HS30-H

You won't be allowed to buy a Miura if you can't spell Miura....

Are you a car dealer? Here are some tips for you: *A car can be a '240Z' ( HS30 or HLS30 ) or a '432' ( PS30 or PS30-SB ), but it can't be both. If you're looking for a '432' then you're looking for a '432'... *If you're looking for Penguins and somebody tells you to look in the Arctic, don't trust them.

If only more 'Datsun people' knew a bit about the ( racing ) heritage of the cars, and especially what the factory race teams were doing with them. In my opinion, we need MORE knowledge and awareness of that in our community. Your average old 911 owner will know a lot more about the 911's racing heritage than your average old Z owner will about his car. You'll also see far more 'period correct' themed modified 911s than Zs, and that's a bit of a shame. It's also one of the reasons why the early Z doesn't get the respect it deserves, and why certain race sanctioning bodies give the early Z such a hard time.

Yes, but so what? I don't want to appear flippant ( you're building some great engines, and more power to your elbow and all that ) but what's that got to do with this? This is why I keep thinking that some people don't really 'get' it. Do the people who buy Ferrari 250GTOs take off the carbs and put injection on them, put sat-nav in the dash and swap the wheels for forged 20" alloys with 30-section tyres? No, they don't. They want the oil painting, not the RAW image file on a memory stick.

It's the 11041-E4621 cylinder head, as seen in the FIA homologation papers for the H(L)S30 ( FIA 3023 / JAF GT-010 ). Internally at Nissan it was nicknamed the 'Safari' head, even though it was never used in anger on the E.A. Safari Rally. Essentially it was a 6 cylinder version of the 4-cyl FIA head, and was always intended to be used with Nissan's race 'ECGI' electronic injection system with triple side-draught throttle bodies. You can see some details of the head on the homologation papers ( amendment 5/5V ). Compression ratio was intended to be 11.0:1 with a 36.2cc chamber. The heads were individually sand cast ( stock heads were die cast ) and the architecture was completely different to that of any of the stock production heads. The inlet manifold was used as a log to join the cooling passages together, and the cooling properties eliminated any hot spots / cool spots. Assembled on an L24-base, capacity upped to around 2500cc within the rules, with the option E4621 narrow-journal high strength crank ( got one of those if you want a look ), narrow journal rods, 8-bolt 7kg flywheel and the full ECGI injection setup, it was given the internal reference code 'LR24-ERY'. They were used in Japanese circuit racing in late 1971 through 1973 in cars like the Omori 'spider' car in my forum avatar, sometimes alongside LY24-ERY ( 'LY' crossflow on injection ) equipped cars. Remember that this was the period when people were saying that the American teams ( and BRE in particular ) had "taught" the Japanese race team staff at Nissan "how to tune the L24". In fact they already knew very well what they were doing. One of the main differences - and this carried on right through the BNR32 Gr.A GT-R era with the NISMO ( actually Reinik ) tuned RB26DETT being compared to that of the Gibson Motorsport team in Australia - was that Japanese domestic racing was more often concerned with endurance racing rather than sprints or multiple short events as seen in SCCA racing in the USA. The Japanese race engines were somewhat pegged-back in ultimate performance in order to make them last. It wasn't just about peak dyno figures. I just find stuff like this endlessly interesting. It gives me a wry smile when I hear people talking about the "ultimate" L6 engine from their favourite tuner, when stuff like that above isn't really all that widely known.

Hey sweetheart, want to have a peep at some L-gata porn from 1971? Stick this on an L24 and what have you got?

