Carl Beck

Hi Alan: Very interesting picture indeed. The picture in the book (below) seems to have cut Mr. Tamura out... or perhaps it was just an oversight.?? Nonetheless, having worked with many "teams" of people on many design projects - I understand and agree that you can expect to hear different perspectives from different team members related to who contributed what and when. I do wonder why Mr. Matsuo seems to want to acknowledge everyone in his story of the Z Car - yet so little mention of Mr. Tamura. An interesting turn of events - and it will be even more interesting to see what comes out of Kats interviews with the people involved.. Anyway I look at it - there seems to be major disagreement in this area between Mr. Matsuo and Mr. Tamura. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Stephen: He seems to be seeking mention now. Yes - I see Mr. Matsuo's story of the Z Car as being very "team" oriented - he mentions several of the members as they either started with him, or came along a bit later. He calls Mr. Yoshida his "right-hand man" etc. Mr. Matsuo writes that in the Summer of 1967 Mr. Yoshida was transfered to another Dept. - and Mr. Matsuo had to continue with the Plan A prototype by himself. It was only when it came time to incorporate changes and so on that he was aided by Mr. Tamura. That is a very long way from Mr. Tamura having done the final or finished "styling" of the car. I guess we will know more as Kats interviews all the people that he can. I just don't think it is time replace Mr. Matsuo and Mr. Yoshida with Mr. Tamura, as the person that styled the beautiful body lines of the Z Car. Without a whole lot more investigation. If we can't believe Mr. Matsuo on such an important fact - can we believe anything? I don't see this as a small misunderstanding or slight difference of opinion at this point. Could turn out that way... we'll have to wait and see.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Alan: First - thanks for the Post - very interesting subject. To your question above - I doubt anyone can provide evidence at this point. I don't find anything that states that the 240Z "went on sale". Many of the articles from that period say to expect to see the cars at the Dealerships after the first of the year. The Article in the New York Times published the 23rd of Oct. 1969 reporting on the event held the 22 Of Oct. 69 in New York city - said in part. -- - Quoted in part - as fair use - to comment on a recent N.Y.Times article - - - - Datsun Enters the Middle-Priced Sports Car Market - The Nissan Motor Company Ltd., which has built it reputation on economy cars, is making a determined bid for the middle-priced sports car market. The company showed its Datsun 240Z sports car at its international preview yesterday at the Pierre Hotel. The car is expected to be competitive with Detroit-built sports-type of cars and European sports cars. It will sell here for $3,500.00 and includes such features as independent rear suspension, front disk brakes, overhead cam engine and flow-though fresh air ventilation. The company designated its newest entry as "an all new, personalized, two-passenger fastback" and said it was Datsun's answer to the high-performance personal car market. - - end quote - - - -- FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Kats: It would seem that Mr. Matsuo's assessment of Mr. Tamura's contributions are far smaller than Mr. Tamura feels were true. Mr. Matsuo seems to be saying that the styling was pretty much complete - but due to changes to accommodate the L24 for Mr. K, changes requested by Engineering to accommodate the independent suspension and add more track width to accommodate snow chains etc. Mr. Matsuo writes: "When the time came to incorporate the necessary changes to the body width and so on, I was aided by Mr Tamura with the measurements, but it was very difficult to retain the proportions of the vehicle. Having solved all the detail problems, a clay model was presented towards the end of the Autumn." All in all - it sounds like Mr. Tamura simply scaled up the original design more so than actually having done the "styling". I would wonder why Mr. Matsuo gave Mr. Tamura such little mention if Mr. Tamura had contributed so much. Do you plan to talk to Mr. Matsuo about this? FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Kats: Great story... Can you tell us which one of these men is Mr.Tamura? Or if he is not in that picture - do you have any pictures of him working on the car? thanks, Carl B.

