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I was able to get everything back together on the car yesterday. The new yoke (with a new bushing in the back of the transmission) was a very snug fit. After double checking I torqued everything, I was able to take the car on a test drive. What a big difference! I got up to about 80 on some interstate and the severe vibration, which previously could be felt with a hand on the transmission tunnel, and seen in the blurring rear view mirror, was gone. Now, I can get back to the small list of things that I have to do to finish this car: install inside rear tail light trim panel install front right kick panel clean and glue in tool compartment liners repaint tail light trim panels (for better color match) install NOS glove box hinge/inside panel install rear hatch trim panel repair and install factory radio, or install guts of a new radio in the old radio case

Very nostalgic for me. Back in 1995 I was asked to accompany a couple of Japanese motoring journalists to the Le Mans 24hrs race to assist in press coverage of NISMO's GTR-LMs and their participation in the race for Club Le Mans. We had pit access, press room access, full catering and hospitality. A big contrast to my first visit to the LM24hrs in 1970 when I only ate frites and crepes and managed to catch just a few hours sleep whilst soaked through, laying on newspapers by the side of the track...!

Was on a 3 day layover in Nagoya, and visited the Toyota Auto Museum. Fantastic. The 432 was great, but the show was stolen by the 2000GT. So many great cars there. Another notable was a 42 KdF Beetle, and from the description the earliest Datsun.

I collected a few parts again, recently. Some stuff which is required to complete the car: First of all, one of those beautifully crafted S30.world reproduction fuel tanks and tank insulation rubbers. I sold mine at the recent japanclassic show, so I had to get a new one for my project. Secondly, I got a NOS euro spec front lower center valance (with the additional installation holes for the euro front spoiler): This means i can finally replace the crappy old one with the one that actually belongs there. Huge thanks to Alan for helping me with this! Then I got one of those original printed Datsun competition parts catalogues. I already have the Japanese versions and had this one digitally, but I always prefer to have the original printed stuff. For those who don't know the competition parts catalogue, it's basically a "sports option" and racing parts catalogue by Nissan themselves: I also got another issue of the "Nissan Star" magazine. It was a Swiss Datsun / Nissan customer magazine, which always has cool insights at how Nissan (Switzerland) operated back in the days. I also randomly came across this "Nissan 50th anniversary" catalogue from Switzerland. It's completely unrelated to my project, but since I have all the original "50th anniversary" badges, I thought it would be cool to have the fitting catalogue to it with the same logo on the front. Things are a bit crazy at work at the moment, so progress is slow, but I hope to jump back in the project soon. I made a major decision to have the car completed by some professionals, otherwise the project will drag on for another decade. But I still need to complete some tasks by myself, and more details on that topic soon.

I visited the Toyota Museum a couple of years ago and highly recommend it to anyone visiting Japan. DC871F's photos here only scratch the surface of a really great collection, displayed in an attractive and thoughtfully organized way. Nice restaurant on site. Also, a huge display of model cars. Over the past fifty years, I've been able to visit most of the world's premiere automotive museums and this one ranks in my Top 5. As a bonus, you can even use the local magnetic levitation ('maglev') train service to connect with the main JR rail station in nearby Nagoya. The museum is an easy day-trip from Kyoto or Osaka. The connections will allow you four or five hours of time at the museum. BTW, the 240Z on display is so authentic that it even has a suitably-cracked dash pad!

Guess I'll put it here as this is, at least to this old buzzard, the path of least resistance After almost 190,000 miles and a bit of bearing noise I decided to give the 5 speed in my 78 280 the business and @ the same time address all of the related issues. At the risk of glazing the eyes of my audience I promise to be brief. I had the rear engine plate powder coated - yes, I know it was clear zinc plated from the factory but I wanted to see what my very excellent powder coater could do and the results are very satisfactory - removed 4 pounds from the stock 24 pound flywheel, had the now lightened flywheel balanced along with a new pressure plate, replaced the rear engine seal, clutch assy - used the Exedy set for probably the 100th + time in my career - flywheel and pressure plate fasteners, ALL of the trans bearings, 2nd and 3rd gear syncros, seals and gasket and had all of the related fasteners, etc. zinc replated. This past Sat I drove the 350 mile round trip to Import Carlisle - touched 100 MPH for a couple of seconds - without a hint of concern. I got those trans parts I could from Nissan - yes, I know there are some cheaper alternatives but I like the guys at my fav dealer. Those bearings that are NLA from Nissan I got from a company in Japan, Amayma. They, Amayma, provide excellent service and excellent prices for parts in the original Nissan packaging. Way back in 1971 the dealer I was working for sent me to Datsun trans school. The school held @ Datsun eastern headquarters in Secaucus, NJ. The dealer provided me with a NEW, just off the boat, 510 2 door for transportation. Yes, a new 510 2 door was capable of an indicated 100+. We were provided lunch at what was, I'm confident, a mob owned restaurant. Our instructor told us we could order ANYTHING on the menu but if we wanted lobster we had to give one day notice. Those were the days.

Recently, I collected a lot of cool, rare or needed Datsun / Nissan parts and documents again. Let's have a look: First, i got gifted this lovely 510 / bluebird Die cast model from my Lovely lady Myrtha. Big thanks again! She also brought me one of those famous green Datsun Switzerland folders. This one has all the spec-sheets of all Datsuns sold in Switzerland at that time. The specification goes quite deep. These folders were given to dealerships and were in the HQ for a quick check and comparison of technical specifications of all cars: So far I only had copies of the single Z-specific sheets, but now, finally, I have the missing folder in my collection. Very cool. And big thanks gain to Myrtha! Additionally, I got various random bits and pieces from Alibaba, thanks to some tips from my man Urs. Two different sized rubber plugs for the drum brakes (It seems that not all drums have the same hole-diameters?) And various Nylon washers. I will try to see if one of those fits the rear hatch strut damper. Since my original washers are either broken or damaged: My man Stefan also gave me a box of what appears to be Brass synchro gear wheels. We still have to figure out if they'd fit the Z, as they all came without part numbers or description, included in a big Datsun Parts lot. From my Man Dan at Japanese Allstars, I got this starroad Poster. Dan is an official starroad dealer in Switzerland, and he got this during his last visit. Although I'm not a huge fan of the Starroad creations, these days, I really like the photo on this large one-page calendar: After Months of searching, I finally found this 1994 NISMO 10th anniversary parts catalogue. I will put it on display with my NISMO 10th anniversary collection of Accessory catalogue, sticker, steering wheel and shift knob :-) The cool thing is, this catalogue came with an invitation flyer o the NISMO 1995 New year's garage sale at Nissan KN's factory: And even better, a two-page flyer invitation to the founding of the NISMO "club Le Mans". You can read more about that on the official NISMO page. And last but not least, I found this original printed Datsun 240-Z one-page flyer from Datsun Italy. Something very rare, which I've never seen before. Generally, 240Z information from Italy is very sparse, so I had to get it, when it came up for sale: I had some physical work done on some Z-parts too, so I will post another update of a little project soon, too.