Carl Beck

Hi Mike: I'm dumbfounded... and because of that it is possible that I am driven to be irrational in this matter. The suggestion to ban surfsnake was a good one and in my only post to this thread at the time - I seconded that suggestion. IMHO you have deleted these two positive suggestions along with whatever you considered to be flames. I read the entire thread - and believe that we really don't need the company of people like surfsnake. His behavior is deplorable, it is only his intellect and vocabulary that prevent him from being "Bert2" If you want to keep him here for entertainment value - then you'll be constantly deleting references to his personal behavior, it is just to obnoxious for most of us to let pass without comment. FWIW, Carl B.

Oh... yes... da.. I forgot about that.. There is a Silver Stage II in "Import Automotive Parts and Accessory Magazine" as of Nov. 1978 as well. FWIW, Carl B.

Glliw - is that your 69 Cougar or your neighbor's? Has the Eliminator rear wing - is it an Eliminator? just wondering... Carl B.

Hi Carig: Good to see you join the group. I've been meaning to drop you, Larry, David and Trevor a note.. but just too many other things keep grabbing my time lately. Did you get #155 from Jorge Vera? He had it For Sale around 96. Did you ever get in touch with John Ursel? He reported finding Brian and talking to him around 1998, but I haven't heard from either one for quite some time. {the older e-mail address don't work any longer} How much information do you have on the STAGE II Scarab's?... were they the cars built after Brian sold the company and before it went Chapter 11? FWIW, Carl B.

This is what Jim Cooke did...

Yes - but you would never have lived as well. Carl

Because: That is one of the Toyota 2000GT's that Shelby America prepared and raced with Toyota Sponsorship. Peter Brock and BRE had a signed contract with Toyota for the competition development of the Toyota 2000GT in the USA. Toyota was supposed to ship cars, spare parts and money to BRE for competition in the US. When Mr. Shelby heard about it - He flew to Japan, meet with some officials at Toyota and told them that Peter Brock worked for him before - and since Shelby was a Toyota Distributor at the time - the cars should come to him. Of course at the time Shelby had the Cobra success fame going for his name as well. Shelby got the cars and BRE was left without a client.... Mr. Brock called a friend at Hino Motors in Japan, for whom BRE was designing and campaigning a race car in the US already. Mr Brock explained the Toyota situation to his friend - who happened to have gone to college with the President of Nissan Motors Ltd. One friend called another - and Nissan Motors Ltd. sent BRE some roadsters to campaign, along with the contracts and money. When BRE successfully campaigned the roadsters - beating all comers.. Mr. Brock was finally allowed to meet Mr. K. (having been blocked by the people in the Competition Dept. at Nissan Motors in USA prior to that). Mr. K then put BRE under contract to campaign the Datsun's for Nissan Motors USA's West Coast Division and the BRE DATSUN's were born... So if Shelby hadn't taken the Toyota contract away from BRE - we might all be driving Toyota's today. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Rif: Looks like a really nice Z. Because of the additional down force that the rear spoiler puts on car (75lbs of down force vs the stock 20 lbs of lift) - I'd recommend that you add the front BRE Spook to it. The nose of the 240-Z begins to lift at about 40mph - and by 70mph it has about 140 lbs of lift in front. Adding only the rear spoiler - pushes the rear down more - and thus forces the front even farther up (in effect adding more lift at the front were you don't need it ). The front Spook will generate 105 lbs of down force (115 lbs with no air ducts), which almost cancels the 140lbs of lift at 70mph. So with both the front and rear spoilers added - the Z is really much more stable at highway speeds. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Derek: Thanks for posting the info. It's interesting to know that the seams were actually leaking. FWIW, Carl B.

I don't know about Hot Rod Air - but Vintage Air offers several different types of vents. Your main problem is finding one that is the exact dimensions you need. Unless you are willing to make a custom center finisher.. FWIW, Carl B.

Looks great in the pictures - tell us more about it. When was it refreshed, how did you come upon it etc. How many did you go look at before you found a good one etc.? Are you going to keep the 280ZX as well? Carl B.

Interesting: In the first listing they state that there are 18 original Scarab's accounted for - yet they list only 16 (12 with door tags and 4 without). What happened to the other two? In the first listing, in the Q&A section - they acknowledge the fact that the Red #153 exists - and provide an explanation for why two would have the same Scarab series number. Yet this time they fail to mention that fact - again. Either they don't believe the story, or they don't want potential buyers to know about it.. I wouldn't be too happy if I found that out after I bought the car... because with any controversy like that - I wouldn't have bought the car to begin with. Might be part of the reason that the actual owner doesn't want to represent nor sell the car himself, and is hiding behind a professional dealer. On top of all that - personally I wouldn't buy a car from a used car dealer in a private auction anyway. FWIW, Carl B.

