1970 240Z Works Rally - the road to restoration

[HS30-H]

5 hours ago, 240zadmire said:

Found the tire size and type

 

http://zhome.com/BRETotal/Tires/BajaTires.htm

The BRE Baja 240Z and the Nissan Works rally 240Zs have no connection whatsoever. Two completely different things.

The most commonly-used tyre on the Nissan Works rally 240Zs was the Dunlop (Japan) SP44, with the PW51 and PW72 also used for snow and ice stages, usually fitted with spikes.

 

 

[kats]

I really love seeing those piles of rally tires ! 
Today I am hopeless about 14 inches off-road tires in Japan .We have many cool tread patterns but they are all for 15 inches or bigger wheels. 
I have stored Michelin XWX 205/70-14 ( I was thinking about if I buy a Dino 246 ! ) , so far this is my least choice for fatty bigger tire for my Zs when I want some feelings of rally car.

Kats

Edited August 28, 2022 by kats

[xs10shl]

@HS30-H Interesting to see the tubes. Did they run the studded tires with tubes? How about the regular tires?  I also ask because tubes tend to give the tires that "rounded profile" look when mounted, and I've always felt that the XP44 tires appear to have a sidewall bulge in some period pictures, indicative of their use.  

Also, I must say that some of my Kobe Seikos (both the real and the replica mags) do not hold air for long.  In 2-3 weeks time, at least one tire is low.

 

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by xs10shl

[HS30-H]

4 hours ago, xs10shl said:

@HS30-H Interesting to see the tubes. Did they run the studded tires with tubes? How about the regular tires?  I also ask because tubes tend to give the tires that "rounded profile" look when mounted, and I've always felt that the XP44 tires appear to have a sidewall bulge in some period pictures, indicative of their use.  

Also, I must say that some of my Kobe Seikos (both the real and the replica mags) do not hold air for long.  In 2-3 weeks time, at least one tire is low.

That period of Japanese Dunlop radials - especially the 'SP Radial' series, which was a key branding product for Dunlop Japan on road cars - was designed to run either with and without tubes. There are some good technical articles covering them in the period Japanese specialist press (especially Auto Technic and Auto Sport magazines) and they were certainly pushing the 'Tubeless' philosophy. However, for sure the Works team were running with tubes some of the time. It probably made puncture repair turnaround faster at remote servicing. 

I use tubes in my original Kobe Seikos when fitted with Dunlop CR65s, but it is the tyres themselves which let the air out! They are supposedly a Tubeless design, but I see no harm in using tubes. Old Magnesium wheels can become quite porous, so best to inspect and treat on a case-by-case basis. Generally speaking I tend to suspect the rubber is at fault rather than the wheel unless the wheel is a repeat offender.

The Japanese Dunlops had a really good reputation in period. Nissan's Works team manager said they could not have done so well on the Monte (against rear-engine, rear-drive/front-engine, front-drive cars with their inherent traction advantage) or won the Safari without the Japanese Dunlops. In fact one or two of the UK-based drivers 'acquired' several sets for their own personal use...

   

[Patcon]

It's surprising the tires are that porous!

Also that is a lot of wheels on those pallets!

[kats]

These are the best magazines to know about the works rally car for me.  They contained the best interview for the depth of works rally car spoken by the general manager Mr. Namba and the team manager Mr.Wakabayashi. 

I am curious about were there any magazines available which described about Nissan works rally cars just like those Japanese publications outside of Japan ? If not , some one should interpret it because a lot of information there. I would like to try but will be a huge homework.

Kats

[kats]

An interesting book , ‘Service information about Tubeless tire ‘ March 1970 , Nissan Moto co.ltd. Like Alan said ,Nissan was pushing Tubeless tire more than before . This book describes so many advantages of Tubeless tires against tire with tube , a figure is showing air leak of Tubeless vs Tube . 
Another figure is showing the reason of punctuation, at that time Japanese road was not good condition, it said nails were the highest cause of the punctuation.

And an interesting thing is , service for punctuation a several method for each of tire manufacturer .

Sorry for off topic .

Kats

[HS30-H]

7 hours ago, kats said:

These are the best magazines to know about the works rally car for me.  They contained the best interview for the depth of works rally car spoken by the general manager Mr. Namba and the team manager Mr.Wakabayashi. 

I am curious about were there any magazines available which described about Nissan works rally cars just like those Japanese publications outside of Japan ? If not , some one should interpret it because a lot of information there. I would like to try but will be a huge homework.

I agree about the period Japanese magazines. They are very technical and the access to major players such as Namba san and Takashi 'Waka' Wakabayashi san gave a great behind-the-scenes insight. I still think they held back on some of their activities though. Always lots of secrets!

Auto Technic magazine's 'Rally & Rally' special editions were superb. See if you can seek out the 74-11 edition.

The European magazines did get hold of some cars to test. Autocar magazine (UK) were allowed to borrow Rauno Aaltonen's 1970 RAC Rally car '695' after the event, and clearly it was very tired. Not surprising really. The journalists didn't seem to know too much about the spec of the car and the team probably didn't tell them much either. There are some mistakes and misapprehensions in the article.

Echappement magazine (France) tested Aaltonen's 1971 Monte Carlo Rallye car '985' and it is a little light on detail and spec but has some great photos.

Autorevue magazine (Holland) got hold of '988' (just after it had been used as a Recce/Fast Service chase car on the 1971 Monte) and similarly it is a little light on detail, with some nice photos. 

 

I think the team staff were playing their cards close to their chests with regard to some of the details of the cars. Perhaps understandably.  

[xs10shl]

We arrived at JCCS Long Beach yesterday to monsoon conditions (LA-style, meaning constant drizzle, 90 degree temperatures, and 15MPH winds - oh, the horror!).   It was just a bit too windy to set up the booth, and we didn't want to take a chance that all of our newly-made display posters would end up scattered across the show field by morning.  Since the car has a number of holes in it from prior uses, we shoved it under the tent for the time being, as the forecasters promised a few good downpours during the night.The weather should be relatively rain-free today, so we're arriving at 6AM to set up, and should be ready by showtime.  If there are any fans of the Z at the show today, I hope you come by and say hello.

Here's an overview piece written by Ben Hsu.

https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/1971-datsun-240z-rallye-monte-carlo-a-history-lost-now-found/

 

Edited September 10, 2022 by xs10shl

[xs10shl]

Some of the new content that was written for the show below. Thanks again to @HS30-H for editorial services and providing a few pictures.

[HS30-H]

One of those Hollywood snow-making machines would be appropriate at this point. Maybe sprinkle some ice cubes from a local convenience store?

Good luck!

[SpeedRoo]

7 hours ago, xs10shl said:

 

Here's an overview piece written by Ben Hsu.

https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/1971-datsun-240z-rallye-monte-carlo-a-history-lost-now-found/

 

Not sure why the article's author thinks " Nissan’s rallying saga needs and deserves a lot more recognition in the US". Nissan never rallied a car in the USA and pretty much left any racing to the teams competing in the USA like BRE and Sharp. Would have been cool for Nissan to send a 240Z rally car to compete in the Baja race but BRE did that for them as well.  https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/bres-baja-datsun-240z-kisses-asphalt-goodbye/