HS30-H

Hi Phil, It doesn't really feel as though I have made much progress on the car. Most of the work I did on it over the Summer months was with it sitting up on high jackstands with me laying underneath scraping, brushing and wire-wheeling off the underbody. Its done now, but it feels like it took forever. I've had a few hiccups with lost components between my sandblaster and powdercoater ( each blaming the other ) and frankly probably spent too many weekends driving the R32 instead of in the garage. Now Winter is here and the garage is a cold, dark and uninviting prospect.... Yes, Fourways did all the interior, engine bay and exterior paint on the body. Its 920 'Safari Brown' ( 'Gold' in Export markets ) and therefore not the correct colour for a Factory PZR - which is a 'deliberate mistake' on my part. I brought my specially-fabricated front crossmember back from Japan as checked-in baggage this time ( the S20 engine mounting 'towers' are quite different to those of the L-series engines ). It looked quite suspicious going through the X-Ray machine at the airport, especially with the 432R-type engine bay wiring loom that was packaged with it. The security inspectors ran it through a few extra times at different angles and looked at it quizzically, but gladly didn't ask me to unwrap it. I guess they get to see all sorts...... Cheers, Alan T.

It wasn't really the Overfenders on the white twinny-grinny 432s that I thought was 'blasphemous' ( although the fact that they were carbon fibre seems to sum up the approach in the build of these two cars ). It was more to do with the fact that they chose to make so many non-period and 'bling' mods to a pair of 432s rather than a more common model. Seeing an S20 engine with a chromed valve cover made me feel a bit queasy, but perhaps more disconcerting was the beautiful engineering and almost flawless bodywork, paint, wiring and plumbing. It was all excellent. How could such an artisan have such bad taste? Very odd. Lots of the components of the two cars, when taken off the cars and viewed on their own, are perfectly fine. But put them all together ( on a PS30 body! ) and to my mind its neither fish nor fowl. I have NO problem with modifications - even the most extreme - and I would have been pleased to see something like an RB in the engine bay ( not in a PS30 body please... ) but I couldn't see the philosophy behind them. Just my opinion, though. The owners I guess have a right to do whatever they want. Then the Veilside-kitted Z33 turned up, and the owner appeared to be best mates with them both. That made the penny drop for me...... three peas in a pod. Not really. I always find interior shots a little awkward at meetings like this. Like photographing somebody's kitchen. There's usually a lot of cooler boxes, folding chairs, coats and shoes inside the cars! One guy even brought his bird with him. I don't mean a girl, I mean an actual live tweety bird in a cage. Some kind of exotic warbler or finch. In a classic dome-shaped cage with a perch. The owner was in a lovely GP Maroon ZG. I kid you not. I'd have thought the poor bird would get alarmed and drop dead, but apparently not. Now that's what I call a family day out.

Hi Mike, I didn't go to Japan just for the Sagamiko meeting. I was just lucky that ( like last year's event ) I was taking a business trip to Japan at around the same time and was able to 'tweak' my schedule a little in order to accomodate it without getting into too much trouble. I could have chosen the NISMO Festival by tweaking a bit more the other way - making my business trip later rather than sooner - but its taking place at T.I.Circuit Aida again this year ( whilst FISCO is being redeveloped by Toyota ) and that's a bit too far west for me. There's still time for anyone who wants to go to that though. Anyone? That photo is of Takeuchi san's original 432R. The 432R model left the Factory with a semi-matt black FRP bonnet ( hood ) with a kind of dark charcoal metallic paint on the inside. There was a 432R on the Nissan display stand at the world launch of the S30-series Z, so if anything you might say that the Works rally cars followed the PZR on bonnet colouring rather than the other way around. The FRP PZR bonnet and the first series of Works rally car bonnets were the same item with the same part number. You mean the warehouse at Zama? ( sore point: Nissan can't call it a proper 'museum' unless they admit the general public ). I've only been there once and I think it might be a while before I can go there again. Maybe Nissan will even get their new 'museum' floor in their proposed new Yokohama HQ built before I go there again ( its scheduled to open in 2010! ). I've actually got hundreds of shots of the three Works cars that Nissan still own. What do you want to see? I might play requests. Alan T.

He was not at the Sagamiko meeting, but that was not particularly surprising. I asked after him via a couple of mutual friends, but both said that they had not heard from him for a while. Didn't he say he was taking a bit of a holiday from the net for a while, and spending more time with his family?

Same situation for me too, Gav. No e-mail notifications whatsoever. Makes it difficult to be polite in trying to answer questions on all the recent pics I have posted.

Maybe he remembers looking at the manual for the aftermarket aircon system? I have FSMs that cover ALL the Japanese home-market S30 Z models, and there are none with evap units between the shock towers. Sorry to be even more pessimistic, but these 'G.I. Bride' cars quite often have a lot of misinformation and 'whispering grass' type anecdotes attached to them ( I know, I've got one of these cars myself ). As an American forces serviceman, he would much more likely have picked it up from the foreign language and Diplomatic sales office in Ginza ( Nissan's Tokyo HQ ) rather than the Factory itself - which had no facilities for such a personal collection. I still think it sounds like a Japanese aftermarket unit.

Hi Ben, You're not kidding. Take a look at the photo attached below....... it was hard to avoid them :cross-eye The one on its lonesome? Yes - that one was an original ( and looked FRESH ) on standard wheels and wheel trims. There was another GP Maroon car there on standard wheels and trims, but that was a lookalike. That's Takeuchi san's car. You are right, he gets around; not only does he go to a lot of meets, he also gets into a lot of mags and videos. I agree - its good that the car is used and not mothballed. Somebody needs to invite him to one of the USA Convention meetings, don't you think? Cheers, Alan T.