HS30-H

Great! Thanks very much indeed. I'll start uploading straight away. Somebody's going to have to clear and approve them too - so I guess there will be another short delay while this happens. Hope people think the pics are worth the fuss............. All the best, Alan T.

Hi Guus, No - its not just a coincidence. You can indeed pay a little extra in Japan for numbers of your choice - but you have to work it out within the parameters of the various laws that apply. You can't specify letters - only numbers, and obviously they can't have been issued to any other car. There is the advantage that the Hiragana syllable before the number changes - so a great many people could have the "240" number for the same issuing area and taxation code as Kats - but the difference would be in the Hiragana prefix. When you look at Japanese numberplates, the Japanese characters of the top line identify the issuing area ( in Kats' case, it is 'Kobe' ) and the numbers after that identify the taxation code applying to the vehicle ( in Kats' case it is '330' - which replaces the old '33' code, and is for cars of a certain category over 2 Litre capacity ). Below those are the Hiragana syllable, which is a simple alphabetic sequence that starts with 'sa', 'si', 'su', 'se', 'so' etc etc and runs through all the syllables that they use. Then there's space for four numbers - but you don't have to use the full four, as you can miss the first three numbers altogether if you start with a single digit on the right. Look out for the bulk uploads of the event pics when we get the space allocated. You will see lots of versions of the same idea. Did I explain that clearly, or is it all as clear as mud?! Alan T. PS - Guus, the 'Foreign Use' or 'Translation' plates seen on the Works rally cars are simply a translation of the Japanese characters into Roman letters. Hence "TKS" signifies the Shinagawa issuing area ( TKS = Tokyo, Shingawa - although the Japanese original plate just says "Shinagawa" ), "33" the taxation code, and "SA" is the phonetic romanised version of the Hiragana syllable prefixing the number.

Many thanks for all the kind comments. Still no new Gallery section in "2003 Events" to post them into though, so I'm going to keep using the drip-feed method to keep your interest up. Here's a pic of our fellow member Kats and his car ( that's Kats on the left hiding behind the tailgate - talking with Dr. Suzuki about jute padding differences probably! ):

Er, This is a bit of a long thread to revive, but I thought that there was so much information / debate in it that it could not be ignored. I have some more grist for the mill. Last Sunday ( 2nd Nov. ) I attended a meeting in Japan organised jointly by "CLUB S30" - of which I am a member - and the "S30 OWNERS CLUB". An honourable guest at the show was Mr Yoshihiko Matsuo, the chief designer and leader of the team that designed the S30-series Z car. It was great to see him again, and he was in good spirits with a lot to say. Along with some others ( notably Dr Suzuki of Club S30 - who is great at getting to the point! ), I took the opportunity to ask him some questions. One of the questions was with regard to the positioning of the Hand Brake / E Brake on the S30-series Z car. His answer was quite unequivocal; Matsuo san stated that the position in the RHD car is what he would consider 'correct' ( closest to the driver ), and that cost considerations prevented them from engineering the relocation of the handle and mechanism for the LHD cars. As far as he is concerned, the whole car was designed primarily with RHD in mind - but with details that would accommodate an LHD version for the markets that required it, and suiting some of the ergononomics that those markets also required. The car was designed with RHD layout bias. Matsuo san also made two points to back this up; The first point was that a great deal of Nissan's design process and engineering systems had been inherited from their days making Austin cars. As Japan had taken up the habit of driving on the left of the road ( with the driver sitting on the right of the car ) there was naturally a great legacy to doing this. Most of the systems on the cars that they started to make were ( naturally ) oriented to RHD layout. Most of the parts that they licensed from other manufacturers ( brake and clutch hydraulics, as well as carburation come to mind ) were sized in the Imperial ( Inch based ) systems that they had been using on the British-designed Austin cars. Carburettors and exhausts were usually situated on the left of the engine, conveniently avoiding the Brake, Clutch, Accelerator and steering systems in the engine bay. The S30-series Z was no different in this respect to most of the other models they were making at the time. It was designed and engineered using many components that were primarily intended for RHD applications. Matsuo san said that he and his team designed the car mainly with RHD in mind, but added some features that would allow an LHD version to be produced at the same time. This was after all a natural bias considering the history of the company that they worked for, and the home market that they sold to. Second point ( and one that history seems to have forgotten / ignored ) is that Matsuo and his team did NOT think that the LHD version would sell anything like as well as it did. Matsuo san actually said that even up until the launch of the car in late 1969 they were convinced that they would be lucky to sell as many as 2000 cars in the USA market. Of course Mr Katayama was trying to convince them that they could potentially sell a lot more ( and he was of course proved right ) but the point is that Matsuo and his team were not taking the LHD market as seriously as some might have us believe. Sure they did a great job, but the LHD cars were not the focus that the subsequent sales figures would point to. I'm conscious that I'm probably not reporting / explaining this as well as I could be ( I tend to be a bit too wordy anyway, and I'm a bit tired and not very focussed after getting back from Japan ) but I DO think it was worth reporting what he said. It would be nice to see a proper interview on the subject with Matsuo san in English ( I've never seen one other than in Japanese - have you? ) and his views are ( I would say ) more interesting and enlightening than just about anybody else that I can think of with regard to the cars that we love. I'm looking forward to seeing him again. Its a great education and he is very inspiring. Alan T.

Hi Chris, Cheers for the nice comments. It makes it feel worth the effort when people are kind enough to give encouragement. I often feel rather lucky to get the opportunity to be at this kind of event, and I'm happy if others can see some of what is out there through my pictures and descriptions. However, it would be much better if some of the 'kindred spirits' could visit the same events and share the experience first-hand................ Actually I do take some crap shots sometimes - but you don't get to see the worst of them! That white ZG with the rare 'Central 20' four-spoke wheels does indeed feature in the pics I took. Here's a special 'Z-Kid preview' for you: