HS30-H

*Official* (according to the Factory literature) cut-off from FRP to steel was June 1972. It was a switch from E4100 (FRP) suffixed part number to N3000 (Steel) suffixed part number. In reality, there were quite a number of cars which left the production line with one FRP type and one Steel before that. I've been told that the main problem - and the reason the 'Sugar Scoop' headlamp housings were initially made from FRP in the first place - was that Nissan had problems in perfecting the press tooling that would enable them to knock out thousands of steel housings reliably. Their complex shape and the sharp details that were part of that design required some delicate tooling shapes which were too easily damaged when they tried to ramp up production. Repairs, re-design and - eventually - subtle changes to the shape (less sharp detail) finally allowed them to go into full production with the steel versions. It took a while, evidently...

So has the used Japanese car market.

Weber 45DCOEs replacing the stock Mikuni-Solex N40PHHs will certainly release more performance even on a stock S20. The N40PHHs are one of the (effectively) de-tuning measures for the stock S20. Factory tuning manual recommended 44PHH or 45DCOE (9s) for sports-oriented bolt-on upgrade.

Thanks for adding a link here Gav. Some people might wonder quite why I'm so 'exercised' regarding the concept, design, engineering and production of these cars, and perhaps why I seem so frustrated and forceful on the topic. The backstory is that - since I first became interested in these cars - I have always seen and read all that "Made For The USA" and "An American Car, Made In Japan" type narrative from the so-called Z gurus and historians. It just never made any sense to me - and from talking to some of the people involved in Japan I knew it wasn't accurate - but there's still not a week that goes by when I don't hear the echoes of that narrative in one way or another. Yes, of course the massive potential market in North America - the USA and the West Coast in particular - was a KEY part of the planning for the Z, but it was not the whole story. Some of the USA-based Z 'gurus' have tried for many years to tell us that the USA market HLS30U 'Datsun 240Z' was the sole driver in concept, design and engineering, and that other markets and other variants were an afterthought. That is - quite simply - a lie. The documents that my friend Kats Endo obtained from Hitoshi Uemura (chief engineer on the 'Maru Z' project) illustrate the fact that Nissan saw the new S30-series Z as a 'family' of models for domestic and export sales, that all of them were designed at the same time and that all of the different variants influenced each other. Anybody who knows the cars well enough should be able to see that already, but all that "Made For The USA" marketing talk got into the press from the very beginning and is now pretty much set in stone. Journalists repeat it in almost every new article. Nissan took the Australian market seriously. They took the NZ market seriously too. These markets were not as easy for them as the USA market was, but they mattered. An Australian/NZ market variant of the Z was part of the plan from the beginning. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Production date is cast into each individual block, semi encoded. Look on the inlet side, down near the skirt, after the (in L28 case) N42 or F54 block code. You'll see a long number and (usually) at least one letter. First number is the year (EG: '2' = 1972) and then the month. Format for double digit months is a letter. For example, I have a 'P30' L24 block with the code '1Y22A' cast into it. The '1' is 1971, the 'Y' is November (1 through 9 is Jan. through Sept. and X, Y & Z are Oct. through Dec.). The next two digits are the day of the month (22nd), and finally a casting batch code letter. They dated the castings as part of the QC process so that they could trace faulty batches should that be necessary. Machining was - obviously - the next stage.

https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/new-vid-on-zg-number27.29022/

Sean Dezart (as ever, on the ball... ) is simply repeating somebody else's ballpark guess as though it is gospel. Price is 'POA' and I think it will be much more than that.

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Thanks for that. I'm looking forward to seeing your panels filter out to end users, although I'm already feeling your pain with regard to handling them in bulk: They stack nicely when they are just a freshly stamped blank hot off the press, but they start getting 'lumpy' when you weld all the stuff on the back...

Thank you and I appreciate the photos (lovely to see a tall stack of freshly-pressed pieces) but, as mentioned elsewhere, I am curious about what details are included, how accurate they are (trim and garnish fixing points etc) and - for example - things like the drilled/punched holes where the panel would be attached to the body of the car (are they intended for plug welding rather than spotwelding?). Have you made jigs for the attachment of the bracketry/captive nuts, tabs etc? Have you also manufactured spring clips for the tail light garnish? Maybe I'm all too easily confused, but those are the kinds of things that I'm a little nonplussed about. See what I mean? Thanks for your responses.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, the photos/images above appear - for all the world - to depict a genuine, original factory panel. Especially so for the last photo of the rear end of a car. I note the holes where factory spotwelds would attach the panel to a bodyshell too. These are quite complicated pieces to reproduce, with one very large pressing and several smaller pressings spotwelded to it. There are also numerous captive nuts, fastener brackets, wire harness tabs, interior trim brackets and the ever-elusive tail light garnish spring clips attached to it. All the images I've seen from Resurrected Classics appear to show this same single item. Call me a cynical old Hector, but I'd like to see a few more detailed photos of the actual product and a better description. I'm struggling to believe that the bulk production will match the factory part in its complex detail, but also wondering if - for example - it comes in a chromated finish, weld-through primer finish or just bare metal. If I had gone to the trouble of producing something like this I wouldn't be shy about showing the fine details or helping people to understand the tooling-up costs behind it all.

