HS30-H

That's good. Nobody will be able to say "A Corellian vessel, made in the USA"... :bandit:

Editing for "clarification" Carl? You changed "arse" to asinine. I'd prefer to be an arse than a backstabber like you.

Personally speaking, I think I'll survive. Don't expect me to remember your username for longer than it takes to write this reply, though. I certainly don't think this is the worst thing in my life, but the subject is relevant to this site and its users. Thank you for pointing out that - in your opinion - thieving of photos is OK, but you draw the line at your personal identity and credit records. I'm sure that the members of this site will now how they stand with you. Those people really need to get a life don't they? In at least one case, they literally need to get a life. Perhaps you would like to suggest a reasonable ( respectable, in the light of the state of the World? ) number of photos and posts for each member, so that they don't offend you with their profligacy? If anything I have written bothers you, then I'm sure you will take your own advice and "get over it".

How dare people complain when some poor innocent Z lover steals their photos, eh? :cheeky:

So that makes it OK then? It was ON THE NET. Anyone could see it. A Google image search even showed it. :stupid: You mean no monetary gain, I presume? This too makes it OK then? I asked you ( politely I believe, and in a PM with no public fuss directed personally at you ) to remove those pictures from your website. You did not reply. The question of the "owner" of the images is a moot point ( especially in light of some of the other comments on this thread from members who appear to believe that once I upload photos to the Gallery on this site they are automatically not 'mine' anymore ) but the fact remains that it was the photographs that I took being present on your website without permission or even credit that caused offence to me. I notice you even cropped off the classiczcars.com watermarks.......... You didn't need to remove the whole site. You only needed to remove my photos from it. But what's the point of a website if you honestly believe that you are the only person who will view it? I don't get it. It's good of you to apologise, even indirectly ( a PM would have been more fitting, in my opinion ) but there is no "if" about whether what you did was right or wrong. All you needed to do was look at the bottom of every page on this website, and the copyright notice would have told you what you needed to know. Nice touch. Should be good for a spot of sympathy from the "75% of ( voting ) members" of this site who appear to think that what you did was perfectly OK. Alan T.

If I thought my 'rights' had gone out of the door once I posted pics into my classiczcars.com Gallery, then I would not post any pics whatsoever. Anybody who uploads pics to the Gallery on this site ( even the ones who dont give a "rats a$$" or a "flyin' fudge" ) has a right to expect that any misuse or misrepresentation of those pics will be met with the correct response from the site. I do want to "share" ( show ) pics for us all to enjoy, but if I thought that by uploading them to the Gallery on this site I was giving them away to be used by anybody and everybody, as and when they please, then I would NOT post any pics at all. Unless you have been faced with the reality of hijack and misuse of your photos you probably will not be able to relate to how it feels. Alan T.

I don't have a 'nude' lever pic to hand, but I have a pic of one as installed in a Works rally car. Maybe it will give you an idea of just how extreme these bends are. They are probably not far off 90 degrees ( twice ). Cheers, Alan T.

Hi Andrew, Congrats on getting your engine and box installed. Did you do it from underneath in the end? Nissan made a special gear lever for use when installing a 5-speed into the early 4-speed cars, and I'm wondering if this would do the trick for you? Part number was 99996-E3030 ( I think it was a "kit" - with the 5-speed shift knob included ) and at least up until a couple of years ago it was still available in the USA. I don't know if anyone else can help you on that? The bends needed are quite extreme, and of course you would also need to rechrome it. Maybe cheaper and easier to hunt down one of the ready made ones? Hope that helps. Cheers, Alan T.

Note to self: I must try to remember: repeats in low voice: "An American car, made in Japan..... An American car, made in Japan..... An American car, made in Japan..... An American car, made in Japan..... An American car, made in Japan....." etc

Yes! Or for the USA.

Nice one Alfadog, "No why-ning" That can be one of the 'rules' on www.classiczcarl.com Seriously though, anyone who thinks I'm poking fun at oversized Americans just for spite really ought to go back and look at the old 'Interior Ergonomics' thread and see some of the comments on there about Handbrake lever positioning. There are serious ergonomic ramifications for body size! I tell you what, I really don't get all this 'no bashing' stuff when all this 'no whining' crap is going on at the same time. If that's not bashing then what is? Makes me feel like Yusuf Islam :bandit:

Hi rudds67, I believe the plastic version of the "Fairlady" script emblems are still available from Nissan? Maybe your local Nissan dealer can help? If not, then maybe one of the American specialist restoration and parts shops? Sometimes they can be spotted on ebay. Original part number was 63805-E8725, but this may have been superceded by now.