I'll have to make this short for now ( work calls... ), but..... That's exactly what I'm not saying. I'm responding to your finger pointing ( at the S20 in particular ) and your talk of power to $ ratios. You're welcome to think what you like about them of course, but - I don't want flog the dead horse again - to judge such things primarily on the power they give is ( you guessed it ) missing the point. I've drawn all the analogies for you. If you don't get where I'm coming from, then fine. Just don't tell me I'm wrong and then in the same breath tell me not to say you are wrong! We'll just end up going round in circles. Neither of my S20 engines is stock. They are both modified ( shhhhh... ) to give more "powah". Come to think of it, so are my L-gata engines. I hope I haven't spoiled your preconceptions of me. Here's a straight no-spin question: Have you ever driven an S20-powered car? If you did, was the engine stock or modified? I'm interested to hear your opinion. For me, driving a couple of really well looked after 432s gave me a kick in the direction I have taken over the last few years; I began to be more and more interested in the whole package ( 4.44 ratio LSD, FS5C71-A, S20 warmed over slightly ) as a more 'period correct' entity than something that had been put together after wheeling a giant virtual shopping trolley through Autobacs. I started taking non-period stuff off my cars to replace it with period-correct stuff, although I have been forced to be a little pragmatic. A short word about bang for buck: As some people know, my KPGC10 was a philanthropic gift. However you look at it ( remembering that - sometimes - the most expensive things in life can be free... ) that's pretty good bang for buck. The ( 432-specific ) S20 in my 432R replica project wasn't a gift, but it wasn't $50k or anything like it ( I haven't even got that in the whole car so far ). Since that S20 engine is very likely to hold - if not increase - in value for the time I'm likely to own it, it seems like another thing giving me good bang for buck. Again, it's not all about power. I think you'll find that the majority of people who own S20 engines and S20-engined cars didn't originally pay anything like the asking prices you see when they hit the open market today. Same is true with Ferrari 250GTOs and all sorts of other exotica too. And enough with the anti-PMC stuff already. I'm not anti-PMC. I speak as I find, and if somebody comes out with something that I see fault in then I'll flag it up. There are no holy cows for me. I'm an equal-opportunities critic.

Nope. Not at all. But you can carry on believing that if you want. Yes, I do. But what I'm saying is that it's all "wank factor". Everything is. I don't want to get all philosophical on you, but what's it all for? You're wanking, just the same as everybody you're pointing the finger at.... If they were "disappointed" by a stock engine, then the real problem is the difference between reality and their expectations. I wouldn't blame an engine for that. If your expectations are like those of an eight year old schoolboy then, yes, you'll be disappointed. As I said before, if you're investing all your hard-earned in an S20 engine or an S20-powered car, and you're expecting to be impressed by the "powah", then you've missed the point.... LOL. First of all, my KPGC10 is not a replica racecar. In fact, it's been prepped as a ( club ) race and track day car for most of its life. No, the engine is not stock. But seeing as it didn't cost me $50k or anything like it, maybe I can adjust my expectations anyway? The S20 in my 432R replica project car didn't cost me anything like $50k either. That too is not stock. Once we take away the question of cost, does your argument still make sense? My everyday driver / tow car / family hack has more power, more torque, better braking, better handling and better dynamics than any of the old Nissans I own. It also has comfy heated ( leather! ) seats, air conditioning that works, seats five plus luggage and tows like a train. In fact, what it does well are all the things I bought it for. It cost me less than any of my old Nissans would cost to buy, but that comparison misses the point doesn't it? I don't own any of my old Nissans because they outperform the Audi, I own them because they offer me something that the Audi never will... I hadn't noticed I think a lot of the reaction you see to the OSG twin cam conversions is about something other than whatever power they claim for them. It's something more cerebral than numbers on a dyno sheet. It's that elusive thing that you can't put in a tin and stack on a supermarket shelf. People covet things like that because they are more than Dialectic Physics. Why would somebody pay a lot of money for an oil painting when a photo of the same scene taken by a camera phone might be "better"? If anybody who owns a 40+ year old car doesn't get that, then I would wonder why they owned a 40+ year old car in the first place. You see I don't really care what "modern tech" can do with a ( 40+ year old ) 2 valve head. I'm more interested in what the factory were doing with them in 1973 than what anybody can do with them in 2013. That's why I dream of LR24s and LY24s running on ECGI, and GR8Cs on mechanical injection. It's not about the "powah", it's about the flavour...

PMC powah is really only "wank factor" too though, isn't it? Or is there some other reason why you need it?

Please tell my Mrs.... It's OK, I got the intention I think. That's why I quoted it like that. Liked it. I saw mid-80s bubble-perm Clarkson mouthing it in my head.... Don't necessarily agree about the JLC Perpetual Calendar, though. That's got to equate to something more exotic than an S20, I reckon.

