Jump to content

Early Girl Bingo - With Photos


gav240z

Recommended Posts

  • Administrators

Hi All,

 

One more for the list. I am in Adelaide South Australia and have HS30-00134 with original engine. Currently ondergoing rotisserie restoration. Cheers Jeff.

 

Awesome added to the list, I'm surprised how many are still around actually. This is good.

 

I hadn't gone past the 200 chassis range yet as I was trying to account for those first but I guess I'll have to update with all the others up to 500 soon. This thread won't be the best long term solution but it's a starting point.

 

What's interesting is how popular this thread has become...

 

Not many topics out-perform the classifieds section of the site, this is just the last few days mind you..

 

47876_61b393163da4cc50503961aa36e5338b4438f015.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so whats its story? now found?

 

Yep found!!! with matching number engine in a shed and will be fully restored, when and as $$$ allow, owner is not auszcar member and most likely wants to remain anon (so I'm not saying any more till i get the ok from him), so doubt of posts of rebuild, but i could be wrong.

 

A good solid car to start on, but a full resto will be needed and it will be a while

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a quick update that number 00046 is long gone . I lost it in 1989 to a semi- trailer.

But bits of it went on to other cars and the wheels it had at the time went to Alex's car which he seems to have been sold to matt211zed.

That is a special car you have there Matt as it has a lot of history with ZCCQ and was the car featured on the poster for the first Z car nationals held in Australia in 1990. If you don't have a poster I am sure ZCCQ will dig one up for you.I hope Alex is well and I should catch up with him.

Just some pics from the last time I saw the car at Lakeside in 2010.   

post-10860-14402380633_thumb.jpg

post-10860-144023806343_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From memory 211 is a very nice car that was well restored...I think?

 

Sounds like Alex M getting out of Zeus to feed his modern lotus passion????

 

 

No this one is a different car that is burgandy. He still has the orange one pictured above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alex still has his red zed that im sure he will never part with. I bought the burgundy one( came with a free 6ft snake). Car is currently at the panel beaters get rust removal and then resprayed to its orignal 907 green. He also had 73 zed sitting in the shed that my mate bought last weekend to restore it to its former glory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alex still has his red zed that im sure he will never part with. I bought the burgundy one( came with a free 6ft snake). Car is currently at the panel beaters get rust removal and then resprayed to its orignal 907 green. He also had 73 zed sitting in the shed that my mate bought last weekend to restore it to its former glory.

Ah

That makes sense????

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How late did the choke/hand throttles appear until? My car #707 (profile pic) has them but no vents

 

The changes in production weren't all made at at once, the hatch vents disappeared well before the console changed. As far as i know, the early type console with the choke/ hand throttle belongs to those vehicles with the 71a flange type transmission. If your car no longer has the 71a trans, youll probly find the hole in the trans tunnel for the gearstick has been hacked out as the stick is in a slightly different spot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators

Yep that's exactly why the North American nomenclature of 'series 1' and 'series 2' doesn't really make sense. I've even seen some of them refer to 71 models as series 1 and a 1/2 which is quite funny really.

 

The console didn't change right away as mentioned, I believe 71 models got them and it was 72 when the transition happened. The removal of the vents in the rear hatch obviously happened before that. But like the console I believe was a change with chassis number more so than a year cut off.

 

The consensus here seems to be that around the #500 - #600 range the rear vents in the hatch were removed. It would be interesting to see what the highest chassis number is that retains the early style console. Our market had the twin choke/hand throttle arrangement, but in North America the hand throttle seems to have been removed depending on state regulation.

 

So the dual hand-throttle / choke mechanism and bracket is quite rare and expensive now.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators

I came across this information again last night, it was written in 2004.

http://www.zshop.net.au/240tech.htm

 

Emphasis in bold is me...

 

PRODUCTION DATES:

There has been much confusion about the year in which the 240Z was first produced. Many people believe that the 240Z was introduced in 1970. However, this is not true. The official Datsun workshop manual explicitly states that the 240Z was first produced in October 1969, and gives the production number codes for that year. A copy of the relevant page may be viewed in full here.

240z_production_codes_sm.jpg

240z_production_codes.jpg

 

The reason for the confusion is simple. Approximately 500 right hand drive (pre production line) cars had been hand built as a limited promotional run. 427 RHD cars survived factory crash/destruction testing. Because of space shortages at Nissans factories the majority were put on a ship destined for Europe. A 240Z had been on display at Earls Court motor show in 1970 but it was overpriced and received poor press. Only 2 orders were taken. Australian design standards were the same as Europe and the public where influenced by American trends, so the ship was diverted here and the cars were held in storage until compliance & ADR requirements were passed. With no consideration for build numbers a hand full of cars had compliance plates fitted and were registered in Victoria in 1970. They were made available to the Press and Nissan dealers as demo's. The remaining cars where sold in 1971. The industry standard is to quote the compliance date as the year of manufacture therefore confusion reigns as to actual true manufacture dates. Cars where built and on the road in Japan from October 1969. In his book, 'Datsun Z super profile', James Morris states that the 240Z was unvieled at the Tokyo motor show in November 1969, having been announced on October 22nd.

