HS30-H

Recently manufactured garbage. Much discussed (with choice four-letter emphasis) when advertised on Farcebook. I thought you were against trash, or is it just the cheapo 'Made in China' type you don't like...?

The Japanese market got the choice of L24-engined S30-series Zs when they were added to the domestic lineup in late September 1971, installed in the HS30-S 'Fairlady 240Z', HS30 'Fairlady 240Z-L' and HS30-H 'Fairlady 240ZG'. They were discontinued in late 1973 following the effects of the Yom Kippur War, the OPEC oil embargo and the consequent 'Oil Shock' in Japan.

No. A 'Dead Cat Bounce' is a drop followed by a small revival (the bounce) immediately followed by the final drop to the bottom. The analogy being based on the fact that a living cat will (proverbially) land on its paws and not bounce. A dead cat on the other hand will hit the deck and bounce once, then hit the deck and stay there. Live cats don't bounce. The bounce is proof that the real trend is down.

If by "non-locking" you mean the same thing: It's simply a 60 degree tapered collar that is crimped (lightly) to the shank of the nut, allowing it to spin freely and independently of the nut. That 60 degree taper sits on a matching 60 degree taper in the wheel, allowing the nut to tighten up onto the wheel stud and spin on the flat side of the collar. It accurately centres the (stud centric) wheel on the wheel studs, and saves the nut from galling the wheel. Simple. It's a fancy washer, in essence. Small Fords of the 1970s had a similar design (although 1.5 pitch) and RS Watanabe's in-house nuts do too.

Forgive me for being blunt, but you seem to be trying to make the evidence fit the crime here. A lot of what you are saying seems to depend on both non flame-resistant/flammable and flame-resistant/non-flammable being in circulation/use at the same time (if not, then why the stickers to denote a difference?). Having two types in production does not make any sense from a manufacturing or legislation-compliance point of view. There were many examples of changes to detail, content and construction on these cars over the years. You seem to be quoting (USA specific) MVSS compliance as a single point of reference, but the S30-series was designed, manufactured and sold for many other markets too. One of them was Japan itself of course, which was fast tracking new safety and anti-pollution legislation for the auto industry during the period we are talking about. Nissan had to keep a weather eye on being compliant in its export markets of course, but the new Japanese regulations were some of the strictest in the world at that time and many updates were made to Japanese market cars during the production run. Proof of compliance was the burden of the manufacturer, and numbered classification of compliance was noted on each vehicle (quite literally, on the engine bay tag) and on paper by chassis number. On the north American market cars the main declaration of compliance is noted on the door jamb tag. There was no need to label every updated item on every car. So we know that the 'Nan' sticker is for internal - sub-contractor/manufacturer - use, affixed to interior plastic panels to denote some sort of distinction. Exactly what that distinction consisted of is still somewhat up for debate, but when we originally discussed this on the forum the concensus was that the stickers were a quality controller-applied inspection sticker denoting parts that needed a little extra fettling/trimming/touch-up and/or re-colouring. There is evidence of re-finishing and re-colouring on many of these panels. They are large panels of fairly complex shapes, but quite thin. There is a moulded-in texture on the outer face. The material is a styrene based plastic and rejects at certain points of production (tooling warm-up, replenishment of raw material, colour change, snag-ups, etc etc) would have been common (I used to work in the injection mould tooling industry, so I know a little about this). I think there would have been the need for good quality control on these parts. I think the 'Nan' stickers were part of that. About the language side of this: I think if you show the 'Nan' sticker to any native Japanese speaker you'll get pretty much the same reaction. They will read it as 'Nan', and *translate* that into English as meaning 'Difficult' or [a] 'Difficulty'. Which in itself shows that proper *translation* of Japanese to English requires a little more depth of focus. Here's an entry from my 1968-dated Kenkyusha Japanese-English dictionary, which I think is a good indicator of common-usage in the period concerned: You can pair the 'Nan' Kanji with many other syllables to modify and alter their meaning, but the sticker itself leaves us hanging by using the 'Nan' Kanji on its own and therefore being rather cryptic. I think all evidence clearly points to it meaning - literally - 'Defect' or 'Defective' to the people using it. I'm guessing that the factory workers didn't bother removing the stickers after any rectification was carried out, and that any ultimately rejected panels simply got thrown into a recycling cage or dumpster at the moulding shop. I simply don't buy the flame resistant theory as these panels - even with 'Nan' sticker applied - are certainly nowhere approaching fire safe. They melt-burn and the thick black smoke they give off in doing so will kill you in short order. I'm interested to hear what others think.