If anybody buys an S20-powered car, or just an S20 engine, I very much doubt they are buying it with any thought of the "powah". If they do, they are missing the point ( shirley? ).... And comparing an S20 to an OSG TC24 conversion ( and all the parts needed to go with that ) or any other 'tuned' Nissan L-gata 6, with the deciding factor being power, is a little bit wrong-headed. If that comparison made any sense then all then the people paying multi million figures for Ferrari 250 GTOs and the like would be missing the point, as they could go and buy any number of cars with more "powah", and keep the change. I like a powerful engine just as much as anybody else does, but I didn't get my S20 engine with any dreams of high power. If I had to sum it up, for me, it was about something a little bit more nebulous than that. Something more to do with flavour, perhaps? A Casio G-Shock keeps better time than a '67 Rolex Mil-Sub. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go for the Mil-Sub ( and be late for appointments.... ). Better to have both, of course!

Don't make me say it. Tttttttttttttttttt..................

...And I'll leave this AMCO aftermarket accessory ad right here too:

It's a well-known car amongst a few 432 owners in Japan. He's got a genuine 'PS30' Fairlady Z432 identity ( on paper ) and a whole bunch of correct parts, including a blown up S20 engine. Problem is it was all attached to what *might* ( I have to be careful here... ) actually be a Fairlady Z-L body. The car was running around for a long time with an L-series engine installed ( or re-installed, possibly..... ) A brave buyer might be lucky in sorting this all out, or just clever. Ahem.... They are actually Nissan factory works rally wheels for the 240Z. The originals were made by Kobe Seiko for Nissan, and they were never sold direct to the general public. In the past, replicas have been manufactured by Rose Auto in Kyoto and Revive Jalopy in Saitama. Some of the replicas have changed hands in used condition, with the claim that they were genuine. Buyer beware. A short run of replicas was also made more recently here in the UK.

They might have been made by Kanto Seiki ( they accepted private commissions / rebuilds / custom mods ) or modified by a similar instruments maker, but I very much doubt they are anything directly to do with Nissan or their Works race & rally cars. Much more likely to be a custom job for a 'Hashiriya'... Judging by the way the scales are laid out, the internals are stock production or very close to being stock. That would mean that they probably wouldn't be particularly accurate in use ( especially the speedo ). Something you might need to keep an eye on. There have been quite a few people making similar in Japan over the last few years. There's one very slow but very good old guy who has been taking special commissions for custom screenprints and re-jigs of existing instruments. Some of these have been turning up on the auctions with iffy descriptions. Same guy made the internals and face for the mechanical tacho in my KPGC10.

That's an adjustable rev-limit indicator tachometer from a factory Works rally car ( hence the low upper reading ). These were also sold to the general public as Nissan 'Sports Option' accessories, and were designed to be used with transistor electronic ignitions. The hand-drawn red line was added by one of the curators at Nissan's Heritage Collection in an effort to dissuade temporary caretakers and transport guys from revving the tits off the thing when no-one was looking... Factory Works race cars with S20 engines all used cable-driven mechanical tachometers.

The north American aftermarket and dealership add-ons for Nissans is quite a different scenario. Shelby and Yenko at least had a reasonably direct business connection with Ford and Chevrolet respectively. You could say that Ford and Chevrolet 'blessed' the Shelby and Yenko parts and upgrades, and certainly sanctioned the complete cars that they put together. In Don Yenko's case there was stuff going on behind the scenes that allowed it all to happen. That's not the case with opportunist dress-up stuff like the Towel Rails. Nissan had no say in the matter. The local dealerships in north America often had quite loose arrangements with NMC USA, and were adding all sorts of bits and pieces to the cars in the showroom in order to maximise their profits. If these bumper additions had been necessary in order for Nissan products to pass inspection and comply with local laws, then Nissan would have designed, made and fitted them. If you have cast-iron evidence that they were created and fitted to cars in a certain market in order to be legal, then let's see it. Sorry, but I don't think anyone at Nissan would agree that they were any kind of official "option" and it's Nissan's opinion that counts for me. Towel Rails. Towel Rails. Towel Rails. Towel Rails. Towel Rails. Towel Rails. Towel Rails. Towel Rails. Towel Rails.

