HS30-H

I think it would certainly have been the JATCO 3N71A, as this was already being fitted and sold in the Japanese market in C10-series Skylines and other models by the end of 1968/early 1969. By the time of the 'Kaku U' north American tour it would have been a bit late (and fairly pointless) for them to have anything other than the 3N71A in one of the cars. Good story regarding your auto-equipped 510. Must have been a pretty big leap of faith in those days to buy such a car with the great distances between proper servicing dealers. I hope your loyalty was rewarded!

As 26th-Z pointed out, the subject of Automatic Transmission-equipped S30-series Zs - when framed by terms such as "earliest" and "oldest on the road" - has to take into account that Auto-equipped Zs were available in Japan much earlier than they were in north America. Having said that, at least one of the 'Kaku U' north American test/dealer publicity run cars from 1969 was Auto trans equipped. Not a true production car, but it did have a chassis number. The 3N71A transmission was made by JATCO (Japan Automatic Transmission Company), a joint enterprise by several companies under the BW patents..

No, there is Japanese factory documentation confirming that the majority of protective plating on the car was Zinc, and the yellow 'gold' finish is gold-passivated Zinc Chromate.

The answer is that none were. The finish you are thinking of is (yellow) gold-passivated Zinc Chromate plating.

Something we've discussed before on classiczcars.com: Post #9 in particular...

You're quite likely the only person who thinks he knows the exact day on which his car was made...

It's the ZG-specific towing bracket, as Kats pointed out previously...

Well done. Keep up the good work.

Turning his "Chinese Junk" slogan into his forum signature was a poor choice, in my opinion. It verged on politicking, and sometimes came off as a bit of a xenophobic rant. People should be free to buy what they want, and personally I don't care where things come from as long as they are well designed, well made and don't rip anybody off. And 'we' were copying China before China copied 'us'. When you think about it, this forum probably would not exist if Blue's type of sensibilities had been dominant 46 years ago. Does "Don't buy Japanese junk" ring a bell...?

The floor-pan 'pockets' are nothing to do with any Factory roll bar/'safety bar'/cage or related structure.

And just like so much written and spoken about Yutaka Katayama, it has a mistake or misapprehension in every sentence.

Tell him, not me. He's the one using Imperial.

I had to temporarily dumb myself down in order to realise that "visually appeared" should be "visually impaired"... Obviously that post was Made In China. So, Blue had more than 4 inches. Who knew?

Caveat emptor, I think you'll find. Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.

If I know I'm right I'll stand fast. Fact is I can tell if a car is an S31 just from a picture, but it depends on the picture. So the answer is both yes and no. I don't know what point you are trying to make here. The auction description is fairly clear, and at least clear enough to establish that none of the three cars is an S31. If you remember, it was you who brought the term 'S31' into the topic - despite you not really knowing what it meant or what it was applied to. Hopefully you know a little more now? Here's a photo of an S31 dashboard, showing its 180km/h speedometer in situ:

There are three cars listed in the auction description. One is (clearly!) a 2-seater made before the end of 1973, and the other two - a 2-seater and a 2/2 - are listed as 1973 and 1974 respectively. The photos appear to confirm this. Do you think the description is incorrect? A 180kph speedo could easily be from an S30-series Z. Do you think it isn't?

It's not that difficult to tell the difference, but when you know the production year (because the auction seller mentions it, for example...) it makes it even easier. The filename includes 'S31' because it depicts an S31, and because the catalogue/flyer it comes from is for the S31 range...

Pretty much the same as all the 1973-up Japanese market cars:

Why would be an "early A"? You're talking about a cross-pin attaching the gear stick to 'ears' on the trans case, which already tells us it isn't an 'A' type 5spd. It's not difficult to distinguish between and FS5C71A and an FS5C71B even when both are in the car. The 'A' type has a straight gear stick and has three main housing castings (bellhousing, centre case and tail case) whilst the 'B' type has two (combined bellhousing/centre case and tail case) so looking at the bellhousing from the engine bay (you can clearly see the split line where the bellhousing attaches) or the gearstick and its attachment (by taking off the gaiter) should show you the difference. Additionally, an 'A' type 5spd will not fit into a 'late' centre console car without a special gearstick. It needs a big dog-leg kink put into it to clear the console in the forward gear positions (1st, 3rd & 5th) so that too should be visible by taking the gaiter off. EuroDat, I don't know where all the 280Z, 620 and 720 stuff is coming from? Why make this more complicated by introducing ideas from left field? We could suggest a whole raft of other transmissions too, but seems pointless and unlikely to me. As I've already pointed out, if the car is indeed a 1973 production 'Euro' market HLS30 it would have been fitted with the FS5C71B type transmission. If you think that the transmission is the same one that it left the factory with, then that is what it will be.

We've discussed them several times on this forum in the past. 'S31' was the name given to the updated S30-series cars that complied with new emissions, safety and consumer law legislation for the Japanese market. They were introduced in July 1976 and were produced until the all-new S130-series models were introduced in late 1978. This forum's search function seems to be about as useful as a chocolate teapot at the moment, so here's a link to a HybridZ thread instead: http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/93310-what-models-were-s30-and-s31/

Luckily the people who live in and visit Gunma Prefecture know that it is on Honshu, and around 1,500km from Okinawa.

They are not S31s. All are pre-S31. People in Gunma might be surprised to hear any part of it described as "jungle"...

Be aware that your '73 'Euro' model 240Z would not have been fitted with the FS5C71A type transmission. By '73 they had been superseded by the FS5C71B. A and B 'boxes are two completely different designs. The later US '280z' models would use the same 'B' type transmissions, but in FS5W71B form I believe. Different ratios, and different synchro ring design/material.

Thanks for the tip o' the hat. Appreciate it.

Confirm no dash top 'VIN' plate on European market cars. It was purely a north American market requirement.