 

DIFFERENCES IN EARLY and LATE PRODUCTION 240Zs

The first few thousand RHD 240Zs where fitted with the 42cc combustion chamber E31 head, as opposed to the 45cc combustion chamber E88 head. E31 head equipped engines had a tendency to detonate with poor fuel and tuning, so the lower compression E88 head was adopted. At the same time the ventilation grilles in the hatch where moved to the quarter panels, as it was thought that exhaust fumes where entering the cabin through them. Other differences in the first production run where: A lengthened Fairlady 2000 roadster type 5spd flange gearboxes with a two piece slip-yolk tailshaft. Differential positioned 2" forward of later mounting point. Center console had it's ash tray near the heater controls and incorporated a hand throttle. The steering wheel did not have holes in the spokes. The hub caps had a 'D' in the middle where the later ones had a 'Z' and where a different shape.

 

So a few things that caught my eye in there.

 

1. I agree the workshop manual is probably a much more accurate way to look at productions variations and dates of manufacture. I've seen these workshop manuals on Yahoo! Auctions but they are very expensive in some cases $700 +

 

2. I have heard the rumours of diverted ships before and this may explain why we got so many early chassis number cars in Australia of the HS30 prefix.

 

3. The 2 orders for cars in the UK could well have been the cars that Alan described earlier.

HS30 00034 (registered 'UAR 609J') - UK motoring press - Race Car (still in UK)

HS30 00035 (registered 'MBP 72J') - UK motoring press - Restored (still in UK)

 

4. I've read somewhere else information that suggests the earliest 240z's in the country were used by dealers as promotional vehicles and may not have been available immediately to the public. This is something I find very interesting about the early 240z's in this country, were they dealer demo cars only and therefore not always sold direct to public. The fact that HS30 00012 was a Papua New Guinea car seems to suggest it could have been a dealer demo car over there. As we know HS30 0004 was a journalist test mule...

 

5. The compliance plate saga is an interesting 1, since I know that HS30 00150 had 1 fitted and was probably first registered in Victoria as mentioned, although other early 240z's didn't always have this fitted. The date on the compliance plate is likely to be when the car arrived in the country and not month of manufacture. The month of manufacture on my compliance plate suggests late 1970, but that is probably when the car arrived, it's more likely it was produced in early 70 along with a bunch of other HS30 prefixed cars.

 

This is all how I interpret the information and what we see looking back now, I still wouldn't say any of the above is the absolute truth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is an interior shot (note console)of #888 which i own (full resto one day), was going to used as 1/4s, spares panels etc, she needs a lot of work but now with the prices increasing she will be saved. :)

post-3173-144023806367_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

some of them refer to 71 models as series 1 and a 1/2

That's a common American expression they use for their own cars, we get that with our Mustangs for example.

It can refer to a significant mid-production-year change in specifications that won't wait until the next year's models.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2. I have heard the rumours of diverted ships before and this may explain why we got so many early chassis number cars in Australia of the HS30 prefix.

 

3. The 2 orders for cars in the UK could well have been the cars that Alan described earlier.

HS30 00034 (registered 'UAR 609J') - UK motoring press - Race Car (still in UK)

HS30 00035 (registered 'MBP 72J') - UK motoring press - Restored (still in UK)

 

 

The guy who wrote all that might have meant well (and at least it's better than how zhome.com treats the 'HS30' prefixed cars) but he's a bit off in quite a lot of it.

 

The "500 cars" thing is - I believe - folklore that originates with American stories of the "first 500" cars made in 1969 (which in itself is wrong) and it doesn't make any sense when we look at production dates and chassis numbers for the 1969 and 1970 HS30-prefixed cars. Nissan Shatai didn't make 500 "promotional" cars. All the cars that were given fulls series chassis numbers and were sold to dealers as stock were effectively standard production cars that could be sold to the general public. The story is best ignored, as we know better now.   

 

If anyone knows anything about sea freight and cargo ships then they'll know that their sailing dates and routes are mostly scheduled months in advance. They don't tend to get diverted to completely different destinations and such diversions as they make are usually due to weather or convenience, with an eye on any impact to the rest of their work. The story of 400-odd HS30-prefixed Zs being "diverted" is tall enough, but you can't just "divert" a ship that is heading to Europe and send it to Australia! At what point was it "diverted"? And what happened to the rest of the freight on board? The story hasn't really been thought through. Yes, cars that had been allocated to the UK market were apparently "reassigned" to Australia and NZ (before being put on a boat), but events didn't play out as described.

 

The story about only getting two orders at the UK Motor Show is a dud. Two cars (the aforementioned HS30-00034 and HS30-00035) were shipped to the UK and at least one of them was shown by Datsun UK (the concessionaire at the time) at the 1970 Earl's Court Motor Show. There was positive reaction to the car, but Datsun UK could not accept any firm orders for the model because they didn't know when they would be getting any. A re-design of the front lighting was necessary for the car to fully meet new UK laws, and - as we know - the batches of cars originally allocated to the UK had been reallocated. It has to be said that Datsun UK's boss wasn't all that enthusiastic about selling sports cars either.

 

 

Lots of other mistakes in that piece too, so please don't take it as gospel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...