Doesn't make much sense to me. Either they are official ( Nissan ) options, or not. The chrome beltline trims so commonly fitted in the USA by the selling dealerships ( part of their price-jacking / profit-adding strategy ) were nothing to do with Nissan either. They are an aberration. I don't consider them a legitimate 'option' and I'm sure none of the people at Nissan who designed, engineered and built the cars would either. Just because a local territory dealer adds something to a new car in a showroom, or an aftermarket supplier sells something to add to a car later, it doesn't make those parts 'options'. Towel rails.

That's an aftermarket part, designed and manufactured in the USA for the north American market by an independent company that had no direct connection to Nissan. It's not 'factory' or any kind of official Nissan optional part. We call them 'towel rails' where I come from...

N42, yes ( although not a 'normal' N42 casting... ) but in 'semi-Works' guise in Grand Champion series circuit racing. P90, not as far as I know. Privateers used them in Japanese circuit racing though. P90 head was a bit 'late' for my focus of interest really....

I think that your idea of a "Works" engine builder, and my definition of a "Works" engine builder, are very likely to be different in this particular case. I'm talking about Japanese staff, working at Omori and Oppama ( and Murayama ) in the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s. I'm not talking about satellite operation staff, working elsewhere, and I'm purely talking about Works ( and subsequently Works-connected ) L6s from the early 1970s. In short order, the problems of remaining flash and sprue in stock production heads was negated with race-dedicated castings ( some of them sand cast instead of pressure die-cast ) which didn't need the drilling / fettling / re-plugging. It's all in hand-written notes from the Works engine building staff that I have been allowed to look at and photograph. I'm not going to post any photos here. You'll just have to believe for now. I'm not interested in any "our engines are better / more powerful than yours" pissing contests. I'm interested in matters historical, and the subject is far deeper than most realise. I just want Nissan's racing and rallying efforts and the work of the relevant staff to be understood and appreciated, that's all.

It worked very well when Nissan started doing it on their Works cars in early 1970 too....

And with the greatest of respect, I think the situation is not as easy to resolve as you make it sound. As far as I understand it ( from previous discussions ) it all hinges not on 'proof of use' but on 'proof of sale' ( to the general public ). From what you have described above ( which I don't think is the whole story... ) you already have the "proof" at your fingertips. Such cars were rallied by the Works team in your own backyard. That is to say, on Australian soil, in events such as the Southern Cross Rally and Dulux International Rally. Seek out period photographs of the cars from local Australian professional photographers, and you will have all you need. If it is indeed as simple as that....

Slightly off-topic, but: We've been through all this before, haven't we? I think - honestly - that what you are trying to prove happened did not in fact happen. CAMS are asking you to prove that certain items and specs ( the 7j wheel being one of them ) was sold as standard equipment on a showroom model S30-series Z, but it didn't happen. Such items were classed as 'Sports Option' equipment, so there's a gap between what you need to prove and what it is possible to prove. As discussed before, I don't think any of those Works rally cars are going to help you. They were not built to be sold to the general public, and none of them was sold new and unused to a private individual customer / privateer rally team or driver. They only made their way into private hands after being used by the Works rally team(s), so they don't count. I believe the website you have been looking at is 'Z Point' ( http://www.z-point.nl/ ) and is based in the Netherlands. Owner is Guus van der Bol. I don't know any other sites in the same vein, I'm afraid. Sorry. If you really want to understand the Works cars, you have to get down to the nitty gritty and do some deeper research. It's a big topic, and there's a lot more to it than collecting license plate numbers. It's really hard work, and - unfortunately - there's no one-stop, definitive, unimpeachable resource for the data you need. For me, that adds to the fascination and intrigue. These cars were not like Porsches or Fords ( or even more obscure marques like Alpine ) where you can find several in-depth books that tell you what size bolt was used on the wobble bracket that connected the blib flange to the wangle crossmember. 'Our' cars are a bit more mysterious than that..... I know it's not what you want to hear, but there it is.

Sounds like it might have started out as a late model UK or South African market car, but had possibly been messed with (?). There was no such thing as a 'Fairlady 280ZX' badge - it would have been 'Fairlady 280Z' ( without the 'X' ) or 'Fairlady Z'. The addition of any 'Fairlady' emblem on an RHD S130 with all English ( non Metric ) dials and servicing advice stickers would surely indicate that the 'Fairlady' badge was a non-standard later addition to a non-Japanese market RHD car, in my opinion.