HS30-H

I'll watch you from the clubhouse bar whilst you gradually work your way around the golf course backwards. No idea how you're going to hole those putts, but still... Anyone who has an interest in the history of Japanese aviation will (hopefully) know about the myriad licensing agreements that the growing Japanese manufacturers took out with American, British, French, Italian and German companies in the first half of the 20th Century. Big topic. Things start getting a little fragile when you try to carry cause and effect through to the post-war years, as a whole new ball game started. New business relationships and licensing structures needed to be built up, and what had been Japan's aircraft manufacturing industry had to find new things to make and sell. I would say a pre-war and wartime relationship between a German company and a Japanese company was a bit of a stretch to prove much about Nissan's L-gata engine design details, and there's still the fact that Nissan and Prince were competing companies when the Nissan L-gata and Prince G7 engines debuted, so a fragile thread between PMC and MB still doesn't bridge that gap. Isn't it just more likely that Nissan took elements of the (already old) MB OHC layout and adapted them to suit? There's not much in the way of engine design that hasn't been cribbed/copied/adapted over the years and, once seen, good design and engineering is always going to influence what follows it. It's interesting and worthy of discussion, but if it feeds the "it's a Mercedes engine!" type mindset then we may as well file it with the D!ck Avery "I designed the 240Z" stuff. At some point it starts being disrespectful to the very good engineers and designers who actually were responsible for the cars we love.

From the Hemmings article: From Carl Beck in the comments section: Some relevant dates: *October 18th 1969 - First 'Press Preview' event held at Nissan's Ginza, Tokyo HQ showroom to introduce the S30-series Z range to the invited press. *October 24th 1969 - Start of the Tokyo Motor Show, where the S30-series Z range was introduced to the general public for the first time. More than 1.5 million members of the public visited the show over the next two weeks. *November 5th 1969 - First 'Test Drive' day, for the Japanese press to actually get hold of the cars and drive them. The results were seen in many of the November and December 1969, and January 1970 Japanese weeklies and monthlies. So Nissan's 'Press Preview' in Japan happened two calendar days before this "International Introduction" to the Press at the Pierre Hotel in New York on 24th October, and the Tokyo Motor Show opened to the general public two calendar days (less the 14 hours time difference) after that. Where does the "two weeks later" come from? Both 'Press' and 'Public' debuts of the new S30-series Z range - which included the 'Datsun 240Z' - took place in Japan.

I have looked at a lot of S20 engines over the years now, and I don't think I have ever seen a head casting in-use that had not received some detailing/'blueprinting' attention inside the port castings. I believe your NOS head is untouched in the ports because it never reached the stage where it was prepped before fitting to a working engine. I'm pretty sure that the S20 engine in my 432-R replica (itself a very early 432-type S20 engine) was never taken apart until I stripped it to rebuild it. Both the inlet and exhaust port areas had been hand finished, with the dividing wall between the valves 'knife-edged'. Not the best photo, but you get the idea: Here's another K3 head: And for comparison, a super rare works race K3R head:

Thank you for this Kats. I share your admiration for Nakagawa san and his colleagues. The father of one of our family friends worked with Nakagawa san at Nakajima Hikoki, working on those Sakae and Homare aero engines, and I was lucky enough to meet him and talk to him about his working life. Fascinating. Here's a photo of Nakagawa san and some of his senior engineering staff from Prince Motor Co. pictured at Fuji Speedway in the early 1960s. A slightly unlikely looking group perhaps, but some serious talent here. Nakagawa san is in the dark suit. That's Dr Shinichiro Sakurai - a key figure for both Prince and Nissan - on the far right:

Who needs George Carlin when we there's plenty of comedy on zhome.com (try to stifle your giggles when you read "Christ Craft" instead of 'Chris-Craft': http://zhome.com/History/Ford/Ford.htm Who needs enemies when the Z's advocates are so ready to undermine it and the people who were responsible for creating it? There's plenty of other D!ck Avery-related bullshine on the 'net if you are motivated to seek it out. Flat Earth Society stuff.

You're in luck. That's not a Kanji character. It is indeed a - very nice - capital letter 'B'.

'Tokyo' Looks to have been written fast and loose...

For me? I need people to stop me from buying stuff, not enablers...

Sorry, what...?

Eats shoots and leaves?

Couple of recent examples I spotted here in the UK, on original UK market HS30U 'Datsun 240Z' dashes: 'ENG' of course = England.

As pointed out on FB, translating a single Kanji like this is to somewhat miss the point. It reads as 'Ryo', which does translate as 'Dormitory'/'Dorm' in English, but is also a male given name in Japanese (on FB I cited Japanese pro golfer Ishikawa Ryo as an example) so it could very easily have been written by somebody called Ryo or for somebody called Ryo.

Here's an old set of Made in Holland KONI conversion inserts for UK/European market '240Z' models which I used to own:

I don't know where you heard it from, but it's not correct. None of the factory works rally team 240Zs used KONI shock absorbers.

It's a mistake to talk about the 'L20' six as though it is just one thing. From 1964/5's 'L20' through L20(A), L20AT, L20AE, L20E, L20T and on into the mid 1980s there were many, many variants. 130ps 9.5:1 L20(A) as fitted to the first Fairlady Zs in 1969 and 1970 certainly had flat top - not dished - pistons.

File it in the same place as people saying/writing "240Z" when they should be using 'S30-series Z'.

Baloney.

No, that was a pizza.

The description says that it has been fitted with a 5-speed transmission. If it came from the same source vehicle as the engine (?) then it would be an FS5C71-B, which would require shifter and/or tunnel mods in this 1970 production bodyshell. An FS5C71-A would be a straight fit, so I presume it is a B-type 5-speed.

As I've posted on BaT, the carburettors appear to be Hitachi HJG38W-8 type, which would be correct for the '74-up Japanese market L20AT engine that this seems to be. They are not North American market 'Flat Top' carburettors. As for "why?", how about because the owner had the engine available, having taken it out of his Fairlady Z, which had received a modified L24 engine...?

You might want to stop, think and try again with that one.

I noted that the other 432 in the auction was fitted with the same reproduction KS 'Rally Mag' wheels too. Personally speaking, I don't think this kind of high profile 'showbiz' type auction is suited to the automotive world in Japan. When you buy one of these cars, everyone knows what you have paid. That's not a good thing for many Japanese enthusiasts. In my experience, they would usually prefer to keep that information away from their wife/family/work colleagues/friends...

100% reproduction. Not original.