kats

Japanese People don’t care about cars which were sold outside of Japan. My US 240Z has never been invented to Nostalgic Hero magazine. I know some people still think it is a fake of S30. The average sales price is backing up what I am saying. A Fairlady-Z 2/2 is now pricing double or triple of an US 240Z. Am I sad looking at those things? Maybe. But anyway I have my beautiful US 240Z which makes me so proud. People living in overseas don’t care about Japanese Fairlady Z cars. I have seen a lot of people don’t like G-nose because simply it looks ugly to them. Also people don’t like 2- liters cars, Z432 is not an exception. People don’t need information because they don’t use it for their cars. That is why I am here, and my friends here. I want people to know whole range of our cars. I believe looking into various types of our cars make us fun to enjoy better. Kats

Hi, I would like to share this, Alan made a great post in another thread. I have always wanted people to know why our cars had been going to have a six-cylinder engine at some point in the development process. That was because of S20, Prince oriented way advanced technology for the time. One more thing. Uemura san includes a quote of some paragraphs from Teiichi Hara's own book (recommended, BTW). Hara san was manager of the First Design Department at Nissan and Uemura san quotes Hara san because he relates a KEY stage in Nissan's Go/No Go stage of the Maru Z project. Without passing this stage, Nissan's senior management simply would not have given clearance for the engineering and styling work to proceed. What was the deciding factor? The deciding factor was the inclusion of the road-going version of the Prince GR8 twin cam engine (the Nissan S20 two litre 24v twin cam six) as an option in the engineering and styling of the Maru Z project. Hara san described this as "A complete victory". Without it, they would not have got the go-ahead for the whole family of variants. It is a very revealing anecdote, the kind that automotive journalists and marque/model scholars set great store by. Thanks Alan! Kats

I want to explain what Uemura san is saying about our cars but I can’t do it in English. Motomura san did great job and he is the perfect interpreter for the book but no one can tell better than Uemura san does. With my poor English skills, but I can see some words need to have deeper additional explanation for English speakers to understand as much as what Uemura san originally intended. Kats

Hi Alan, I read it just like you read. Japanese people write it like that and read it like that. Kats

Hi, I am always enjoying reading this thread, thank you so much. Today I have a question about an air intake system of those works rally cars. Maybe for Safari cars, not for your car. An old interview with Mr. Namba and Mr. Wakabayashi they said “Our rally cars are designed sucking air from the cabin. It prevents engines from sucking heavy sand dust or water”. Did that mean works rally cars had ducting system on the firewall acting as a corridor between the cabin and the engine room? Was the engine room sealed enough for isolating it from the outside? And they said “when cars need to across the river, mostly a few seconds, cars have to have ability to go through”. It makes me think the huge duralumin under cover would help the cars float a few seconds over the water, wouldn’t it? Kats

I can’t tell “how” with my poor English skill but I am sure we can tell the difference if we have both in hand. I see the difference on the surface of the rubber, it looks different and feels different in touch. But some reproductions are useable without serious problems I think. Kats

Congratulations on your hunt! Me too bought the complete set. I wanted to have the series of magazines and the DVD, they are so interesting and rewarding, highly recommended. I am not interested in the model car so I still let all the pieces un opened, properly never will be assembled. Because I have 1/1 cars to play. Kats

Super fascinating Alan!! I wish I could have either type of roll-bar, it is a long way to achieve it. Thanks for the pictures JDMjunkies.ch and Alan, I am (I am sure we! ) looking forward to seeing the both car when complete. Kats

I didn’t know that Mizukami Auto produced such a nice roll-bar! I would like to see it in person if I like to have it in my car. A set of flat plates which is going to be welded on the rear floor as for securing the bottom brackets isn’t not shown, is that included? I attached a picture of genuine roll-bar which was sold on Yahoo auction, I still regret that I didn’t make a bid. Recently I became to know that the seller of the roll-bar was my GTR friend! This original set was also missing a set of flat plates. Maybe it was very difficult to take off the plates from the rear floor. Kats

