HS30-H

Just in case I haven't explained why I go on so long and hard about zhome.com and all that "An American Car, Made in Japan" stuff: The first time I came into contact with that 'USA uber alles' type thinking was in the old pre-forum mailing list days. Carl Beck and his followers were under the misapprehension that the concept, design, engineering and productionisation of the "240" (other models didn't exist...) was ALL about the USA. How does this relate to 'our' HS30-prefixed cars? Well, Mr Beck and his friends were convinced that no HS30-prefixed cars had been made in 1969, and that - therefore - they were obviously some kind of afterthought. That line of thinking extended to the concept, design, engineering and productionisation of the "240Z" - the mistaken belief being that RHD "240Zs" didn't figure in any of that. Which is - of course - a complete and utter travesty, and could not be further from the truth. When the protoype, pre-production and 1969 total production figures were released by the ex-Nissan Shatai guys, the numbers seemed to be something of a surprise to the USA hardliners. That's what I've been trying to get across. It sometimes falls on deaf ears, but if it causes just one person in a hundred to re-examine what they've been told ("240Z designed for the USA", "L-series engine designed for the USA", "Yutaka Katayama conceived/designed the 240Z" etc etc ) I think it's worth it. Sorry if you don't agree.

First two HS30s officially imported into UK were 'HS30-00034' (registered 'UAR 609J') and 'HS30-00035' (registered 'MBP 72J' and much seen in the contemporary UK motoring press). Both cars still exist, '34' as a race car (which spent some time travelling in the Antipodes with its owner in the 2000s) and '35' as a restored showpiece. As you know, 'HS30-00024', 'HS30-00025', 'HS30-00026' and 'HS30-00027' were Works rally cars, built to take part in the 1970 RAC Rally. They account for early 'HS30' prefixed chassis numbers, but their bodyshells were made from super lightweight 'PZR' Fairlady Z432-R pressings put together at Hiratsuka and then transported to the Works competition shops at Oppama to be built into Works rally cars. The Works cars built for the 1971 RAC Rally had chassis numbers in the HS30-008** range. Don't know if you want to class that as 'early', as their bodies were put together in mid 1971 - again from PZR pressings. Only other 'low' chassis serial numbered HS30s I know of in the UK currently have actually come here via Australia and NZ. One of the problems with counting/accounting for the 'HS30' prefixed bodies is that people expect them to be in some sort of constant and linear progression, which wasn't the case. There were gaps both in production and numbering. Nissan Shatai was under great pressure, operating over reasonable capacity, and so was Nissan's whole supply and transport system. Datsun UK (a concessionaire at the time, remember) was reluctant to sell sports cars, as it didn't see them as its bread and butter (they'd have preferred to sell three Sunnies than one 240Z...) and Nissan fell foul of both import taxes and new lighting laws, necessitating a re-design of the front sidelights and indicators. All of this delayed official imports and meant that some capacity initially allocated to the UK was apparently re-assigned to Aus./NZ.

I'll have to search for it. It's buried inside another topic, as far as I remember... According to Nissan and Nissan Shatai themselves, only 'HS30-00001', 'HS30-00002' and 'HS30-00003' were produced in calendar year 1969. They say that only 'HS30-0003' was sold as a regular production vehicle, so we can assume that 'HS30-00001' and 'HS30-00002' were retained by Nissan for further study. I have a pretty good lead that shows they went to Oppama, and Nissan's Works race preparation shops for testing and development of race and rally parts and cars. I'm not sure when 'HS30-00004' was actually made, but it may well have been in early January 1970. After that 'HS30' prefixed Export market cars were put on the back burner in order for Nissan Shatai to focus production on North American market cars and to catch up with orders for Domestic cars. To cut a long story short, they were at full capacity. Engine numbers are a bit of a hit and miss thing that only makes any sense when viewed in retrospect. Engine blocks have casting dates on them, but there was sometimes a fair gap between casting date, machining date and installation date. Engines were numbered in engine build sequence, but not necessarily in car build sequence. There were also a couple of other models sharing the L24 engine number sequence (loads sharing the L20A sequence...) and no real imperative to match engine numbers to particular car builds. So, no...

Another story based on small grains of truth, and then greatly exaggerated in the telling...

Or - better - buy a salt mine. This type of article sums up everything I've always argued about with regard to Carl Beck's 'zhome.com' site. It is TOTALLY biased towards the North American market cars (even then it marginalises Canada...) to the point that he will bend whatever facts he has inherited in order to reinforce his "made for the USA" theme. It was only a few years ago that he was denying that ANY 'HS30' prefixed cars had been made in 1969 at all. See all the talk about pre-production prototypes? All of that data was obtained from ex Nissan Shatai staff by 'Kats' Endo some years back, and when you look at the data in its entirety it tells a DIFFERENT story than the one zhome.com paints with it. In fact, the very first S30 type made and given a chassis number was 'S30-00001' - 'Sekkei Shisaku no.1' ('Factory Prototype No.1') in May 1969. Beck writes his piece pretty much as though nothing other than 'HLS30' prefixed cars exist or matter, but Nissan conceived, designed, engineered and productionised a series of models (the 'S30 Series'), not just one model for one market. A look at Nissan Shatai's data tells a clearer story: Factory Prototype No.2 was given the number 'HLS30-00001' and Factory Prototype No.3 was 'PS30-00001'. In July 1969 Nissan Shatai made 4 'Seisan Shisaku' ('Primary Production Prototype') cars, which were 'HLS30-00002', 'S30-00002', 'PS30-00002' and 'HS30-00001'. So 'HS30-00001' was Primary Production Prototype No.4 and the seventh S30-series Z to be given a full chassis number. Another sample of data: Of the first fourteen prototypes and pre-production cars to be issued with a full chassis number, only three of them had 'HLS30' prefixes. Re-read the zhome.com article with that in mind and it starts to look - at the very least - somewhat incomplete... Following the Nissan Shatai data through to the end of 1969 tells even more: By the end of December they had made 543 'Export' cars (so 'HLS30' prefixed LHD '240Z', theoretically including non-USA/Canada models too, and 'HS30' prefixed RHD '240Z' models) and no less than 969 'Domestic' cars ('S30' and 'PS30' prefixed Fairlady Z, Fairlady Z-L, Fairlady Z432 and Fairlady Z432-R models). Again, you won't see any of that on zhome.com. Nissan Shatai tells us that 'HS30-00001', 'HS30-00002' and 'HS30-00003' were all made before the end of 1969. Can you spot 'HS30-00001' and 'HS30-00002' in the zhome article? Much of this comes down to the mistake of thinking that the '240Z' is something that can be talked about on its own. In fact, the term '240Z' on its own is all but meaningless. Those 'HS30' prefixed cars had more in common with the 'S30' prefixed cars than they did the 'HLS30' prefixed cars, but because they shared the same engine capacity and a '240Z' emblem they get taken out of context and lumped in with the "American" cars to make them look like some kind of afterthought. They were nothing of the sort, and that is from the mouths of the engineers and designers who worked on them. So, zhome.com? Don't swallow it whole.

By law, all official UK market cars would have been fitted with hazard lights.

400. Of which only 1,298 are left.

Watch out for those zeroes, Gav. I think you meant 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 ( 2 to 3 million ) JPY? There are quite a few S31s that have been retro-looked in Japan nowadays. I've heard a few stories of people buying them without realising what the back end of an original S31 looked like, and being p*ssed off when the facts were brought to their attention. Some of these people are locked into the '240Z/260Z/280Z' mindset, which doesn't help. It's a shame because they can be a good buy, as - all things being equal - they should be much cheaper than a proper '69~'73 version. But, once again, I would advise anyone and everyone to steer clear of Edward Lee and his dodgy Japanese contacts. Even if you were to give them some benefit of the doubt over sharp practice, the fact remains that they still haven't got the faintest clue what they are talking about when it comes to the older Japanese cars. A combination of ignorance and arrogance is not what a prospective buyer needs to have guiding him...

There's what seem like hundreds of both major and minor differences - rolling along with model variant/month/year changes and updates - so it would be an almost impossible task to list them all without writing out something that looks akin to a factory parts list. My points of reference are usually the Nissan 'Service Shuho' booklets (there's ten of them for the Japanese market S30-series Z range), the aforementioned factory parts lists (which miss a few parts out...!) and stuff like the engine manuals, workshop manuals and factory competition prep booklets. There are a few tell-tale features on early-ish Japanese market cars (my personal focus of interest tends to be '69 to end of '73-ish, and the later cars become even more accessorised and complicated) such as the extra front seat brackets and multiple extra fastenings/brackets, as well as stuff that often tends to have disappeared - like the original, flatter/less-dished, Japanese market steering wheels and early horn pushes. It's a huge topic once you start getting in deeper. The only way I can deal with it is to focus in on the models and details that I'm most interested in.

