modified so much until i had to replace the neoprene washers linking the gear stick to the gear box after the ZCCQ Xmas in July Run

 

I am seeing Alan Sean in the coming weeks so i will ask him about all the bits to see if he knows which of Ross's cars they came out of. and what early trip computer he would have used with the pickup on the front strut (which has been obviously silicone up)

They are very special and rare struts you have there. The trip meter would have been a Halda probably a Twin Master. The Halda was driven from a speedo cable. In the cast of your struts from the front wheel thus eliminating wheel spin and giving greater accuracy. The front wheel drive was only avalable from works or factory optioned struts during the 70's. That all changed in the early 80's with the advent of the Terrattrip trip meters.

 

Jeff

[CBR Jeff]

I remembered seeing these struts previously a quick google and these are what you have

http://zhome.com/BRETotal/FrntSusp/FrontSuspension.htm

And this is what would have been connected to them

 

 

[24 Dat]

I remembered seeing these struts previously a quick google and these are what you have

http://zhome.com/BRETotal/FrntSusp/FrontSuspension.htm

And this is what would have been connected to them

Halda.jpg

 

Thanks for the info Jeff, much appreciated 

 

The link shows them in all there glory, i guess its time to freshen up the paint and make sure they last, unfortunately the identification stickers are long gone, 

 

I'll ask Alan Stean when i see him to see if he can remember which type of Halda they were connected to.

 

Also I definitely don't have the modified transmission and front diff mount but i will have a closer look at the front cross member as the one in the photo looks different to a standard Z

 

Cheers

Dave

[gav240z]

I've never seen that sticker, but on Sports Option coilovers I've seen this sticker.

 

http://jdm-car-parts.com/collections/emblem-decal-sticker-nissan-datsun-fairlady-z-240z-260z-280z-280zx/products/datsun-nissan-competition-parts-for-race-only-decal-1

 

 

More reproduction stickers here.

http://jdm-car-parts.com/collections/emblem-decal-sticker-nissan-datsun-fairlady-z-240z-260z-280z-280zx

[24 Dat]

 

http://jdm-car-parts.com/collections/emblem-decal-sticker-nissan-datsun-fairlady-z-240z-260z-280z-280zx/products/datsun-nissan-competition-parts-for-race-only-decal-1

 

Wow love the photo on the link , someone did, really, actually, turn a 2+2 into a station wagon     i reckon that car would be worth a few $$$ 

[gav240z]

Wow love the photo on the link , someone did, really, actually, turn a 2+2 into a station wagon     i reckon that car would be worth a few $$$

Don't want to derail this topic, but we briefly talked about it here.

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/14746-sport-wagon/

[24 Dat]

Don't want to derail this topic, but we briefly talked about it here.

 

me either thanks for the link 

[HS30-H]

The link shows them in all there glory, i guess its time to freshen up the paint and make sure they last, unfortunately the identification stickers are long gone, 

 

 

Also I definitely don't have the modified transmission and front diff mount but i will have a closer look at the front cross member as the one in the photo looks different to a standard Z

 

 

The BRE car has a few Nissan 'Sports Option' parts on it, but it was mostly built out of parts fabricated by the BRE team for the specific type of event they were aiming at and its not really anything like a Nissan Works rally car of the same period. I would advise against using it as any kind of reference for proper Works parts and proper Works practices.

[HS30-H]

24Dat,

Great photos. Thank you.

About your ex-Works front struts: I reckon they have been modified and adapted, certainly by welding on a stock lower spring perch onto the original, and possibly (I'm guessing) to move the - usually short, your seem quite long! - threaded sleeve for the lower spring down somewhat, and hence lowering the ride height? The two parts of your original(?) Works type adjustable spring perch (the original spring perch and the locking ring) appear to be the same size, which I've not seen on Works struts before. The springs appear to be non-Works type too?

 

 

Compare the above with this image of a typical Works adjustable lower perch strut. Notice that the bottom of the spring itself is flat and it simply sits on the (aluminium) notched adjuster. Notice too the simple and relatively neat welding of the (steel) threaded sleeve to the strut tube:

 

 

Normally the Works struts had a bracket welded to the hub forging, which held a tab and band designed to brace the Halda drive outer. You can see the arrangement in this (early) fixed-platform Works strut. Note too the red Dymo labels, which most Works struts of that period had and identified their part number, batch and manufacturer (Tokico in this case, but Atsugi and Ampco were also used):

 

Hope the above is of some interest.

Cheers,

Alan T.

 

[24 Dat]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for posting the photos and the info, The springs are King Springs manufactured here in Australia, i do however remember the dymo labelling (cant remember what colour) on the inside of the strut which eventually feel off as i use to use the car a lot. Next time i have the car out of storage i will clean both struts up and i will take far more detailed photos.

