HS30-H

Looks like a North American market car to me, complete with rear markers, 'Datsun 240Z' tailgate emblems and '240Z' script quarter emblem. You really need to check that filter...

That's a classic bit of 'Whataboutery'. But your Hoover has sucked up somebody else's error and swallowed it without due diligence. Datsun UK (a privately owned concessionaire at the time) showed two HS30-prefixed RHD cars at the 1970 Earls Court Motor Show. The above photo doesn't show one of them, and isn't even a photo from the Earls Court show. I believe it was misused and mis-captioned in your source publication. You might want to check the filter the next time you empty the bag. But it was a pretty poor show wasn't it? Only two cars, and a year late. Hey, maybe Datsun UK "didn't want to disprespect" the UK auto industry? If only they'd thought to hire a ballroom in another town and fly bus in a plane coach load of journos for a private peep? "No Photo!"... You're not really getting my point about Katayama's NY and LA 'trunk shows'. They've been hyped up into something they were not because people are happy to accept the stories they are fed, and without question. I've already said here that I believe they were a reaction to the timings of the Tokyo Press Preview and Tokyo Motor Show rather than somehow being The Main Event. With the lack of photos of the Pierre Hotel unveiling (I only know of one shot) I think we could surmise it possible that the press were asked not to take their own photos, and to use the photos in the press packs instead. If so, why? Would it be because the car was missing some emblems and/or other parts and would not fully represent what was going to be sold? Could it be because the backdrop at the unveiling was not ideal? Speculation, but perhaps food for thought. Any "delight" is at the thought of getting to the bottom of a few tall stories. I remind you that we even have different people - one of them closely involved - telling us different stories about the colour of the particular car. The reminiscence of it being "Gold" is something I noted being thrown up in the hoo-ha regarding the 'rediscovery' of "Lucky #13" a few years back, where it seemed some of the commentators appeared to be hoping it was the Pierre Hotel car.

What was the original market of this car? You are in Norway, but I'm guessing it isn't an original Scandinavian/European model car, right? There *might* be a date code stamped into the strut tubes along with the part numbers. That might be a clue as to whether they were on the car when it was new.

Who's saying there was no car at the Pierre Hotel? What I'm pointing out - I thought you'd have got it by now - is that there's not much photographic evidence of the event. My point being that it seems to have been a slightly (ahem...) less illustrious affair than it gets credit for, and to my mind that seems to point to it being a reactive event. I playfully cast some bait towards you a couple of posts ago. I have a Nissan photo of the 'unveiling' of the car at the Pierre Hotel. @26th-Z and @Mike B have seen it too. You didn't take the bait. I'm dragging it out a little because I want to add weight to my point: There's a dearth of photos for what is claimed to have been a seminal event, and there's even conflicting opinion/evidence as to what colour the car was. Extraordinary.

I am adding to the discussion. I'd say that - at the very least - I might be offering an alternative take on all this, and a bit of grit to go with all of that "International Preview" type corn you seem so happy to swallow. One thing I'd point out is that you do seem a little bit too eager to assign some of these cars concrete chassis numbers. Much of it seems to be based on a little less evidence than would be ideal. I think it's a bit risky when some cars are known to have been repainted between shows. It reminds me of what Shelby was doing with Cobras a few years earlier. That situation was because he didn't have enough cars on-hand, and needed to make it look like there were more. NMC USA were in a similar situation in late 1969, as far as I can see. About those journalists: You seem to share Carl Beck's feeling that jetting in a bunch of journos from Detroit was "nothing". It seems to have produced little more copy than mailing them out the press pack and a bottle of half-decent single malt would have. Still, I'm sure they enjoyed the canapes. Maybe they took in a Broadway show whilst they were in town? I guess it wouldn't have been 'My Fair Lady' though...

Don't you think this kind of adds weight to my Force Majeure 'trunk show' point? We are told that the Pierre Hotel event was organised "weeks in advance", as though that's a long lead-time. No photos? Really? If I post one, what will be your forfeit? It'll be a one-off transaction, by default. Once it's in your Hoover bag it'll travel...

"...the photo you refer to...". I'm not referring to the April '70 NYC show car. I'm referring to the actual car at the Pierre Hotel "International Preview", reportedly the same car that was flown down to LA and shown at the Beverly Wilshire (and presumably not stopping for a colour change pit stop at Earl Scheib along the way). Considering the effort gone to - flying a car in from Japan and a bunch of hacks over from Detroit - you could be forgiven for imagining that everybody was asked not to photograph the car. Where's the coverage? "No Photo!" Most of the copy filed seems to have used Nissan stock photos from the press release... I'm calling them trunk shows because they would appear to have trouble living up to the hype they've been given. Drinks, canapes, a car under a sheet, press packs, speeches. Would have been great to be there of course, but if I was one of those Detroit hacks I think I would have preferred to be flown to Tokyo instead...

So you classify the NY and LA 'trunk shows' (that's what I'm calling them...) as 'Press' only events? Good. I think it's more realistic than "The International Preview", which is what they are regularly referred to as. Perhaps you'd like to spread the word? Why have you got 26th October for the Tokyo Motor Show? It opened its doors (to the general public, not just the press) on 24th October. The Press Preview at Nissan's Ginza showroom (the real 'International Preview', as far as I can tell) started on 18th October and ran for three days. Don't feel insulted. Feel grown up and engaged in a debate.

You might want to try one of your Grayscale experiments on one of the numerous photos* of the car at the Pierre Hotel NY event. Doesn't look 920 to me. *

(my bold) As I've pointed out before, I don't think this story holds up very well to scrutiny. It seems to me that Katayama's NY and LA trunk shows were organised under Force Majeure as an attempt to mitigate what was going on back in Japan. In Japan, Nissan was aiming squarely at the Tokyo Motor Show as the debut for its new models, and had a massive presence there. As usual, they invited members of the Press, selected dealers and well-connected customers to come to their party on the ground floor of their Ginza HQ a week before the opening of the Tokyo show. What options did Katayama have? What major shows in the USA could he debut the new HLS30U at? What was he looking at on the calendar? What car(s) was he going to show? They were in somewhat short supply... I don't buy the "disrespect" story about Detroit and the US auto industry. The 1969 Detroit Auto Show was held at the end of November, simply too late for Katayama's taste. There was nothing else that lined up. I think he was organising the NY and LA single-car events so as not to be eclipsed by events in Japan, and preferably to try to be seen to be 'first'. That would be true to Katayama's personality, and advertising/sales/PR was the basis of his education and career. With Nissan making such an effort in NY this week for their 50th anniversary celebration of the Z and GT-R marques, I'm already reading the legacy of Katayama's sideshow. Apparently the 240Z was "first seen at the NY show in 1969". It gets swallowed whole.

Interesting how this so often seems to happen. Missing: 1969-10-18 Tokyo (Nissan Ginza 'Press Preview' of the entire - at launch - S30-series Z range) 1969-10-24 through 1969-11-6 Tokyo (16th Tokyo Motor Show - all models - over 1.5 million visitors)

I agree. A lot of lead-time needed for the production of the manuals and literature on these cars, and I see a few Skyline, Cedric, Gloria, Laurel and assorted 4-cylinder type parts used on the (likely pre-production/not to be sold) cars and details in the photos. Not surprising.

2019 is the anniversary year. We can have a discussion about the actual day and the exact location (Japan will win that one...), but 1969 is the year and November is the month. Nissan have already started celebrating it for the S30-series Z, along with the anniversary for the PGC10 Skyline GT-R (specifically as the anniversary of the GT-R, which debuted in February 1969). Any local ideas of 'Model Year' and such are trumped by 'debut'. Last week in Tokyo:

S20 is the engine type.

Stalled. I wanted to have them low pressure die cast like the originals were, but the cost of tooling here in the UK was just too prohibitive. I believe I reported the situation on the FLZ Facebook group. Looks like Hung Vu is coming up with the goods though, so you should be able to get a pair one way or the other.

The above being road car prototypes, whereas you first post concerns works race cars. I don't know what conclusions you wish to draw from it, considering that carburettors are basically precision measuring devices which deliver what a given engine needs. Unless you know engine spec/state of tune it's hard to extrapolate anything from it. There will be differences in driveability due to design (apparently the S20 seems to 'prefer' the accelerator pump design of the Weber DCOE vs the Solex patent diaphragm, whereas the opposite is true of the L-gata) but I think it would be silly to say that an engine has "more HP" with one than the other. It's clearly more complicated than that. Of course, the Murayama works team GT-Rs started out with Webers (the Prince engineers had been using Webers for a good while and were used to them) but soon switched to sliding throttle mechanical injection systems, which suited the kind of racing they were taking part in. They were reluctant to fit these systems -and the engine internals which went with the upgrade - to the works 432-Rs (part of that internal Prince vs Nissan struggle) so there was a period when the works GT-Rs were running fuel injection whilst the 432-Rs were still on Webers. The works 432-Rs were racing on fuel injection by May 1970.

You might describe it as 'evolution', but it's a bit more jumbled up than that. And I would tend to look at other contemporary L-gata equipped models for clues too. Looking only at Zs is very likely to miss some clues... Put simply, I see models with aircon needing multi-blade fans. Factory parts lists show simpler fans for non-aircon models vs multi blade for aircon and - possibly - hotter climate. The one tends to go with the other. I would imagine the multi-blade nylon fans as being easier to make/cheaper than the multi-blade steel fans once the tooling had been manufactured.

You're wading into the very deep waters of Murayama vs Oppama here. I hope you've got your water wings on...

You got them! Well done! I think it is most likely that they are indeed genuine Murayama factory works team parts, never intended to be sold to the general public. Original cost of production would have been very high, but not a problem for a works team. Compression ratio might be a problem for a street car. They are very high intrusion crown pistons and compression ratio would have been very high on the works cars. You will need to work it out with a dummy build.

For Kyoto, I can heartily recommend the MK Taxis tour service: https://www.mktaxi-japan.com/ I've been to Kyoto many times, but a few years ago a friend sent a group of four of us on a day-long tour with an MK driver (waiting patiently for us while we explored each venue, and while we had lunch/tea breaks) and it was certainly the best way to cover a whole lot of bases without rushing. It might sound cheesy, and normally I'd prefer to make my own way around, but our driver knew just how to handle it and made it a great day. Best day I've had in Kyoto, and my Japanese in-laws agreed. I would recommend a boat ride on the Hozugawa river too. If the timing is right you might even be able to see the Geiko entertaining their guests on the Gion tea house balconies, which you can't see from the street side...

You are very likely to be told that the last '260' was made in 1978, so you might need to refine your terminology... And "Birthday"? Birth month & year, shirley?

17033-E4200 is the stock 432/432-R pump mount bracket. Nice find! I have one on my 432-R replica. Does it have the original type Jidosha Kiki KK pump too?

Hitachi D606-52 was stock European/UK market HS30/HLS30 'Datsun 240Z' distributor. Has 'fast' advance curve, hence sold as 'performance' distributor by Datsun Competition in USA.

1972 Fairlady Z-L would have the above 'Fairlady Z' script emblems at the bottom of both front fenders and one on the RH side of the rear hatch, mounted at an angle... ...and underneath the 'Fairlady Z' script on the rear hatch, mounted horizontally, the 'NISSAN' emblem. However, the mounting of a rear spoiler interfered with the mounting positions of the hatch emblems. Bonnet/Hood emblem was the 'Z' script version, on the left above. Rear quarter emblems for 1972 were the vented type 'Z' script version, exactly the same as north American market type of the same year - so you should have no trouble locating a good pair.

I heartily recommend 'Japanese Aero-Engines 1910-1945' by Mike Goodwin and Peter Starkings, published by MMP Books, as the best English language reference book on the subject.