HS30-H

Quite. He's quite clearly mixing his super lightweight PZRs up with his full fat PZs. Probably wears a G-Shock 'cos it's "better".

Nope. Not just the engine. It's the whole package. Including the chassis prefix. If anybody who is a member of classiczcars.com doesn't get it, then I have to wonder why they are a member of classiczcars.com.

You could ask the same thing about anything. Why would you want a vintage Patek Philippe when a G-Shock keeps better time? Why would you want a painting by Matisse hanging on your wall when that poster of the tennis girl pulling her panties out of her crack is so much cheaper? Next from you: "Diamonds? They're just rocks, man...!"

In the spirit of what? The only fibreglass pieces on a 1969/70 PS30 Fairlady Z 432 are the headlamp cases / 'sugar scoops'. Same as on any Z built in that same period. Part of the fallout from the chatter about this sale is the revelation that people still don't know what they are talking about with regard to these cars. The amount of people who are mixing up specs and details between PS30s and PS30-SBs is unreal, and apocryphal stories are popping up all over. Just yesterday there was a guy on Facebook who was convinced that 432s had been sold in a primer finish so that "race teams" could paint them as they chose. Where in heaven's name did he get that from?

Moot point. It was sold where it was and how it was, and was bought (and underbid) by who it was. Doesn't make it any more or less of a car. At half that sale price, or double, it would still be an important and rare piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is the story of these cars. Unless you think a high auction price suddenly changes what this car has always been?

It really didn't break anything, except perhaps the bubble of self-certified complacency that has believed the HLS30 'Datsun 240Z' was the whole story and that nothing else mattered. So, welcome to 1969.

Correct in the case of the B680X, but incorrect in the case of the L20 itself. Lots of other small inaccuracies on earlydatsun.com. Be careful of single-source, non peer-group critiqued websites. Best to cross-reference from multiple independent sources.

Even calling him the "architect" is going too far. It's too late to turn back the clock now, but ideally we'd be going back to Year Zero and simply not thinking of Yutaka Katayama as being any kind of product creator. Katayama had no such remit. He simply wasn't tasked with being a product planner, and nor was any Vice President or President of NMC-USA during the period before Nissan started manufacturing automobiles in the USA. Not only that, but the cars that Katayama's name has been synonymous with (namely the 510-series Bluebird and the S30-series Z) were not created at his sole request or designed and engineered solely for one market. In fact, during the period we are talking about - and for long afterward - there were no vehicles that were conceived, designed and engineered solely for the USA market that Katayama was responsible for when he was President. The 510 and S30 would have been created whether Katayama existed or not. Perhaps we could argue that they might not have been quite the same, but it's unlikely - if not impossible - that Nissan would not have had updated and re-designed Bluebirds and Fairladies (take those 'Bluebird' and 'Fairlady' emblems off and stick a '510' and '240' in their place if you want) to bring to market to meet new laws and regulations as well as consumer expectations. A big company like Nissan had to have models in those market sectors. After all, it had everything else in its line-up. I don't think the Steve Jobs / Bill Gates comparison stands up to scrutiny as Katayama was never the 'boss' of a company which designed and built the product it sold whilst he was boss. He was President of NMC-USA from 1965 to 1975, and during that period NMC-USA could only lobby Nissan Motors Japan for influence over what it wanted to sell, and that had to fit into the bigger picture - ie what was possible and what was convenient considering Nissan's other Export commitments and - most importantly for a Japanese auto maker in that period - its Domestic activities. Somehow we have arrived at a situation where a great man - a seminal figure in Nissan's history - is being remembered for the wrong reasons. Platitudes "thanking" Katayama for giving/bringing/creating certain cars are well-intentioned but are starting out with a premise that is mistaken. In contrast, the tributes from the likes of Bob Bondurant and Pete Brock tell of their personal respect for the man, and how he was both a help and an inspiration to them and their work. That's the kind of thing we should be remembering him for. It was Yutaka Katayama's fine work (along with that of Soichi Kawazoe and many others) in building NMC-USA's dealer and servicing network, and in being the friendly, approachable and trustworthy face of an otherwise slightly anonymous and deeply foreign company that was the big achievement here. They sold the product. MNC-USA could probably have sold plenty of product in the north American market during the period we are talking about, but if it wasn't for Katayama we probably wouldn't hold it in quite the same affection as we do. There's plenty more I could write on the subject - and it's a BIG subject - but people see much of this as some kind of attack on Katayama and his memory. That's not the intention, and I hope that - in time - we will start to understand Yutaka Katayama's life and legacy in a more realistic and accurate way. I think all great men deserve that.

And so am I.

This was Rob Janssen's personal car, with his own modifications, wasn't it? I notice they repeated the mistake with regard to the diff. ratio: They state 3.363:1, when this car had the FS5C71-A transmission and the 3.9:1 diff. ratio.

Except that he wasn't. The 'Mr Yamura' character in the film 'Grand Prix' is a composite of the real-life Yoshio Nakamura (Honda Grand Prix team chief) and Soichiro Honda himself. The fictional team 'Yamura Motors' is clearly based on Honda, and the Yamura GP cars carry Yamura's name on them. Both Nakamura and Honda were engineers. Katayama was not an engineer, a designer, 'stylist' or product planner, and the cars we talk about here are not called 'Katayamas'. So, Mr K. was not a bit like 'Mr Yamura'.

