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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...

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.

Good advice. I gave mine a quick rip this morning, it's faster than I remembered.

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

Thanks all, I don't mind the looks of them if I used it as an accent color, but I prob won't go through the hassle of putting them back on.. Seems serviceability wasn't in mind when they were installed 😕

225/70R14's have a diameter of 26.4". Those tires would be ideally suited for lifted rally cars, and provide great ground clearance, but may be too large a tire for my application. The original Dunlop XP44 are NLA as far as I can tell, so I went with Goodyear Wrangler LT195/75R14s which have an outer circumference of 25.5". To my eye, even these Wranglers appear to be just slightly too tall, and may rub once I lower the car to it's Monte-Carlo spec ride height. There are also a few ATV off-road options in 14".

If anyone has it, it will be 240zrubber.com

Is there a "Z sighting" thread? Not sure.

I was surprised when you said you were 30 min from home and you drove your car with rocker off the pad. I could barley keep mine running. Yea, I know I should be driving the car, but work, health, and a lousy restorer are my only excuses. Things got so bad with the restorer I took the car back and had to do all of the mechanical and electrical work myself. My car had 368K miles on it when I decided to do a rolling resto which turned into a frame up. My goal is to get the old girl back on the road by December. I hate to admit it, but this is a 17 year old project !

Probably the lack of use is the biggest culprit. Valve probably hung up and the rocker went off the rail. Worst thing you can do to these engines is to NOT use them. Just starting them up now and then is not enough. I'd put it back on and go thrash on it down a back road .