 

I have let a message for Alan Stean to call me when he can so he might be able to shed some light on them,

 

Cheers

Dave

[gav240z]

That's exactly the hand fabricated type of thing I've seen on Nissan works race and rally cars of the period, with the guard around the side of the pedal pad (to help stop the foot getting stuck underneath) and the pad section hand grooved and dot-punched. Love it. I've replicated the style on my 432-R replica project car.

 

The hand-painted/marked part number matches the style that of many Works spare parts that I've seen.

How about this "chalk" mark on the inside of the rim? I can't make out what it says and it seems to rub off with my fingers so maybe added much later?

 

[HS30-H]

How about this "chalk" mark on the inside of the rim? I can't make out what it says and it seems to rub off with my fingers so maybe added much later?

 

Quite common for teams and/or tyre fitters to mark wheels in this way, often to keep them specific to a certain car and/or keep track of what they have been used for.

 

Can you make out what it says?

[gav240z]

I will try again tomorrow, it's actually more legible in the photo than it was in person. Perhaps from a distance it's easier to make it out? First time I've seen the wheels in person. My brother took the last photos for me.

[gav240z]

Another photo of Dunkerton's car. I believe it was 1974 ARC QUEENSLAND 'BROOKSIDE WARANA RALLY'.

[CBR Jeff]

Gav nice bit of nostalgia. Im not sure this photo is from the QLD RAC of 1974. The door plate is not correct and the light bar on the car is not like either of the photos of the Z cars from the rally? Car 1 is Dunko and car 6 is the McLeod car. The photos could also be from 1975?

 

Jeff

 

Edited December 30, 2017 by CBR Jeff

[gav240z]

Lofty Drews Works Rally 240z is in NZ?

http://www.drivesouth.co.nz/blog/driver-car-reunited-decades-on

 

My emphasis in bold below.
 

 

By David Thomson on Sat, 21 Apr 2018

The Drivesouth Otago Rally Fest has been and gone for another year, attracting a big contingent of visitors from throughout New Zealand and overseas, as well as a large number of local fans.

 

As usual, the event delivered high-speed thrills and spills aplenty, with Hayden Paddon's dominance of the national championship component of the event and Regan Ross's well-deserved classic rally triumph the obvious headline-grabbers.

 

Away from the high-speed action, one of the joys of Otago Rally is the scope it provides for unexpected motorsport reunions.

 

Such was the case when visiting Kenyan rally co-driver Lofty Drews was reunited with a Datsun 240Z rally car he had last seen, and competed in, close to half a century ago.

 

Drews, who now lives in Australia, gained international prominence for his co-driving prowess on the gruelling East African Safari Rally.

 

As a specialist co-driver for that uniquely challenging event, he managed no fewer than eight top-three finishes in the 1970s and 1980s, including a memorable victory for Datsun with fellow East African Shekhar Mehta in 1973.

 

Rallying assignments outside of Africa were rare for Drews, but in 1971 he and Mehta were dispatched to Britain to contest that country's premier event, the RAC Rally, for Datsun.

 

Attracting an estimated three million spectators, the 1971 RAC was a huge event that threw the worst of winter conditions at competitors. Little wonder, then, that the top eight finishers were drivers from Scandinavia, and that Drews could regard simply finishing (in 19th place) as a reasonable achievement.

 

Memories of that achievement came flooding back for Drews on the eve of the Otago Rally, when he paid a visit to the Autocourt car yard in South Dunedin.

 

Autocourt's Nelson Cottle is a collector of old Datsun and Nissan rally cars, and was keen to show Drews an old Datsun 240Z he knew was similar to the one Drews competed in during the early 1970s.

 

What Cottle did not know was that his car was, in fact, the very same car Mehta and Drews had used to contest that 1971 RAC Rally.

 

That fact was established by the car's temporary-export Japanese registration plate, the numbers and letters of which were well- remembered by the man who spent close to a week in the car all those years ago.

 

Among other memories from that British Rally adventure, the challenge of competing in snow for the first (and only) time stood out for Drews. Most vividly, the now 78-year-old remembered sliding off the road in the snow, and being pushed back on by spectators he described as ‘‘speaking in a strange foreign language''.

 

I can only presume they were Welsh, or perhaps Scottish, spectators.

 

Cottle has owned this particular 240Z for 12 years, but work and family life have been such that the car has sat largely untouched ever since.

 

Having learnt of the car's history, he is now planning to restore it to the livery it wore when used by Mehta and Drews on that 1971 British rallying adventure.

 

That's my sign-off story, both for this weekend's edition of Drivesouth, and the next couple as well. I'm taking a short break from writing, and will leave you in the capable hands of Cat Pattison and Richard Bosselman until mid-May.

 

David Thomson

 

Editor

 

Drivesouth

 

It looks like Autocourt's website is here:

http://autocourt.net.nz/contact.aspx

 

I wonder has anyone seen this car and know what registration it is?