Fat Americans?

Final word on the Handbrake lever positioning of the S30-series Z cars has to go to Mr Yoshihiko Matsuo. Matsuo san originally wanted to have TWO Handbrake lever positions; one for LHD configuration and one for RHD configuration. His original intention was for the Handbrake lever to be sited on the same side of the trans tunnel as the driver was sitting in both LHD and RHD configurations. However, many of the design details and features that he originally intended for the cars had to be dropped or diluted due to costing limitations, and his ideal positioning of the Handbrake lever for LHD cars was one of them. Quite simply, the beancounters at Nissan insisted on a 'default' position. The ideal position for RHD was chosen. As far as Matsuo san is concerned, his ideal position for the Handbrake lever was on the same side of the trans tunnel as the driver sits. I would have thought that the words of the designer himself would be enough to convince anybody, but seemingly not. Alan T.

rudds67, It would seem that you are now clear about what you are going to do, but I just wanted to clarify a couple of points on what the original S30-series Fairladies had in the way of emblems: *All the first-generation S30-series 2 litre cars used the "FairladyZ" emblem ( even the 432 ). *When the L24 engined models debuted in Japan in late 1971, they used the new "Fairlady" emblem with the "240Z" emblem next to it on the bottom of the front wings / fenders and on the rear hatch / deck. If they were fitted with a rear spoiler then the "240Z" emblem was usually placed underneath the "Fairlady" script emblem. NOTE that this "Fairlady" emblem is not the same as the "FairladyZ" emblem.......... they are two different pot-metal / mazak castings ( later plastic mouldings ). Sometimes people mix them up, and you see "FairladyZ" and "240Z" emblems on the sale car - which is technically incorrect. *The "Fairlady 260Z" model with the L26 engine was released in Japan and then almost immediately withdrawn from sale. There are differing stories about just how far some of these cars actually got ( I am told that some of them made it as far as actually being bought by customers, but as far as I know most of them never got further than the dealerships, and many of them never even made it out of the Factory ). They had trouble with the engines passing the new super-strict Japanese emissions laws of the time ( especially on the cars fitted with Air Con ). Most of these cars were then converted back to L20 engined "Fairlady Z" models, with their VIN tags and firewall VIN codes being overstamped and amended. So, technically speaking, there was never really any such thing as a fully-fledged "Fairlady 260Z" model. However, if you want to do something interesting and creative you could try to combine the "Fairlady" emblem ( not the "FairladyZ" emblem ) with a "260Z" emblem and make your own "Fairlady 260Z". As long as they line up correctly I think it would look "correct" and would certainly be in the spirit of Nissan's original intentions to create an L26-engined Fairlady. Good luck, Alan T.

Hi Chuck, I think that would probably have been a 'P-series' OHV six - maybe a P40? I know they were fairly high capacity ( nearly 4 litre? ). Can't be too many of them about these days? Nissan had a few other big OHV sixes in the early Sixties too, like the H30. They had some interesting stuff in their commercials, but I don't know too much about them. Nissan had the Y40 OHV V8 from mid to late 1965 too. Cheers, Alan T.

Hi Victor, Yes - its a good question. In fact, if you look at the dates then the L20 six ( at least in its initial guise ) was installed and on sale in the Cedric Special 6 well before the actual Nissan / Prince merger. As far as I have read and been told, the Nissan L-series engines took a lot of inspiration from the later Prince G-series engines, and the G7 in particular. It was the G7 that used some of the Mercedes-patented systems designs that were carried through into the Nissan L-series engines, I believe. I think this would imply that a fair amount of 'sharing' was going on even prior to the official handshakes of the Nissan / Prince merger. The Japanese automotive press have down the years repeated the Nissan-led PR stories about the big injection of talent, know-how and prestige brand image that they received when they merged ( absorbed ) PMC. Of course, all of this is true but I think we have to take the slightest pinch of salt with it. I think its reasonable to believe that Nissan used the PMC merger as something of a PR opportunity as well as a springboard into the domestic prestige market and PMC's competition heritage. Hence Nissan 'talked-up' the story a little to make the most of it. So, I think there was a lot going on behind the scenes between Prince and Nissan that we do not really know about, and does not get talked about all that much. Alan T.

