HS30-H

The pictures that 26thZ posted are of the Factory "Euro" spoiler and its dedicated front valance panel. The corner valance panels were also fitted with captives when this spoiler was fitted as standard equipment. They came on all but the very first of the UK-market HS30 cars, and continued through the RS30 models. The Factory parts lists describe it as a "Europe" model part, and I know that other countries apart from the UK had them - but I'm not 100% sure if it was all of them. Certainly the UK models had the spoiler from early 1971. I know there were subtle differences across the years of production, but essentially they stayed the same. Factory parts list description called it "98300-E8100 ASSY-FRONT AIR SPOILER". I've scanned some pages from the parts lists so that you can see how they showed it. I've also scanned the pages that describe the companion Valance panels, which you will see have superceding numbers too. The spoiler was made from an expanded Urethane foam material, with the steel mounting brackets cast into it. It looks like rubber and has a smooth outer surface, but when you cut into it you see small bubbles in the material. The problem ( especially for the UK and its weather ) was that the cast-in brackets tended to go rusty and swell up inside the body of the spoiler, and eventually cracked it. Apart from that, the Urethane became brittle over time and started to contract and expand - making it look a funny shape. They are fairly hard to find in good used condition, and I believe that NOS items that anybody has tucked away are now going to start commanding higher prices. I have friends in Japan who have asked me for these spoilers in the past and supply here in the UK has just about dried up. I have not seen a new one for ages. Alan T. ( Here's a pic from the parts list ):

Rob's a good friend of mine. His site is fantastic, isn't it? That's pretty-much all self-built and self-written. Amazing. He's slowed down a bit with it over the last year or so. Pressure of work and other commitments ( read; LIFE ). I'll scan some pics up for you and post them. Nissan were VERY secretive about the engine and tried to stop anybody getting a good shot of it at the '66 Japan GP. I've seen pics of what's left of the engine, and its very interesting. I hope it will end up in a proper museum one day. All the best, Alan T.

Hi Victor, I didn't know you had an interest in that car. In Japan, it was always called the "Fairlady S". I don't know who said that the engine was a 'prototype' of the S20 engine seen - apart from in the GT-R - in the 432? The engine of the Fairlady S was coded "UY" and it was badged as a Nissan. It was indeed a 2 Litre DOHC six with hemi chambers, but it was a 12-plug design. It was a Nissan in-house development. The S20 engine on the other hand had Prince blood in its veins. It essentially evolved from the Prince GR-8 engine used in the R380 Sports racers, but was re-designed for its first use in the PGC10 Skyline GT-R. The GR-8 had quite a different distributor drive setup from the S20. On the GR-8, drive for its twin distributors came off of the front end of each camshaft. For the S20, a single distributor was used at a right-angle to the cams. This took its drive from a sprocket rolling off the cam chain. There were other differences in the water and oil pump drive layouts too. When Prince merged with Nissan, it was the Prince design rather than the Nissan "UY" that was chosen to provide the basis for the new Nissan-badged powerplant. This went into the top of the range Skyline - the new GT-R. The "UY" was rather troublesome, and lacked development. When it appeared in the Fairlady S the merger with Prince was already on the cards, and it could be seen that Nissan would be inheriting an already-formed and fairly successful race department from Prince. Its clear that this is one of the reasons why the "UY" was not developed further. The Fairlady S was a VERY trick Fairlady indeed. Got any pics Victor? Regards, Alan T. ( PS - sorry to pull the thread off topic ).

If anyone is intending to do some serious ( ie - Gravel or Forest stage ) rallying with an early Z car, they would be well advised to give ANY oil-filled damper a wide berth. The pummelling they receive on this kind of surface overheats the oil in no time at all, and the resultant loss of performance is usually enough to cause enough damage to the internals to mean its rebuild time........... I've heard of Koni, and other brands of oil-filled dampers, being totally useless even before the end of ONE rough British forest stage - let alone a whole event. The Factory rally cars used gas, and I would recommend that as the way to go. Oil-filled dampers are fine for most tarmac stages, and of course are OK on the circuits too, but proper ROUGH stage rallies cause them to fail very quickly. Alan T.

I want! Somebody has put their grandmother to good use. Now I know what I want for Christmas. Well spotted Lachlan!

20 inch wooden wheels? They will mess up your gear ratios you know.

My fender mount mirror positioning dimensions in the above file attachment only apply to an S30-series Z. Since this thread concerns an S130 series Z, its worth pointing out that they are NOT the same................ Alan T.