It's an interesting theory, but I'm not convinced. For one thing, the 'Nan' stickers appear on the reverse of many interior panels that date well before 1973 (I personally have them on two 1970 build cars) so why would they be putting them on panels that early before your 1973 FMVSS? I can also vouch for having a mixture of 'Nan' stickered plastic panels and non-stickered panels on my cars, which doesn't seem to make sense in the context of fire retardency. Those panels are made from a Styrene based material which burns good and smokes bad. It's horrible stuff. There's nothing much flame-resistant about it and there's nothing much safe about it in modern terms. I think the problem for us in trying to decipher the meaning of the 'Nan' sticker is that it was never meant for our understanding. They were internal, manufacturer-applied QC labels which we - as civilians - were not supposed to see let alone understand. The kanji character used is somewhat cryptic on its own and is open to wide interpretation, as we can see. It's certainly a negative, but meaning what? If the sticker signified a distinction in fire resistance of retardence, I'd expect to see something specifically referring to the subject of fire, and 'Funen sei' ('non-inflammable') would be more along the lines of common usage, perhaps abbreviated to 'Funen'. We had another thread on this topic in the past with much more input from individual members, but I can't find it. There was more discussion of the panels themselves, in terms of finish/re-finishing, colouring etc all coming at the subject with the idea that the 'Nan' sticker indicated a negative in quality control. There's certainly a lot of evidence that points towards quality control problems and that re-finishing/re-colouring was common. I still feel we are looking at a 'Defect' quality control sticker.

Jason, Yes, I have a set but you'll have to prise one out of my cold, dead hand. Originals are not replaceable! I've shown them to a few engineering shops, most of whom don't want to know. Apparently they'd need to make a special fixture to crimp the 60 degree collar onto the nut *just right* (so that it spins freely), and minimum 5,000 off. Nuts.

Well, I'm all ears. If PerTronix has any clear British DNA, then let's hear it. Where's the (roast) beef?

A better translation of the 'Nan' Kensa sticker in this particular situation would be 'Defect'.

LOL. Especially to you, it seems. From Per-Lux, through Grote International to PerTronix Inc, there's no "British Engineering" connection: http://www.pertronix.com/about/default.aspx http://www.grote.com/about/history/ Loving the Canadian connection in there. I guess for you irony is how you get those nice crisp folds in your shirt.

PerTronix is British? When did this happen?

I may well be "as smart a$$" with "little minds", but I wouldn't be too sure the guy in the U.K. who (you say) bought this for 2k USD really knows what he bought. I see your location is listed as "High Dessert". Is that slightly north of Eton Mess, and to the south of Fruit Salad?

That photo gives a good view. Do you think there's enough clearance for the LHD rack casting to not interfere with the oil pan (due to the engine istallation angle?)? If not, that's good news. One less thing to worry about. The LHD exhaust manifold will have to be a completely different shape to RHD, but I think it can be done without looking too strange. About exterior colour/interior colour: When I saw your sketch I immediately thought 904 Grand Prix White with RED interior. I think it would look great with Export type exterior accoutrements (overriders, door mirror, etc) and the contrast of the dark 7J KS rally mags (with chrome dome nuts...). When I took a ride in your blue-on-blue '70 HLS30U my biggest impression was the blue interior. It really made me think of 1960s American car interiors, and goes so well with blue skies and sunshine. The factory red interior colour has a similar effect for me. So startling!

No Kats, I'm not talking about the short knuckles - although I have used them on all of my cars, and you will have no problems if you use a full size steering wheel. I was referring to the clearance cut-out in the 432-specific S20 oil pan/sump which is designed to accommodate the RHD steering rack casting. For an LHD S20-powered Z, I believe you will have to make a mirror-image clearance cut-out on the other side of the oil pan, to clear the LHD steering rack.

Hi Kats, I think it's an interesting idea for a project car, and your drawing skills are good. I think you have specified a lot of really nice 'special' parts that will fit well together as a spec package, but I'm interested to hear about your interior concept (steering wheel and seats especially). As noted in your sketch, tricky points will be the exhaust manifold/steering shaft clearance (I think you can make a special manifold to suit, as indeed the factory must have done for their LHD S20 powered Z experiments) and the mechanical throttle linkage (again, you can make something to solve this) and I also think you will have to modify the oil pan to fit around the LHD steering rack in a mirror-image of the RHD version. You'll need to source or fabricate the S20-specific engine crossmember, like I had to. I think the electrical side of things will be tricky unless you fabricate new sections of wiring harness that interface between LHD (L-gata specific) dash harness and the S20-specific engine room harness. I've been through the RHD L-gata dash harness/S20 engine room harness experience and it is complicated! I wonder if one of Nishi san's NOS/repro 432 harnesses could be adapted to LHD configuration? That would be simpler I think. So what colour is it going to be?

One question, though. At this point it's something of a pipedream, so you don't have to face reality, but what chassis designation would you give it? 'PLS30'? How about 'KPLS30' (K for Kats)?

Yes Kats, I can see you have too much free time between flights. I can sympathise. I went to a Jesuit school, and we were forced to wear boxing gloves in bed.