Hi Keith, I am thinking like Patcon. The story of the tailor made carpets might apply to the very early cars like up to January or February 1970. My March 1970 240Z and the BAT ultra mint green April 1970 240Z have the same jute and carpets, especially the jute look just like Japanese S30 cars. I would like to have more examples of them to see how they look like. One thing I am suspicious about is the carpets for cars up to middle of 1970 (or late 1970 or early 1971). The carpets for the US cars looks slightly different in the loop pile material than the ones for the Japanese cars. Now we see the US 1969 cars have different type of loop pile material due to the local shop made them for the early cars. But my 03/1970 and the BAT green 04/1970 both have the same carpets which look like the ones for the US 1969 cars. And also the carpets look different than the ones for the Japanese cars. So could they be the US made in those days? Not even a 1969 car could have the US local made carpets? About the jute pads, I am coming to conclusion that the jute for the US 03/1970 and 04/1970 are the same ones with all the other territories. Kats

Hi Patcon, was your car made in November or December 1970? If so, this jute is what your car would have. The picture was taken from a December 1970 Z432 owned by Mr. Watanabe. The car still has a set of jute and carpet seemed came with the car from the factory. Now we can say at least on December 1970, the pattern of jute had already changed to the later one which can be seen on 1972 cars. The difference between the two, the early one has cut outs for the drain plugs and the foot rest, and the seat mount brackets. The later one doesn’t have cut outs for the drain plugs. Kats

Hi Patcon, I can say I am convinced about the jute for cars up to January or February 1971. Our cars have only one jute for both sides of front floor, for any cars Japanese and all the other destinations. That is why there are cut outs for the seat mounts forward brackets to be utilized for all the destinations. And the shape is the one shown here from the Green BAT 240Z (04/1970). My car HLS30-02146 (03/1970) still has the one on the right side. I can make a template for you Patcon (including rear floor and luggage floor) I will send you papers which I draw. Easy homework for me! Kats

Hi Bart, Chris 26th-Z answered to your question, I didn’t know that story when I heard of it here classic Zcar club. And carpeting is always one of my big interest. How did they look like? It is very difficult to find true original, difficult to see good condition originals in person. What I am not clear about is the earliest carpets which were added at the port of entry (dealership ?) in the U.S. Were the carpets made in U.S? Were they exactly the same to the ones which were applied later such as January or February? E4601 is the first number for the carpets for export model (LHD territory), was this number “E4601” for the carpets which was added at the port of entry in the U.S? Or if Nissan would have started to apply new carpets for the export model around January or February etc, were they exactly the same ones for the ones applied to Japanese Fairlady Z series? And were they the ones which got the number E4601 for the first time? I confirmed my 12/1971 North American 240Z and 06/1972 Fairlady 240ZG have the same carpets which were made of the same materials. But I still don’t get it, they have different parts number for each of them for the rear deck carpet which doesn’t seem to be any different. Very confused. Kats

Thanks Roo, I don’t see there is a data for the Europe configuration, I mean the data seems didn’t use Europe 240Z (HS30 and HLS30Q etc). Probably the test team used a S30 which has normal suspension set up (basic coil spring rate and length, and normal hight at the front and the rear). And even the engine could have been L20, I will ask these questions to Mr. Miyazaki. Mr. Miyazaki told me that the test team once tried to reduced Cd as possible as they could. Didn’t need to think about production model, just they tried whatever they could. Finally they achieved Cd 0.30 for a basic body configurations. With two people on board, plugged all the holes around the radiator core support, covered the radiator with card boards as much as it was functional, put an air conditioning condenser, fitted much much stiffer coil springs, lowered front end 15mm etc etc. They did many things to the car to keep the car sits lower. From the words of Mr. Miyazaki in mind, I re-check the side profile view of the Salt Flats Racer. The car sits lower than normal, it must be a lot better in Cd than normal Fairlady 240ZG. Kats

And this is what G-nose performs. Please don't take it seriously my calculations are not accurate. The thesis shows from 140 km/h to 160 km/h, G-nose took 8.0 sec, Basic nose took 9.5 sec. When G-nose reached to 160 km/h, Basic nose was almost 200 ft behind. Does it make sense? Kats