That's OK, that's normal. Don't worry about it. You might have to give them a bit of a push to get them to sit right and get the holes for the mounts in the right place, but they do - in my experience - kind of find their own way to being right with a little gentle persuasion. ^My comments above in red, which hopefully won't look too rude. Best points of reference are the Japanese market factory parts lists. They help you to differentiate between the parts fitted to different spec cars. You can spot a lot in there by comparing with the Export parts lists too. There are lots of extra little differences on the 240ZG that people don't generally notice. Stuff like the different bonnet prop rod, the different front tow hook, the front number plate holder, etc etc.

You do realise that it's about - um - w*nking, right...? Try to relax a bit more! 260DET likes good music shock. I like early Todd. Especially his first band:

You've got all the 'normal' home market differences for the H-prefix models (specifically 'Deluxe' spec), with the fact that the ZG was a kind of 'Deluxe Plus' spec to address. Or not, as you don't have to address everything when making a replica. Point is, there are so many small differences between Export HS30-prefixed cars and Domestic HS30-prefixed cars that it would be just about impossible to address them all. You don't need to though... Adding to what Gav has already pointed out, rear spoilers were an extra cost showroom option on ALL models except the PS30-SB Fairlady Z432-R (on which it was standard equipment), so anyone who wanted one on an HS30-H model Fairlady 240ZG had to pay extra to have one. Many cars were sold without them, and then had them added later. The type contemporary with the 240ZG (launched Sept.'71) is the 'second' type factory rear spoiler, without the reinforcing ribs seen on the front face of the 432-R type spoiler. They still had the raised section on the right hand side of the rear face to carry the emblems. There were several radios for the Japanese market at the time of the 240ZG, but the correct (stock) item for the 240ZG model is the Hitachi 8-track AM/FM unit. Nothing was trimmed by the Factory. They left that (structurally important) return on the wheelarch section of the lower nose uncut and laid the overfender over the top to overlap. However, in service many people found that when they fitted wider wheels and tyres there was fouling on full lock. Many owners cut away that section to give space for wide wheels and tyres to turn (it was done on my GP Maroon ZG too). There's a small but thriving business replacing/repairing such modifications in Japan today. So it depends on ride height and wheel/tyre choice as to whether you need to cut/clearance or not. What specifically is it that you want to see? I don't really have any photos like that on file (see below for possibly closest) but can tell you that the genuine headlamp covers pretty much only fit in one place on the 'scoop', and they kind of find their own centre when they are evenly placed all the way around - if that's what your concern is?

Hundreds of small differences between PS30 and HS30, but they are the things that make the difference...... if you see what I mean. Major component differences - apart from engine, bellhousing, differential, engine crossmember - may appear on paper to seem quite small, but replicating a PS30 or - even more so - a PS30-SB is not just a matter of bolting an S20 engine into an early-ish S30-series Z body.

They didn't. The 432 and 432-R were sold alongside L20A and L24 engined models. S20-engine was discontinued due to politics (both internal and external), economics and war.

The video and the commentary show that Edward Lee's Japan-based contact doesn't know his arse from his elbow when it comes to these cars. It's a toss-up between this guy and the Wasabi Cars clown as to who is more clueless. If anyone uses Edward Lee to source them a car from Japan then I wish them all the very best of luck and good fortune after their unfortunate mistake. Three litre S20? Physical impossibility. F*cking arsehat. Can I say more, please? It appears to be good therapy for me.

I've driven this car, an can vouch for it being a really beautiful car. Top notch work. A lovely thing. I hope it goes to a good home.

They've been "moderating" my posts before publishing them, cutting out some important points and scrapping anything they find perhaps a little bit too upsetting. Not that it makes much difference of course, as people read articles like that one and then use them as reference pieces for future balls-ups. It must be true, it's Hemmings - right? If they spent a bit more time researching and editing the article (or at least showing it to an adult...) before publishing it then things might be a bit better. Only thing they've changed is the mistake of calling Matsuo san 'Yoshiko' instead of Yoshihiko (Yoshiko being a female name...), so I suppose the "factory special order" sunroof thing is going to be repeated in future. File it with the "original G-noses were steel" / "Original G-noses were alloy" and "original headlamp covers were glass" etc etc stories.