Isn't this just another - same old, same old - example of a journalist not really knowing what he's writing about? It's all very well him getting direct access to Matsuo san (and hats off to Eiji for his rudely uncredited live translation services) but he needs to have a grounded knowledge of the subject to fill in the gaps afterwards. Clearly he doesn't, and has referred to the usual myths and half truths instead... So we get told that Matsuo san worked at Nissan Shatai (Hiratsuka), when in fact he was based at the Nissan Design & Modelling Department (Tsurumi). We get Matsuo "exiled" to a new job and Katayama "exiled to the USA" as a "punishment" (nonsense), we get the 'hood raised to fit the L24' story (when it was raised to suit the L20, which came before the L24), we get told that Katayama chose "...to call the car in America by its working model number “240Z”..." when it's in-house project designation was actually '270' (from '270 Kaihatsu Kigou') and the old saw "...When the first shipment of 240Zs arrived in the United States still with “Fairlady” badges on the back, Katayama went so far as to personally remove them with his own hands.". First shipment, huh? And Nissan did have a full-size wind tunnel at their disposal. It's no surprise that '240Z' is used where 'S30-series' would be more appropriate, as that's become the norm and it's a habit that even accredited marque experts insist on. However it turns any discussion on the origin and development of the cars into a mess, throwing up situations where we get told "The Japanese 240Z even came with a stopwatch...". I'm tempted to shout "Fake News!", but it's more akin to to the blind leading the blind. Poor effort.

I wouldn't place too much store on the 'HP' element in the quote. Uemura san's original book (as opposed to the 'translation' version) uses the term '馬力' ('Bariki') which is an equivalent term for 'Horsepower', whilst the Japanese testing standard was actually 'PS' (the German standard of Pferdestarke) and the numbers are all very much rounded up. The normally-quoted figures for the different iterations of GR8 race engines on the other hand were usually somewhat rounded down, in order to keep the competition guessing. Quite a lot in Uemura san's original (Japanese) book seems to have been edited out of the English language 'translation', or 'tuned' to suit the 'Datsun 240Z' retitling. In any case, I would not take quoted engine power figures in either version at face value and without bearing in mind the wider stories behind them.

"G8B" was the factory designation for what then became the 'S20'. It wasn't the same engine as the GR8, despite the bloodline. The 'G8B' was somewhat simplified and mass-productionised in comparison to the pure race 'GR8', and the cylinder head casting in particular (along with the cam cover, inlet manifold, distributor/ignition system, cooling system/water pump and cam drive system) was completely different. I have factory race department dyno testing sheets from 1970 where they are still identifying the 'S20' as the 'G8B', probably through force of habit.

Kats, For reference, the 432-type S20 engine in my 432-R replica is stamped engine # S20-000877, and block casting numbers are 9 2 11 32: There was some suggestion that a batch of 432-type S20 engine blocks were cast at the same time as a batch of mid/late production PGC10 GT-R engine blocks, early in 1969.

Kats, Of course I think you know this, but... The answer is a simple 'no'. The 432-Rs that were sold to the general public - even if they were aspiring racers - and especially those that were registered for road use, had a fixed price and a fixed mechanical specification. They were pretty much on the limit of what was legally compliant for sale and road use in Japan at the time, and there was already some compromise on - for example - emissions issues with the deletion of the airbox, airfilter and the positive crankcase ventilation system that hooked up to it. If anybody wanted to tune their 432-R - or indeed go racing with it - then there was a whole raft of Nissan Sports/Race Option parts available for them to purchase and fit, and the official Nissan Sports Race & Rally 'Yellow Book' to advise them on parts, techniques and race settings: Out there in the ether there are misconceptions and claims that the 432-R - as sold to the general public - had a race-tuned engine, but I think this is simply mistaken. There's probably some element of confusion between the specs of the standard road-going 432-Rs and the Works race cars, which were of course completely different.

I don't believe the British press got anything exclusive with regard to Goertz. I think the "source of the Myth" was clearly Goertz himself, but he had friends and supporters in the North American automotive press and used them to big-up his 'portfolio'. Wasn't one of the biggest claims in the Canadian press? Anecdote: I was once threatened with legal action by some friends and associates of "Graf" Albrecht Goertz. They took exception to my correspondence with the British automotive press regarding their friend's work. They believe he "designed the Datsun 240Z", and were prepared to go to court to defend their view. I have no idea what evidence they could produce to support such a claim...

'According to Goertz' is not quite the same as 'according to Nissan', or according to reality... Goertz certainly had a little of Walter Mitty about him, and was making grand claims about his work in Japan when very few people were able to call him out on it because they mostly didn't get to hear about it. The terms of his contract with Nissan would make interesting reading (and a 19 month contract term is one I've yet to see...) but I think we can be sure he wasn't employed in a position as a "Design Consultant" in the sense that he was supposed to be actually designing anything. Reality: Goertz did not speak, read or write Japanese. All of his communication in Japan would have had to have been conducted through interpreters, or in English. That would have cramped his style somewhat. Nissan (and Prince) were big enough to hire the services of specialist coachbuilders like Pininfarina and Michelotti, and at least got the kudos of collaborations with such world-renowned coachbuilding houses and could use their names and badges. Goertz was an itinerant lone gun for hire who put himself in the frame rather than being sought out by Nissan, and they hired him for the very specific purpose of full size clay modelling techniques. I feel your pain RIP260Z. I just don't understand why Goertz gets namechecked so often with regard to 'our' cars. It makes a no-smoke-without-fire situation where even mentioning him as having nothing to do with the S30-series Z's creation makes a subliminal connection. I don't know what the solution is, except to be constant and repetitive in stating that he didn't "design" anything that went into production.