Excellent. Best tribute I've seen yet.

But he is - mistakenly - being credited as a "designer": ...which is untrue. Where does this misinformation come from? Is it in fact just a misunderstanding that stems from being called "The Father Of The Z"...? I've sent a comment to Hagerty, but it hasn't been acknowledged yet.

Yes, but it's WRONG.

Fffffffffffffffffff...... FACTORY.

You've got that the wrong way around: 4-speed diff ratio is 3.364:1 and 5-speed diff ratio is 3.9:1 (4.44:1 with S20 engine).

I've tried contributing to Wikipedia in the past (notably on the subject of Albrecht Goertz) but my input was soon edited back again. Far better to make sure that we have the correct information here. And unlike Wikipedia, we have the knowledge, ability and format to discuss topics at length - with supporting evidence in the form of documents and photos - and come to a conclusion (or at least an 'open verdict' on the more contentious points) and all this can be accessed and researched. We have it here. Please don't lose sight of that.

Carl, It could also be surmised that the decision to give ISHIHARA the post of President for five years (and KAWAZOE and KATAYAMA the position of Vice Presidents) was significant. It's open to interpretation from whatever viewpoint you want to hold on it. I'm sorry, but Yutaka Katayama's claim ("I started the company...") is taken far too literally - just like many of the things he said. The truth is that Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. of Japan started NMC-USA as part of a wider - GLOBAL - plan to expand its Export sales by taking closer control of the importation, distribution and servicing of its products. It had already started similar subsidiary companies in other countries that would become significant Export markets, so NMC-USA wasn't the first. That attorney was Reid Briggs, who had already worked on Nissan's behalf when Marubeni Corporation was importing the first 'Datsun' branded Nissan products to the USA from 1957, overseen by Koichi IWATA of Nissan Japan's Export Department, before Katayama (and Kawazoe) arrived in the USA in 1960.

Mike, I wrote out the facts about the incorporation of NMC-USA in the previous thread that this one was split off from, and you simply deleted them. So I will repeat here: Nissan Motor Corporation in USA ('NMC-USA') was incorporated on September 28th 1960. It's first President was Takashi ISHIHARA. Yutaka KATAYAMA and Soichi KAWAZOE were both appointed Vice Presidents, KATAYAMA with responsibility for the Western Division and KAWAZOE with responsibility for the Eastern Division. ISHIHARA held the position of President until 1965. It was at that point that Yutaka KATAYAMA became President of NMC-USA. He held the post until 1975. About Wikipedia: It's useful as a resource for some things, but if we want hard facts and opinion that has been peer-group critiqued about the S30-series Z and the related history that surrounds it, then classiczcars.com is probably one of the best places to search. If WE don't get it right, then who will? So by all means take a shot at editing Wikipedia, but don't forget you're already standing at the foot of the lighthouse.

If you're talking about the 1958 Mobilgas Trial, it was actually Yasuharu NAMBA who was the race team manager. I can't think of any other instance when Katayama was a race team manager.

Unfortunately - and this is something that we are going to see more and more of - it revives and repeats several stories that are just plain falsehoods. Yutaka Katayama's life story is unique, fascinating and extraordinary. It doesn't need all the hyperbole and misattributions. I just read a Facebook post thanking him for "creating" the Fairlady roadsters, 510 and 240Z. It's verging on Cargo Cult worship. Ridiculous.

Can we just get a few things straight before we go any further with this? Yutaka Katayama did not design any cars. He wasn't a 'designer', a 'stylist', an engineer or any kind of technician. He was a businessman, a business builder, a salesman with a background in marketing and advertising. So whilst he was a major figure in Nissan's history, an historically important figure in Japan's 'Showa' era and a great man, he didn't conceive, design or engineer any of Nissan's products.

You are misinterpreting the data on the Nissan Heritage Collection web pages. The 'Oppama Test Car' seen in the Best Motoring video was originally a 1973 car, but was developed - and tested - in many guises through the 1970s, and eventually became one of the fleet in the Nissan Racing School. It didn't race in 1973 with an LY28, let alone in 1971. Cars in roughly that guise did take part in FIA-sanctioned races, but they were in the Group 5 class and occasionally in Group 4 (depending on final spec.). They didn't use N42 or F54 engine blocks. Generally speaking, you won't be allowed to use an L28-based engine for properly enforced FIA events in Europe. As I said further back in the thread, the people you really need to talk to are the eligibility scrutineers for the series/races that you intend to take part in. You need to pick a class that you have a chance to be competitive in, and build the car to suit the rules for the class.

Key point is the rules and regulations of the race(s) / series you intend to take part in. You need to build your car to fit a specific class, and the race organisers (as well as your fellow competitors...) will decide how closely you are expected to follow the regulations for that class.

Mike, If esprist doesn't mind, I think I can answer this. Page 11 in Nissan Service Shuho Z-6 (dated September 1973) notifies the addition of the 'Rappa' (trumpet/horn) symbol on the steering wheel pad, in compliance with new safety legislation. It applies to chassis number S30-108001 and up. Attached scan: