HS30-H

'Interesting' - if not unexpected - to see comments on the auction where people were calling the car a '240Z'. Clearly a legacy of what was presented to them as 'fact' over the last 53+ years. I think this car is a good choice for anyone who wanted a 432. It is MILES better than the so-called "1969" 432 which sold at Mecum's Monterey sale last year for more money. I have an inkling that the car in question may soon end up in a Singapore-based collection, if my suspicions are correct...

I'll admit that I too find it a strange way to approach an auction, but second-guessing that bidder is not going to get us a firm answer as to why he did what he did. The plain fact is that the 250k USD bid is about right or slightly low for the car in its context, being away from its premium market (Japan) and needing a little work to bring it up to really nice condition, mainly underneath. I don't think he could have "saved 10s of thousands of dollars" by bidding in lower increments and in fact he may well have saved himself a fair chunk of money by discouraging other potential bidders who would otherwise have been pulled along by the more usual last-minute bidding war scenario.

Did you bother to read any of the auction details? "Older 1980s restoration by St. Yves Motor Sales, with attention to factory details and specifications, using OEM parts when available." So it was restored at least 35 years ago, and for their own collection.

The car was 'refreshed' (not necessarily fully 'restored') in Japan back in the early to mid 1990s. The panel was most likely replaced around that time as it was certainly installed in the car by 1997 when it was featured in Nostalgic Hero magazine's Vol.64 with a 6-page feature and centrefold. I believe at the time of refreshing the car that the correct RHD-layout panel was difficult to find whilst the AirCon-specific panel was still available from Nissan. The story may be as simple as that. I know that Nishi san of Revive Jalopy was involved in supplying parts for the car and it may have been the case that he couldn't get the PS30-specific panel. Easily put right today with the availability of reproduction panels and sticker sets. I see it as a fairly trivial detail. There are many other small details on the car which are not 'correct', but I don't believe the previous owner In Japan ever claimed the car was any kind of concours example. He was happy to modify it to his own taste (4-point aftermarket roll bar, Weber carbs, Takahashi exhaust manifold, oil cooler, Compe steering wheel and leather gear knob etc) and did plenty of miles in it* *By the way, the Bring A Trailer auction description mentions "33k Kilometers (~21k Miles) Shown." When the car was featured in that December 1997 issue of Nostalgic Hero magazine, mileage was quoted as being already 84,000 Km. I'd say it's been around the clock at least once. Good! Edited to add: The twin parking lamp switch on the console was still present in the car when I last saw it, but now appears to have disappeared - replaced with a blanking plug. I'm wondering if the whole parking lamp system was deleted when it came to the USA? The correct switches are quite hard to find.

LOL. I'm not wearing any knickers, darling. Why are you talking about "later badges" then? The "later" quarter emblems were all vented (to match the vented quarters they were mounted to) so, QED. You didn't know what you were looking at, did you?

The car has been in the USA for the best part of ten years now. Plenty of time for that to have been addressed by the apparently much vaunted 'Collector' and 'Expert' who is selling it, don't you think?

You might want to put your spectacles on and take another peep. The quarter emblems on the car are the correct, early 'Z' type without vents as fitted to all solid-quarter domestic cars. They are not vented.

The car is - clearly - modified. Stock fitment on this car would have been triple N40PHH Mikuni-Solex carbs. The triple Weber 45 DCOE-9 carbs were a Nissan Sports-endorsed upgrade (Nissan even gave a part number for the kit) of the period. I have 45 DCOE-9s on both of my S20-engined cars. It is not all that unusual. No. 'Correct' (stock) fitment would have been the same wooden 5-speed knob, as seen on other 5-speed equipped cars of the period. The shift knob currently fitted is the 32865-RN200 'Datsun' branded, leather-bound NISMO anniversary edition item. Matching the... ...of the NISMO anniversary edition re-pop 'Datsun Compe' steering wheel.

In fact the model represents a 1971 Fairlady 240Z-L 'Deluxe' variant (factory code 'HS30-D') with its stock L24 engine.

The E7200 full length engine bay undertray/bellypan was intended to be used in race conditions, where sustained high speeds were expected. They are not really suitable for road traffic conditions in hot weather. The other factor is that the E7200 was aimed primarily at S20-engined cars with a crossflow head design, and which have inherently better cooling systems and less fuel percolation issues than L-gata engines where the inlet is directly above the exhaust.

France, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Scandinavian countries are all LHD and all received cars with the factory front spoiler.

Only UK & most mainland European markets. Not seen on Australian, NZ or Japanese market cars.

The captive nuts in the front apron were primarily intended to be used to attach the (urethane) factory spoiler, fitted as standard equipment to UK & European market models. The quarter valance pieces also had captive nuts. *28 = 98300-E8100 ASSY-FRONT AIR SPOILER *6 = 62600-E7201 ASSY-PANEL FRONT APRON Those same captive nuts allowed attachment of the full engine bay undercover, as fitted to the 432-R model and homologated in the JAF GT-011 papers: *14 = 98200-E7200 COVER-under (Omori Sports Corner)

HS30-H model Fairlady 240ZG went on the market in Japan around October 1971, so that would correspond.

That's the attachment point for the towing bracket specific to the HS30-H model Fairlady 240ZG. The stock short nose towing bracket could not be used on the 240ZG (the lower section of the Grande Nose covered it) so the factory created a 240ZG-specific towing bracket which allowed the tow rope to pass through the nose:

A gentle 24th October (Japan time) bump for the 54th anniversary...

Sure, but case casting numbers are not going to identify ratios and open/LSD contents. Yarb, if you want to identify true 'origin' ('identified as') of your diff then most of its provenance will come from the sourcing chain.

I've not dealt with many S130-series cases, but I'd expect contemporary production case castings to be very similar. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't S130-series output flange be rectangular rather than round? The Z31 diffs I've sourced are very very similar to the R30 and early R31 diffs that I've had. Just different rear covers.

Over the last 25+ years (how time flies!) I've bought something like 30 or more R200 diffs from Japan in various ratios (3.7 through 4.875 and the occasional 5.1) and many of them came from R30 and early R31 Skylines with the P9000 case casting. However, it's hard to pin true origin (OEM fitment) down when - in my experience - many of them were modified in period, often with upgraded LSDs (switching OEM two pinion to 4-pinion NISMO) or open diffs modified with aftermarket LSDs, rear cover swaps, output flange swaps etc. Here are a couple of examples of diffs I imported and sold to the rally guys here in the UK and Europe :

That looks like an R31 Skyline diff to me.

Shanghai Auto Museum is nothing to do with Nissan. It's in China, for a start... Clearly an exhibit that they sourced themselves, of unknown provenance and with some decidedly custom details. So I wouldn't use any detail of that car as a reference point if I were you.

Technically, I believe the two flat plates that sit underneath the two vertical drop mounts were meant to be welded to the rear deck floor. That would be a good reason for them often disappearing when the bars were removed from cars and sold on. I've got a 'normal' Nissan Sports/Race Option 4-point bar kit in my 432-R replica car, and an original Nissan Works rally version in my ongoing Works Rally 'Test Car' replica project. The difference is that - on the Works Rally type - they moved the two vertical drop bars and mounts further apart so that two stacked spare wheels/tyres could be carried onboard, and they added a steel arrestor strap and a hinged clasp to hold them down (adjustable for one, or two, spares). All the side mount points are in every car, so they are a bolt-in. It's just the vertical drop mount plates that need to be added. Here's how the Works style plates were welded into my 'Test Car' project:

Yes, I've noticed that in the last few years. Sneaky! There were a few other Nissan models that had fairly similar front hub/spindle castings. Some of them probably fit the S30 series too. Is the second half of the part number indeed '16230'? Usually I'd expect an official strut for Nissans of that period to have an alphabet letter at the beginning of the part number suffix which is a great help in identification. I'm guessing that Kayaba/KYB themselves might be helpful in giving you a positive identification? Edited to add: That top mount might also be a clue? Can you post a picture of it from the top? The spring looks to be smaller outer diameter than I'd expect too.

That looks like quite a 'late' pair of struts (late 70s/early 80s?), and I don't *think* they were for use on the S30 chassis. I don't recognise the part numbers (54302 indicates RH Front, but is the suffix number '16230'?) and I'm wondering what other chassis they might have been made for. None of the factory adjustable-platform struts for the S30 were externally adjustable in that way.

The vendor made some other comments which are worth mentioning. He said that the Grande Nose parts turned up from Japan "still in their Police livery". If he could show photos of this, it would help his story. However, the only Police-specific 'livery' paint detail on an original 5-piece Grande Nose would be the white & black paint split on the headlamp cowls. The lower cowl panel would be painted black and the bonnet extension piece would also be black. The urethane front bumper on the Kanagawa Prefectural Police highway patrol Fairlady 240ZG is in its normal factory-supplied shade of metallic charcoal grey. Further, Nissan was still supplying genuine Grande Nose components in Japan right up through the 1990s as factory replacement parts. Unlike earlier factory pieces, the later items were supplied in a black gel coat finish. This would make it harder to identify "ex-Police" parts via colouring. He mentioned that the Grande Nose parts languished in US Customs for a long time before being released, as though this was some sort of positive. I don't see how? Is he linking this to their "ex-Police" nature? Seems more likely that they were mis-described in their shipment documentation or that the receiving party didn't know how to deal with international shipment procedures and/or import duties and taxes. Kind of a bizarre detail to add to an auction description either way. He also showed the Nissan parts boxes that the headlamp covers came in, and said that they will be supplied with the car to any buyer. So what happened to the originals that that were on the "ex-Police" parts? Lastly, which particular "ex-Police" 240ZG did these parts come from? There was no mechanism for ex-Police cars to fall into private hands in Japan, and - so I'm told - Police-specific componentry would be stripped out for possible re-use before the cars were scrapped. Yes, stock parts could theoretically make it onto the used parts market, but where's the paper trail? The number of Fairlady 240ZGs used as Police cars was vanishingly small, so which one was it? Here's a photo of a Fairlady 240ZG during its transformation into a Police car at (I believe) Nissan-affiliate TONOX's Tonouchi factory. I believe that this is the same car that is now in the Nissan Heritage Collection: