HS30-H

Hi Guus, Yes - the "Datsun Compe." steering wheel is a straight bolt-on to the early S30-series Z cars. You would not have any problem there. It even has all the horn mechanism and indicator cancelling device that the standard wheel has. Just a word of advice about the website links posted above. "Datsun Freeway" used to be "Japan Datsun Service", and is a very well known company in Japan amongst early Z owners. You might find that some of the things they show on their web pages are no longer available, as they are in many cases 'one-off' or limited quantity NOS parts. Its a case of first-come first-served. I'm not saying its the case with all of the parts they have on there - but like most business websites, updates don't come as quick as we might ideally like. They have some English language pages on their website as far as I remember. Good luck, Alan T.

Why are you even considering an engine swap? Surely the first part you should consider tracking down and fitting would be an LSD? That's the first thing that is going to help you to "drift" your car. Getting your car to perform well in an autocross or "drifting" situation is more a function of the suspension and transmission / diff than it is of the engine. Alan T.

Looks to me that we are not comparing apples with apples here. The Brown ( ? ) 911 in the pics is not really a fair comparison with an early S30-series Z car, as its far too late a model and has crappy USA-spec suspension ( by the looks of it ) and the ugly 5mph impact bumpers. A better comparison would be 1969 Z against 1969 911. The 911 debuted a good few years earlier than the Z, but comparing models that could be bought in a showroom during the same period would seem to be a fairer basis for comparison. If you do this then the comparison might start getting a bit more even. The earlier and simpler 911's are a lot prettier than the later-Seventies versions ( in my opinion ) and have a lot of street 'presence'. A nice simple 911S starts getting difficult to put down so easily looks-wise, and will outperform an early Z in most areas ( especially if the early Z happens to be a USA / North American market model:devious: ). Maybe a 911T or E would be a better like-for-like comparison. The 911 has a pretty successful competition history ( to put it mildly ) - even if you look at just the pre-1975 era. The early Z did really well in competition compared to many cars, but comes nowhere near the early 911 results-wise. I'm a through-and-through early Z enthusiast who used to drive Porsches, and I see the merits and demerits on both sides. One of the 911's problems for people like 'us' is that we tend to associate the 911 ( and other cars ) with a stereotypical image. Usually this reflects our own view of our personal socio-economic status, and our prejudices. I can relate to this, but I have personal experience of early ( and late! ) 911's - and you have to judge the machinery and not your image of its owner. If I had money to spare then an early 911 would definitely be part of MY stable of cars. The early 911 is about a lot more than its static looks........... Alan T.

and here's a scan of the back page, which shows the roll-over bar and its mounting / support brackets, as well as the front Overfenders ( the rear Overfenders are listed but not pictured ):

Ah OK Gee - now I see what you mean. Yes, it looks as though that car has either an original Sports Option roll-over bar or a copy of one. As requested, here's a scan of the front page of the Z432R Sports Option parts list: Alan T.

Zedrally - This is indeed the factory-homologated type of roll-over bar that we are discussing. They were available to buy from Nissan in Japan ( through the Sports Option parts lists ) from early 1970 onwards. Steve ( Zvoiture ), they COULD be considered a true 'bolt-in' part if the brackets that fixed the two centre drops to the floor were simply bolted in with nuts and bolts - rather than the 'Works' style of brazing in more captives and the reinforcing plates to the floor at those two points. All you needed to do was drill through the floor at those points and put the bolts through. Doing them up properly would be a four-hand operation though. The reinforcing plates just sandwiched between the floor and the nuts or bolts from the underside of the car. I've spoken to friends in Japan about these captive nuts now, and they tell me that as far as they are aware the captive nuts in the shell are precisely for the purpose of mounting these cages. It was suggested in a previous post that they were originally jig or production line fixture mounts, and that the body may have been supported at these points as it went through some processes at the Factory. My friends tell me that the Z production line utilised cradle supports that went UNDER the body and supported it's weight from underneath. As far as they are concerned, the Z body was never supported or transported in any other way during the manufacturing process. That's the fresh info I have and I thought it worth posting here. If anybody has any better information or interesting theories then I'm all ears and eyes. Alan T.

Hi Gee, Do you mean the car in sjcurtis's pic? The period 70's shot of the red, black and white car? Great pic, that. That's a privateer team entry using a lot of 'Works' and Sports Option race parts. The team was "Tokyo Nichi Futsu Racing" and they had some some success in Group 4 and 5 races in Japan right up to the mid Eighties. My pal Shun Koike has the very rear spoiler from the pictured car on his 240ZR replica. When the race car was split for parts he bought the rear spoiler and hung onto it for years. It would indeed have had the Sports Option roll-over bar ( the four point one ) as was being discussed in another thread. That reminds me - I must revive that thread to add some extra info. All the best, Alan T.

Hi Mr C. Sorry - I didn't see your question until now. The Z432 and Z432R were never sold by Nissan with 'Overfender' flares fitted. However, the Overfender package was offered in the "Sports Option" parts catalogue for the Z432R, which was issued in 1970. The part numbers for the 432R Sports Option Overfenders were exactly the same as those later used on the production 240ZG. If we want to split hairs, it would not be wrong to say that the ZG used 432R Overfenders.................. If you want to simply fit the 432R / ZG style Overfenders, then no real surgery is required ( they just pop-rivet onto the sheetmetal ). However, if you want to make full use of the wider wheel and tyre combinations that you can fit - then you will have to consider cutting out the original wheelarch lips. How high you take this is up to you, but the Factory race cars were cut and welded very high in the rear arches; just about as high as the mounting face for the Overfenders. All the best, Alan T.