The two S20 warriors

[HS30-H]

factory prep'ed ZG run by SCCN (Sports Car Club Nipon - if I'm not mistaken)-e

SCCN = "Sports Car Club of Nissan"

Nissan's 'Works' circuit race team.

[HS30-H]

Here are some pics relevant to the races I mentioned.

First one is from one of the races at that "All Japan Stock Car Fuji 300km" meeting on 22nd March 1970, and depicts the two Works 432-Rs of Kitano and Hasemi with the Porsche 910 of Kazato behind them.

Second pic is from the "Race De Nippon" event held on 12th March 1970, and depicts the Sunako / Kunimitsu GT-R being followed by the Yokoyama / Teranishi 432-R ( which was destined to retire from the race ).

[g72s20]

I have a one and a half A4 page article here from an Australian motoring magazine ~1973, relevant to the Fairlady Z432-R. I can scan it but can't get it to a small enough size in bits(<100Kb) and still be legible. I have seen examples here I'm sure, so I'm guessing it's possible.... Can anyone direct me to some useful tips?

Cheers ,

Jim.

Or I can email the whole jolly thing to someone more competent than I ?

[v12horse]

Those are some great pictures Alan. If anyone wants to see an assortment of excellent pictures of the works racers, go to the RS-Watanabe site.

http://www.rs-watanabe.co.jp/index2.htm

Ben

[Alfadog]

You can email it to me, Jim

If you upload to Gallery, I think there's a higher limit if you want to try yourself

[e_racer1999]

not to hijack the thread, but are the LY heads reasonably easy to get your hands on?

[HS30-H]

In a word, no.

Unfortunately.

[e_racer1999]

damn...............

[v12horse]

I really don't know much about the factory works race cars, but I would really like to learn more. I have saved a lot of pictures though. The pictures on the Watanabe site are some of the best ones that I have come across in regards to these cars.

Alan, I was under the impression that there was about 19 Z432-R's produced. Is this roughly correct? If so, was the number so low because it was a homologation car? The reason I ask is because I thought that the factory made their own race cars which had bodies similiar to the 432-R like the works rally cars, but the private teams could buy a 432 (normal or R-type) with all the Nismo options, and that is why the 432-R came from the factory with the 4.5j steel wheels. I would have thought that a lot more would have been produced. Are many of them gone now because they were used as racers? Any help on this would be most appreciated. It has been something that I have been wondering about for a while. Thank you in advance.

Chris, was the red 432 with the works rally wheels in the picture that you posted a "Works" race car? I would think that it would have had wider wheels than the 7j ones. It really is a beautiful car.

Thank you everyone for your interest in this topic. These cars are such legends in Japan I am sure, both works Skyline and Z.

I have looked in old American magazines and there was coverage of these races at Suzuki and such, but I have not read enough to say if there was a lot of coverage.

-Ben

p.s. Thank you for the info on the 2000GT Alan.

I was reading through the "Classic Car" magazine the other day and there was a great article on the Shelby 2000gt's race cars. One of them was found in the 70's and at the time when it was discovered it was being used as a daily driver!!!

[26th-Z]

Ben,

The red 432 picture is a classic example of my rants about photo etiquette on the net. I copied that picture as an example of the wheels way back when we were talking about them. I also have a plastic model kit of a car like this. Unfortunately, I can't tell you where I got the photo or any information about the car that would have accompanied the photo. How I much I learn :stupid: My best guess is that it is a real one.

Like you, I am just picking up this information. I never heard much about racing events outside the U.S. Most everything was the home team - Brock Racing Enterprises with driver John Morton.

[HS30-H]

I really don't know much about the factory works race cars, but I would really like to learn more. I have saved a lot of pictures though. The pictures on the Watanabe site are some of the best ones that I have come across in regards to these cars.

Hi Ben,

The pictures on the Watanabe site don't illustrate full-blown 'Works' race cars. Most of the pictures are of Yoshihiro Taniguchi in his Yokohama-sponsored 240ZG. This was race-entered and supported by SCCN, but was not strictly a full Works car.

Before this car he had a PZR fitted with an LR24 engine and the full Group 4 body kit - so you can see how race cars get born, get changed, become obsolete and get forgotten.

Alan, I was under the impression that there was about 19 Z432-R's produced. Is this roughly correct? If so, was the number so low because it was a homologation car? The reason I ask is because I thought that the factory made their own race cars which had bodies similiar to the 432-R like the works rally cars, but the private teams could buy a 432 (normal or R-type) with all the Nismo options, and that is why the 432-R came from the factory with the 4.5j steel wheels. I would have thought that a lot more would have been produced. Are many of them gone now because they were used as racers? Any help on this would be most appreciated. It has been something that I have been wondering about for a while. Thank you in advance.

Around 19 PS30-SBs were sold to the general public. No cast iron figures I'm afraid. A little bit of skullduggery with figures is probably behind that. Nissan built their own PZRs as dedicated race cars from the body panels up. Again, apparently no cast iron figures exist. They were of course quite different in many respects to the model that was on sale to the general public. That is to be expected. Legend has it that some of the Works cars were technically slightly outside the rules of the class that they were entered in ( shhhh! ).

As you say, the 432R was a homologation special - produced simply to allow the Factory race cars to legally use parts that would otherwise be illegal. By making the PZR available to the general public, and selling the Sports Option parts that they wanted to use in racing, they legitimised their race cars.

Strong parallels can be drawn with Works Porsche homologation specials of the same period ( such as the 911R and 911S/T ) and in fact you can see where Nissan drew a lot of their inspiration for nomenclature and the type of parts needed if you look at those models.

Chris, was the red 432 with the works rally wheels in the picture that you posted a "Works" race car? I would think that it would have had wider wheels than the 7j ones. It really is a beautiful car.

-Ben

I can answer this one if its OK with Chris.

That photo is an official Nissan publicity shot, taken just before the "All Japan Suzuka 300km" race ( at Suzuka Circuit ) on 18th January 1970. This was the race debut of the PZR - and therefore the world debut race for the S30-series Z. I wrote a little about this event in a previous reply on this thread.

The Works cars only raced in the guise shown in the photo once. By their second race, they were already wearing the Sports Option type Overfenders and Sports Option 8j Kobe Seiko 8-spoke magnesium wheels. The Works cars changed spec and appearance for almost every race they entered.

Hope that was of interest.

Cheers,

Alan T.

[26th-Z]

Thanks for the info, Alan. I updated my file. :classic:

(Edit) I checked and I DO have a plastic model kit of the very car. Its a Japanese kit commemorating the Suzuka 300km.