Datsun 240k Gl 1977 Needing Advice Or Feedback?

[kyteler]

I know the early L4 covers had 'DATSUN OHC' sometimes even 'DATSUN 1600 OHC' however, much like Mr. Camo, I have never seen nor heard of a L6 with 'DATSUN' lettering.

Alan, In regards to the Prince Skyline you posted, my apologies, I assumed it belonged to a friend of yours in the UK and I had recently been talking to other UK Datsun fanatics about a Prince Skyline GT shown in a UK magazine from the 80's that I have here.

[Mat Big Hat]

my apologies for hijacking the hijack and i'm not sure if it was mentioned somewhere else on this forum, but apparently this Silver Haksuka 2dr (shell minus the rb26) is headed over to it's new owner in Oz. The previous owner or new owner may wish to confirm/deny this.

[sakijo]

Hijacking a hijack??? That's Brian's car.

[g72s20]

Hijacking a hijack??? That's Brian's car.

Yair, I hope he knows about it :paranoid:

What's your source Mr BigHat? (I know it's not tomatoe or BBQ! ) I can't read that link .(Swedish?) Is is relevant to the sale, or just the pics?

Jim.

[HS30-H]

Alan,

Cam covers - take that up with the Americans.

aarc240,

What have cam covers made in Japan by Nissan for the Australian market got to do with "the Americans"?

Sorry, you are wrong on the cam covers delivered here. Through '70 and at least most of '71 I did not see ONE Nissan cover and I was in and out of the dealer's floor regularly (my Datsun Coupe was frequently displayed there)

Sorry, but I think your memory is playing tricks with you. No offence intended. :classic:

Tyres were identical to those fitted to the 240z sitting beside it - H rated cross plies. That only sticks in the memory because we couldn't believe _either_ car was actually to be sold with that crap on it.

Why? Who knows!

Very odd. I thought all official HS30U 'Datsun 240Z' models for the Australian market were fitted with Radials from the Factory.

Were the bonnets _always_ body colour? Where is proof of that?

Nearly 35 years worth of marque and model history never mentions such a thing, which includes Factory sales brochures, period advertising, dealer options and Sports Options lists, period magazine articles and full road tests at launch. Also around three decades of magazine articles, books and model analysis in Japan. Never a flat black bonnet on a 'normal' street-use KPGC10 for sale to the general public spotted amongst all that.

But then, we are only talking about one car here aren't we? I guess anything is possible........

Entirely aside from the legal implications, the car had 27 miles on the odometer which is about right for delivery. That stuck because the dealer principal didn't want the odometer to go to 30 miles in a short test drive.

............like a KPGC10 odometer that read in MPH instead of KPH. Unique! :knockedou

Alan T.

[HS30-H]

Alan, In regards to the Prince Skyline you posted, my apologies, I assumed it belonged to a friend of yours in the UK and I had recently been talking to other UK Datsun fanatics about a Prince Skyline GT shown in a UK magazine from the 80's that I have here.

Hi Michael,

Ah - now I understand. It thought for a minute that you knew the car - which would have been a big surprise as I don't think the owner shows it to very many people.

I vaguely remember the UK magazine article you mention. Was the car in a bit of a state, and sitting in a field ( or at least on waste ground )? I was told that it was probably beyond saving at the time - but who knows? I certainly haven't heard anything about it recently.

Cheers,

Alan T.

[sakijo]

Yair, I hope he knows about it :paranoid:

Jim.

I hope so too, because he sent me a PM last week saying that the sale fell apart.

[kyteler]

Hi Michael,

Ah - now I understand. It thought for a minute that you knew the car - which would have been a big surprise as I don't think the owner shows it to very many people.

I vaguely remember the UK magazine article you mention. Was the car in a bit of a state, and sitting in a field ( or at least on waste ground )? I was told that it was probably beyond saving at the time - but who knows? I certainly haven't heard anything about it recently.

Cheers,

Alan T.

Alan, something along those lines (in regards to where it was situated), I'm unsure of specifics and it didn't really go into much in the magazine. I have scanned and uploaded the small mention of it though.

You can see what I mean about the damage on the front left quarter.

[kyteler]

Although not binding to anything due to it being a diecast, I stumbled across this just tonight whilst searching for something else entirely and as I say, being a diecast it doesn't exactly prove anything here nor there, but I found it interesting giving the current conversation none the less;

[aarc240]

I guess it all goes to prove that a resident of UK having been also a resident of Japan knows everything about Nissan / Datsun.

I'm sorry I even bothered.

[HS30-H]

I guess it all goes to prove that a resident of UK having been also a resident of Japan knows everything about Nissan / Datsun.

I'm sorry I even bothered.

aarc240,

I'm sorry you feel that way.

I certainly don't think I ".....know everything about Nissan / Datsun." - but I'm determined to find out as much as I can about the things I am interested in. I usually only pipe up on threads such as this when I'm fairly sure of my facts, and I try not to post bad information or incorrect data. I'm not out to humiliate you or anybody else, and if you can show me that anything I have written is wrong then I will stand corrected.

I'm sorry, but ( to my mind anyway ) there are a fair few things that don't add up about your KPGC10 in Australia story. I'm not saying that you are a liar ( far from it ) - just that the single car you have offered as an example sounds to me to have been a one-off 'Grey Import' that was most likely not any part of a sales plan by Nissan's planners in Japan. You seem quite sure that there was no press coverage and that it would not have been documented. I find that hard to believe. I'd have thought it would have aroused some interest, even if the car was seen as something of a white elephant that stood no chance against more powerful domestics and other imports in the Australian market. And what happened to any others? Is this a one-off, two-off, three-off or were there more?