Sailor: Just go down and order one from your local Nissan Dealer... or though several aftermarket automotive parts stores.. Maybe a vendor in Canada would have to charge less postage??? BTW - who quoted $20.00 for shipping? FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Chris: Actually - the brochures came from the owner of the 510 presented on E-Bay as a BRE car - but was disputed as being a real BRE car. According to the owner of that car, the Project was not used by Nissan/BRE. So it was a proposal, for Nissan to market a BRE Decor Package for the 510's though the Dealer network, according to the owner of that car. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Mike: Just so there is no misunderstanding. The "70 Poster" that you posted at #38 - is NOT the poster I was talking about in the lines quoted - when I said that Gayle said it was NOT a BRE Generated Poster. The BRE Poster painted on aluminum is a completely different one. Gayles response to the one I showed her - as below was: "I've never seen that poster. I showed it to Peter and he of course has. We don't have one. He said it was a poster Nissan put out." As you can see - the Nissan Poster from 1970 - looks a lot like the BRE Poster for 70/71.in terms of size/shape and track section.. Personally I like the brighter colors in the Nissan 70 Poster a lot, and I might have it reproduced if I can find a good source around here. FWIW, Carl B.

Most certainly !! And keep it well stocked for visitors !!

Hi Paul: Yes, I'd love to know more about 0999. Maybe if were lucky some will show up with more of its history and/or pictures. Some of my first experiences with "Sports Cars" involved running a Corvette in with the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Club in the early 60's, in one of their POR like events in Ohio. What a hoot.. the wonders of the Plastic Pig. Winch that sucker out of the mud, and you began to realize why everyone else was using those tiny TR-3's and 356's... Over the years I've been trying to collect more information about the Z's used in North America for SCCA Pro-Rally and/or Vintage Pro-Rally use. Mostly because of liability issues here in America - Pro-Rally events are few and sparely covered by the media. Indeed the organizers seem to avoid publicity of the events, for fear of having the "Safety Nuts" and Lawyers get wind of them. One of the guys in Canada bought one of the Z's that ran in the 1997 Panama to Alaska Rally, by Rick Hintz a few years ago. {picture below} But I don't know if it's still there or not.. http://zhome.com/Racing/RALLY/Hintz.htm FWIW, Carl B.

Unless some PO wired in a relay that fused high/low individually. I think we had a thread on that subject some time ago.. where the pros/con's of left/right vs high/low wiring of the headlights was discussed. The fact that both low beams were out is what reminded me of that.. High/Low dimmer is most likely - I was just tying to think of other things I've run into.. FWIW, Carl B.

Who is "they"?? Can you take a picture of your wiring?

Looks like a great car to serve as the basis for a complete refresh or restoration. Once you get the garage done, start looking for some good Package Racking.. at least 6 and better 8' wide by 4'deep, and with at least 5 shelves. That will give you a safe place to put the doors, hood, deck lid, seats, dash, front fenders and other large parts. Check your local Yellow Pages for vendors that carry both new and used Package Racking. It will be one of the best things you buy for the project and your garage. FWIW, Carl B.

See if this will help. http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/MalloryDist.htm I don't know how different the wiring in the 280Z is from the 240-Z, but there might be something there you can use. FWIW, Carl B.

We have at least two people in this group, that after 20+ years, found their cars. So I don't think that finding the one Wick restored is a lost cause. The odds are against it but long shots do come in... FWIW, Carl B.

-Is it possible that both low beams have burned out? -Is it possible that some PO installed a headlight relay.. and one side of that is out? FWIW, Carl B.

It might be too late - but maybe not. Make sure your garage door openings are at least 9' instead of the usual 8'. Most four post lifts, that have mobile capability ( you can roll them around when the ramps are down)... have Posts that are 8'4" to 8' 10". Which means you can't roll them out the standard height garage door. At times you'd want to roll the lift outside - to pressure wash the undercarriage perhaps... and you wouldn't want the water inside the garage. At time's you might want to roll the lift outside, just to get it out of the way for a few hours.. so other operations can take place in the Garage..

Hi Mike: As I understand it - different Vintage/Historic Racing Organizations had different rules, or local officials that interpret the rules differently. Mostly its a political issue - if the Porsche Guys hold power in the organization they do everything they can to exclude the 240-Z. It's just too embarrassing for them to constantly look at the Z's tail lights. The above being said - there are organizations that state "built before Jan. 01, 1970"... and there are a lot of 240-Z's racing in various Vintage/Historic Races. I don't know who said no 240-Z's were sold in the US prior to 1970. Several most certainly were, but the next problem is proving it, past that point, the definition of "sold" becomes a sticking point. Is the car "sold" when a contract is agreed to and signed by both Buyer and Seller? Is it sold when money changes hands to pay for the car in-full? Or is it "sold" when the Buyer takes physical delivery of the car? I actually bought my 1970 Z, in March of 1970. At that time the Dealer had about 18 customers that had signed a sales contract, and paid for the cars in-full prior to Jan. 1970. Did the Dealer keep the sales records from 1969? NO. Did Nissan USA keep any records from that period? NO. Three of our Original Owners - have 1969 production year Z's... but they all bought them after Jan. 1970. So no proof there. My HLS30 00020 was sold and titled as a 1969 Datsun Cpe. and it is still titled as a 1969 Datsun Cpe. - - but due to the Federal Privacy Laws.. I can't get copies of the original filling of the MSO showing a Dec. Sales Date... So all I have is a "story" from the second owner that the first owner told him... but we all know what stories are worth... I keep hoping that some day - an original owner of a 69 Z will show up with his original Bill Of Sale dated prior to Jan. 01, 1970. Or perhaps one of the Datsun Salesmen, that sold 240-Z's at the L.A. and N.Y. auto shows, will have kept some of the documentation from sales made there.. hope springs eternal.... FWIW, Carl B.