It's just another example of how the historical narrative around these Japanese cars is totally dominated - to their detriment - by the 'An American Car, Made In Japan'/'Made For The USA' babble. It's got to the stage now where even Nissan Japan's own press office are swallowing and regurgitating misinformed and skewed American opinion. Nissan took the Australian and NZ markets just as seriously as the North American market, and the S30-series Zs were a part of that. Australian & NZ models have a significant place in the S30-series' history and deserve to be properly recognised.

Exactly. They are selling a 'project' where the customer pays in stages for a restoration where they get to call some of the spec details to their choice. Like a kind of 'bespoke' build.

Forgot to say, they look great. Lovely refurb job.

Ah OK, got it now. I've seen the Zama car in person. It has the 'ordinary' Datsun Bucket seats, without the rarer 'wings' seen on yours. I'm told the 'winged' version dated from around 1975/6, and because the Works drivers were always complaining about lack of shoulder support as the cars got faster. In fact, they complained about seats full-stop. I think this only improved in the 1980s when NISMO started making much better sports and race-dedicated seats, but rules started specifying safety tested and fire-resistant race seats by that time anyway and they were using German brands such as Konig and Recaro. How those guys drove a whole East African Safari Rally in '70, '71 and '73 sitting on the Ikeda Bussan seats (and won!) I'll never know. Mehta was about the right size but Herrmann and Schuller were big guys from German stock. Can't have been comfy.

Couldn't see the 'wings' in your first photo. Very nice! Have they been refurbished? Condition looks amazingly good for their age.

That's the very rare variant (a few of Works-built Nissan Racing School cars only) with the shoulder 'wings'. Not sold to the general public.

Here's a period original:

I Japan they've always been known as the 'Datsun Bucket' seats. They made them for a long time (pretty much late Sixties through to early Eighties, and then a re-pop in leather for the NISMO 10th Anniversary) so there's a lot of subtle variation in details, especially noticeable in vinyl textures and head rest shape. They were also know in Japan by their Sports Option part number suffix 'U0175'.

Some of my Japanese friends have been talking about the work going on here, and scratching their heads in wonder. They appear to be in their own little bubble, and are not even using panels and repair sections that are currently available in Japan, let alone elsewhere. In an early episode they used some Tabco parts which were all over the place, so maybe that put them off...?

Yes. It was originally built around the middle of 1973 as an 'HLS30' prefixed LHD 240Z works rally car in a small batch which included two that were 'new' for the 1973 RAC Rally (one of which still exists). It was a brand new car when Fall & Halloran used it for the '73 Southern Cross in October. I should imagine it was given the '260Z' style rear lights and trims to make it look more current (this happened elsewhere too) and then a while later it got, er, slightly crumpled...

Just the tail lamps and trims at that stage, I believe? Next stage - due to damage obvious in the photo - was a "re-shell"* *No such thing as a "re-shell" on these cars of course.

It says 'Austo' ('Oh Su Toh' = Australia) and what looks like 'vol' on the end. Australian wavebands version? Automatic Australian Vol Control? (goes up to 11 when The Easybeats and The Hoodoo Gurus come on, but back to 0 for Kylie & Jason?).

First person seen in the video is my good friend Mr Hideki Matsui of NP35, who refurbed my KPGC10. He's ex Nissan Prince Tokyo Sports Corner, ex-NISMO, now independent but still closely linked to NISMO. He is local to Mount Asama, and this event is almost in his back yard. It's good that Nissan and NISMO still use this car occasionally, but in order to do so - and partly for public liability reasons - they had to make some changes to the car. It's a shame, but I guess inevitable. I preferred it as-was, but there you go...

At this point I think it best to refer you to the book I was talking about. Chief Engineer Hitoshi Uemura tells us how the '270KK'/'Maru Z'/S30-series Z project was conceived, planned and put into action. From the very beginning both domestic and export, RHD and LHD versions were part of the plan. Why do some people want to resist this as being fact? Yes they targeted the USA for profitable volume sales, but that fact does NOT trump all other concerns.