 

*Edit found this link with a photo of the car and Lofty Drews. (photo attached here) - Having a hard time copying text.

https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/otago-daily-times/20180421/282621738313549

 

I'm guessing it's a different car to the 1 located in Zama - Nissan's Heritage Collection?

http://www.themotorhood.com/themotorhood/2016/1/15/inside-zama-nissans-not-so-secert-vault

 

 

[HS30-H]

It looks like Autocourt's website is here:

http://autocourt.net.nz/contact.aspx

 

I wonder has anyone seen this car and know what registration it is?

 

*Edit found this link with a photo of the car and Lofty Drews. (photo attached here) - Having a hard time copying text.

https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/otago-daily-times/20180421/282621738313549

 

Gavin,

"It's like Deja Vu all over again...."

 

The story can be taken completely apart and shown for what it is in just a few lines. Complete fantasy.

 

The car concerned - running on UK registration 'PTD 524K' - is one of the 'Arthur Carter Collection' cars that were auctioned off at the Bonham's Goodwood Festival of Speed sale back in 2005. I attended the sale and had a very good look over the cars, but already knew a fair bit about them beforehand. Essentially what was being sold was what started out as three standard road cars with a selection of leftover ex-Works parts attached to them. No genuine ex-Works cars or bodyshells, but parts and paper identities of long extinct ex-Works cars hung on other cars. 

 

The car wearing the UK registration 'PTD 524K' (the UK number issued to Works 240Z 'TKS 33 SA 696' when it stayed on in the UK after its carnet number expired) is actually a Japanese market Fairlady Z-L, manufactured in mid 1970, chassis number 'S30-02552', which was originally brought to the UK by a USAF serviceman on an exchange program with the RAF. When I saw it at the Bonhams sale the firewall-engraved chassis number was still intact and unmessed-with, but the engine bay tag had been - laughably - overstamped with the original chassis number of 'TKS 33 SA 696', but leaving the 'S30' chassis type and 'L20' engine type sections of the tag unaltered.

 

There was a surrounding story about the engine bay tag which I won't bother going into here (mainly because it's embarrassingly misinformed) but suffice to say that the big irony is that the original car had an Export type Datsun 'HS30' prefixed engine bay tag, in English. Overstamping the original Japanese tag for the car is pure bathos.

 

Couple of photos from the Bonhams sale:

 

 

I don't want to break a butterfly on a wheel here, but FFS come on. It's like having a photocopy of the Mona Lisa and telling people it's THE ONE.

[260DET]

Be interesting to get Lofty Drews take on this, particularly the car he identified as the one he had competed in by it's Japanese plate. He lives less than an hour away from me but I can't see the point, sounds like he was used to validate something that wasn't. 

[HS30-H]

Be interesting to get Lofty Drews take on this, particularly the car he identified as the one he had competed in by it's Japanese plate. He lives less than an hour away from me but I can't see the point, sounds like he was used to validate something that wasn't. 

 

(my bold)

Just more blarney from the writer of the piece, who wouldn't know what he was looking at anyway.

 

When the car(s) were at previous long-term owner Mr Arthur Carter's farm, various fabbed-up plates were attached to them at various times. None of them were the original Japanese temporary export 'carnet' plates that the cars were issued with. It seems fitting that a re-assembled rag tag of parts should have a hand-painted 'representation' of the original plate attached to it...

 

 

Putting someone like Lofty Drews on the spot about a car like this is unfair. I don't know what he was told about the car he looked at, but I can only imagine it would have been difficult for him to come to an accurate view without a little bit more background info.  

[HS30-H]

Here's a photo of the above hand-painted 'representation' of the original Japanese carnet plate attached to one of the other two cars that were sold by Bonhams at the 2005 Goodwood sale, to illustrate just how mixed-up the parts and stories became whilst in Mr Arthur Carter's hands:

 

 

The above car was (is!) actually 'LAL 909K', the ex-Samuri Conversions race car, originally built up from a standard UK market HS30 prefixed 240Z in period and (somewhat amazingly) raced in several UK rounds of the World Sports Car Championship. It was fabbed-up as an evocation of a works rally car later in its life, and it's time in the Arthur Carter Collection - pretending to be something other than it was - arguably saved it. The car is now in the hands of a sympathetic owner who intends to restore it to its Samuri Conversions-era race spec.    

[HS30-H]

If any of the above is hard to understand or unclear (probably because I haven't explained properly...) then please feel free to ask for clarification.

[HS30-H]

A slightly more accurate (honest?) description of the car here: https://rallysportmag.com/feature-legends-reunion-with-classic-datsun-240z-rally-car180518/

 

Although....

 

"The car was reshelled after Roy Fidler rolled it on the 1972 Scottish Rally, but other than that, it still retains many of the works parts."

 

No it wasn't.

 

“When I purchased the car I received the original UK registration papers, log book and FIA papers,” he adds.

 

The original UK registration papers for what though? What we are looking at is what started life as a standard 1970 S30 Fairlady Z-L road car, and which has had a bunch of ex-Works rally car parts bolted onto it. The chassis number of the bodyshell - last time I saw it - told the story.