It's a compliance sticker. It indicates that certain specs/components on the car are compliant with type approval regulations. Complicted subject...

I've got great respect for Jay Ataka of JDM Car Parts, but sometimes his knowledge of the Sports Options and race parts is not really up to snuff. Two problems with his statement: 'NISMO' didn't exist by that name until 1982, when Nissan's in-house race divisions and the standalone Nissan Omori "factory" were realigned to form a 'new' division. Previously Nissan's in-house race departments had been known as 'Nissan Sports' and various other monikers, and the selling of the race option and sports option parts was spread around a bit too much. With the formation of NISMO the idea was to rationalise and centralise as much of this as possible. Nitpicking I know, but why refer to 'NISMO' in a time period when 'NISMO' was a Telex address? Second problem is that no such spoiler can be seen in any of Nissan's 'Sports Option' or race option lists and catalogues for the S30-series Z. So if Nissan were selling it, how were they marketing it? Was it some kind of secret? No, the answer is that it's in fact an aftermarket part based on something originally made by a company other than Nissan themselves. It's very similar to an item sold in the early 1970s by Scuderia Nissan (despite their name, nothing to do with Nissan) who were racing a few S30-series Zs and had a thriving FRP parts business. My guess is that Scuderia Nissan may have been the original authors of the design, but it's been copied and copied and copied for the best part of 45 years since then...

Correct UK market RS30 spec is depicted in the advertisement with the Cessna. The car on its way to the OP has been modified.. In the UK market, sunroofs were something of an optimistic aftermarket add-on. Most of them were fitted in the 1980s. Flat and rigid glass panel sunroof in small double-curved 2-seater roof usually led to leaks a couple of years down the line, and that's when the floors started to rot...

Gav, It's nothing to do with the 432 or 432-R. 432 was technically 'Deluxe' spec, so they all had radios/8-track radios as standard spec. 'PZR' 432-R was technically 'Standard' spec so had no radio as stock equipment, same as Fairlady Z-S ('S30-S'). The Z-S had blanking plates over clock aperture, centre dash vent and radio aperture, but on the 432-R the clock aperture and eyeball vent holes were not even cut in the dash covering vinyl. The Z-S & PZR radio aperture blanking plate was flat not pocketed. Please remember that pretty much every 432-R sold to the general public was unique. The spec on small details like this was rather loose, to say the least. Some of them were made with heater/defrosters, some not. Some of them were made with gloveboxes and lids, some not. Some made with glovebox lids but no 'box' inside. The flat panel on Takeuchi san's 432-R radio aperture may or may not be original (there are a few things on his car which are like that...) and only one or two 432-Rs had choke and hand throttle controls relocated from the (missing) console to the dash area. It was all personal preference, and often modified by the supplying dealer. I've got one of the 68835-E4100 DIN bins (I'm rich...! Or maybe not... ) and you won't find it in any of the early Japanese market parts lists despite that 'E41' suffix indicating 1970 S30-specific parts. Best I can figure is that it was a rare option for music haters with short arms and deep pockets...

Classicman, you are calling your ex-UK, ex-Zimbabwe car - 'HS30-103361' - a 1974 build date. This is impossible. No 'HS30' prefixed cars were built in 1974. If it's an original UK market car the previous owner was probably dating it via the suffix letter on its first UK registration plates (yearly updated UK plate suffixes straddled two calendar years because they used end of August/start of September for the changeover) and it allowed him to pretend that the car was a year younger than it really was. And he probably had it resprayed from white to blue because he didn't get the colour he originally wanted. There are many tales in the UK of it being pot luck at the time as to what colours actually turned up on the boat. A 240Z sold just before the 260Z was introduced was very likely to have sold quite slowly too, so maybe he did a deal on it despite it not being his first colour choice? 'HS30-103361' was built in 1973, and certainly before the end of September. There are little dating clues all over the car in the quality control stamps on the individual components if you want to pin it down more accurately.

A big thumbs up to car and new owner from over here in London, England, UK. Well done, Cuong. Looks like a good, honest car that's not hiding any surprises. A great find!

Are you sure about the year? No KPGC110s were made in 1975...

A race car that will find it hard to be competitive in any race class that it is eligible for.