This "adding two cylinders to the Bluebird engine" story seems to have originated from a non-Japanese perspective. The Nissan 6 and 4 cylinder L-series engines were apparently designed and developed around roughly the same time - with the L20 six being used in a production vehicle first. The L20 six ( in single carb form, as fitted to the 'Cedric Special 6" ) debuted in October 1965. The first of the L-series 4-cylinder engines ( the L13 and L16 of the Sunny and Bluebird ) debuted in August 1967. Alan T. ( Edit: Whoops - getting my Cedlics and Grorias mixed up...... now corrected :stupid: ).

lvymy240z, Don't jump the gun by turning up at the Zama Operations Centre expecting to get a personal viewing. There are a lot of things going on at Zama these days that involve the general public, but access to their car collection storage hangar is very strictly limited, and a casual 'drop-in' visit is not on the cards. If I were you I would write to Nissan ( try aiming for the top with a letter to the head office in Ginza ) and ask how you would go about asking........ As you already live in Japan I obviously don't need to tell you that protocol is going to be very important. Don't try to take any short cuts with that. The collection is supervised and 'curated' by a sub-contractor to Nissan, and you will have to go through the correct channels and get the right introductions before you are invited to one of the occasional open days they have. These are usually organised in collaboration with relevant car clubs, and the members that are allowed to visit are strictly supervised. Everybody who gets a look at this collection of Nissan and Datsun history is left under no illusions that they have been very lucky indeed. I was trying to arrange a personal visit for many years, and was lucky enough to be invited along on a special viewing with a Japanese club that I belong to. I made a trip to Japan from the UK expressly to join this group viewing. Good luck, Alan T.

You don't seem to be making any differentiation between photos posted in the Gallery, and photos posted as an aid or topic of discussion in a thread. I think in the second instance, the "Fair Use" part of copyright law is applicable. I don't think I have any copyrighted material in my Gallery ( even the Nissan event flyers and postcards are copyright-free ) and if I post anything in a thread that is copyrighted then you can rest assured that I do so with the intention of it being covered by what I understand as the terms of "Fair Use" for discussion. Or maybe you are just making a point about this "most vocal complainer" rather than about the subject itself? So, *only* the law of the United States of America is applicable to this site? In that case I'm not sure I understand just how national law applies to the Internet. As far as I am aware, this is a matter that is still open to interpretation and will be argued at length by the lawyer of your choice at extremely expensive rates. Probably without any definitive result. Since you seem to know what you are talking about, perhaps you can advise me on one particular case that I would like to seek opinion on? A member of this site has taken a picture from a UK-'based' website, and has put it in his Gallery at classiczcars.com. Does this case get judged under the USA's "freedom of the press", or the law of the United Kingdom - where it was taken from? The photo in question is now wearing a classiczcars.com watermark......... I realise that this site was 'built', is administered, and indeed is owned, in the USA - but where does that leave its 'members'? Not all of us reside in the USA. Is this site ( with all the intangible nature of the Internet taken into account) actually in the USA as far as its legal status is concerned? As far as I am aware, this is a matter that is still open to interpretation. Personally speaking - and I have said this many times before - I have NO problem with members or indeed non-members of this site downloading 'my' photos from the Gallery here and keeping them on their computer. When I post them in the Gallery I implicitly understand that they can do this if they want to. They can even send them to their friends, print them out and hang them on their wall, or use them as toilet paper for all I know. BUT - when they post them somewhere else that I can see on the net, and especially when they take off the classiczcar.com watermark and try to pass them off as their own ( or even try to evade the responsibility by saying "I don't know where this came from, but..." ) then I WILL make an effort to point out that what they are doing with my photo upsets me. What's wrong with that? Oh, I forgot - that's just "whining" isn't it? Alan T.

EMS is the Japanese side of the INTERNATIONAL DATAPOST service, an international link-up of national postal services that offers the fastest ( and most expensive! ) international Air postal delivery. You can send larger items by normal "Surface" mail ( it travels most of the way by sea ) - which obviously takes a long time, and can be risky with regard to damage and loss in my experience. How about trying "SAL" level postal service from the Japanese Post Office? "SAL" stands for "Surface, Air Lift" - which means that the journey is split between sea and air services. Its not as fast as EMS and not as slow as surface, its fairly safe, and is priced very reasonably. It also has a higher maximum size / weight limit than EMS. I've had very good success with both EMS and SAL service level post over the years.

Sorry guys, I guess I'm not totally up to speed with what you are referring to. Do please remember that I speak a 'foreign' language. This is no time to be cryptic. How about speaking plainly? I'm guessing that you both might be hinting at the images that are used as items of discussion on the threads, or to illustrate technical points and/or points of interest - in which case I think this previous comment was relevant:

You don't think that anybody participating in this thread is concerned about the interests of this site then? Where does the "revenge" and "profit" come into it?

panchovisa, Would you care to clarify? Alan T.