The flat black bonnet was surprising ( I still think this is non-Factory on the KPGC10 ), and the mention of crossply tyres was even more so. I'm wondering if you were mistaken in thinking that the '6.45H - 14 - 4PR' markings on a standard-equipment KPGC10 tyre denoted a crossply type rather than an early radial that still used some of the crossply identification codes ( which was what they were )? It's certainly a possibility. I don't wish to insult you by inferring that you don't know the difference between the two, but it might have been easy to be misled by that format of tyre sizing.

In case you haven't noticed, a couple of other people picked you up on the 'NISSAN' cam cover issue too. Perhaps they did it more politely than I did. I'm sorry that you took offence when none was intended from me. I'm really only interested in the facts being correct, and recorded properly so that we can all learn something from them.

Alan T.

[aarc240]

Alan,

Cam covers:

quoting kyteler

I know the early L4 covers had 'DATSUN OHC' sometimes even 'DATSUN 1600 OHC' however, much like Mr. Camo, I have never seen nor heard of a L6 with 'DATSUN' lettering.

quoting you

In case you haven't noticed, a couple of other people picked you up on the 'NISSAN' cam cover issue too.

Errrr - something smells there!

reference Nissan publication Part Number 99996-M8012 'How to modify your Nissan & Datsun OHC engine' exploded parts views "Drawing Courtesy Nissan" pg 89 four cylinder and p90 six cylinder. Both clearly show the lettering to be DATSUN. The same info was also published in the earlier 'How to modify DATSUN 510 610 240Z engines & chassis' pg 46

Are we to assume that Nissan released that sort of detail incorrectly? Come on!!

Part number 13264-E3100 is a DATSUN cam cover for an L24. Part number 13264-P0100 is a NISSAN cam cover for an L24 or L26. At least that was what they were when I had to replace a cover back in '72 after a cam gear bolt came loose (and initially got the wrong, E3100, cover).

quoting you

What have cam covers made in Japan by Nissan for the Australian market got to do with "the Americans"?

Since America and Australia were the two countries to which Nissan was exporting at that time (apart from the dribbles into UK and Europe) then I would have thought that you would realise that there was a fair bit in common between the two markets. Even then we got 5 speed gearboxes from the outset which no other export market got in 1970.

Tyres - '6.45H 14 4PR' are cross plies in Australia. If a tyre was of radial construction it had to be marked accordingly, in which case it could carry a marking such as '6.45HR 14 4PR'. Even that is a pretty wild stretch considering that the earliest radials here were letter series ( AR78 13, ER70 14 etc) as dictated by federal DOT. You obviously know nothing regarding the LEGAL requirements in this country!

A manufacturer might have got away with the sort of idiocy you imply in Japan or England (and I wouldn't know one way or the other) but in Australia that would have created some significant legal issues.

No, I wouldn't have been easily misled as I was well used to variations in markings having already used cross, bias and radial ply road tyres as well as racing tyres. Having already had some 9 years in motor sport and a bit less on the road had instilled some knowledge.

Breaking it down, 6.45 is 6.45 inches nominal cross section, H is speed rated to 140MPH, 14 is the wheel fitment diameter, 4PR is four ply rated. No reference to radial, period. I knew that sort of information by the time I was 14 and haven't forgotten it.

Odometer markings

" ............like a KPGC10 odometer that read in MPH instead of KPH. Unique! "

Australia still required speedometers to read in MPH in 1972 and so odometers also read in miles. Maybe, just maybe, someone actually fitted the correct parts to make the car legal. Oh, and Nissan did have MPH speedos - they were fitted in 240Z's until at least late '72. In fact our '73 KHGC110 came with a MPH speedo, as did our May '72 240Z

I really can't see where you get the idea that a Nissan S20 would arouse some interest here. A hot 2 litre might have been noteworthy in England as real performance car compared to the standard fare. Not so in Australia as standard road cars were reaching 110MPH readily with 5 litre V8's. To raise much interest a car would need to have been seen as a serious threat to the 140MPH Ford Falcon XY GTHO Phase III (yes, one hundred and forty miles per hour in average tune). An S20 KPGC10 seen as a threat? More like a joke back then.

What I tried to provide right from the outset was information that limited numbers of S20 engined cars got on the market here and that at least one KPGC10 was sold. That the one KPGC10 I physically saw was at least sanctioned by Nissan is clear from the fact that a DEALER had it on a showroom floor. That Nissan had SOME involvement should be obvious to any intelligent person in that correct tyres and odometer / speedometer for the market were fitted. Whether the black bonnet was factory or not is not significant - it had it and why it had it is immaterial. That Nissan did or didn't try to 'market' the model here was neither here nor there as far as I am concerned. How many more, if any, ever got here I made no reference to.

Quite frankly, after this I have no interest in pursuing the history of Datsun / Nissan in Australia, nor of making the other information I have from the Prince / Nissan / Datsun / Nissan era public.

Being "determined to find out as much as I can about the things I am interested in" is one thing, being aggressively offensive is entirely different, particularly when a person so obviously has little if any knowledge of the environment in which the item of interest must conform or in the subject on a global scale.