Hi Bill: Thanks again for Hosting a very special gathering. It was a perfect day for the event, and the food, ah the food... I'm still stuffed. Special thanks to your son Bill, who worked around the clock as well. I got to meet a few more of our "Internet" friends, and see some very nice Classic, Collectible and Special Interest Cars in addition to the Z's. Of course there is never enough time to spend with everyone. Sorry I didn't get a chance to talk to the owner of one of my favorite cars - the Caddy XLR that was there - it was striking. Of course your 71 is still one of the most beautifully done competition cars to be seen anywhere. I wonder how many people noticed that HLS30 00016 still has its original 1969 dated spark plug wires. We could spend an hour looking at the incredible detail work that went into the Z Wolf and the Blue Oval Z. I got a few pointers from John Thomas... he pointed me home and said to stay there ;-) Good to see Ol' Miss won. There was a Peal White Feb. 71 production car there that had both the side and rear deck lid fresh air vents - and I recall seeing a couple of them come into the Dealership that way. I had just started to talk to the owner when my attention was diverted to a CR-X... ah just not enough time. I saw Will {hls30.com} there, but before I could get over to see him, he was lost in the crowd again. The Fuel Injection system on Derek's Z was amazing... neat to see it go from casting prototype one year - to a running engine the next. Beautiful job... It's worth the trip just to see your Z Garage... thanks again for having us all.... it's these types of "enthusiasts gatherings" that keep us all interested in and enjoying the hobby. kind regards, Carl

Hi Arne: Yes - the 71 to 72 Model Year transition is an interesting time. Nissan lists the 72 Model Year as starting with HLS30 46000. However we have several cars that had "most" of the 72 features and which were sold as 72 Models - with build dates of 08 of 71 - mixed in with cars that were indeed 71 Model Year cars. It "seems" that if the car got the newer Type B tranny and rearward mounted differential - it was sold as a 72. Of course the early 72 Model Year cars did not get the self retracting seat belts, nor did they even have the pocket in the floorboards for them. They still had the vertical rear window defroster lines and on the center console they did not have the red seat belt warning lights... At the Dealership - we were getting both Late Model 71 and early 72 Z's on the same truck load.. FWIW, Carl B.

I talked to Brian a few weeks ago about that page. It needs some revision. 1. The E31 Heads came on all 70/71 Model Year 240Z's. There were some 45,000 of them not 10K as written. The E31's suffer from cracking in the exhaust valve seat area - have any head you acquire checked carefully for cracking - BEFORE - you start putting money into it. 2. There are really three different heads cast with E88 for the 240Z's. The first, although rare - is the head that came on the very early production 72 Model Year cars - it has the same combustion chamber design and size as the E31. 42.4cc The Second is the head that was most common on the 72 Model Year cars. Combustion chamber design is the same as the E31, just a couple cc's larger volume - but the E88 due to improved flow produced the same HP as the E31. 42.4cc vs 44.7cc The Third E88 is an emission head that came on the 73 Model Year 240Z's - the combustion chamber design is intended to reduce emissions - not provide the best performance. 47.8 cc 3. There is one E88 for the 260Z - same design and function as 73 with a larger exhaust valve. 33mm vs 35mm The only way to know which E88 you have is to inspect the combustion chamber, and observe the exhaust valve size. There are a couple poor pictures of the E88 combustion chambers here: http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/E31andE88Heads.htm Nonetheless, if you have a matching number engine, and the car seems to have had good care - it is reasonable to think it still has it's original head - - but many were changed over the years due to blown head gaskets.. FWIW, Carl B.

Top of the "C" pillar is where the rear quarter panel meets and extends into and under the roof panel. That body seam is filled with lead from the factory, over time body flex will squeeze it up a bit. This is very common. I've not noticed fatigue cracks at the bottom of the "A"... Body twist?? I'm not sure I would say that - at least nothing to the same extent as say you would find on the 64,65,66 Pontiac GTO's... body twist on them wrinkles the whole rear quarter. The unibody on the Z will flex a bit and I suppose if your racing the car and putting extreme stress on it via large racing tires, super stiff suspension and lots of torque.. sure it would twist.. but even that would be limited to some extent by a good roll cage... I'd put it this way - if you are looking at a Z that shows signs of body twist - I'd pass and keep looking. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Gang: Didn't we discuss this 74 260Z with 19K original miles? Anyway the Hagerty has a video of it, and they used it to talk about "what to look for" on the 240/260/280 Z's.. I think the video was shot at the Mecum Indy Sale this summer. As I recall wasn't this car on E-Bay? http://video.hagerty.com/video/Guide-to-Datsun-Z-cars FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Mike: Yes - I've seen it. I believe Dan has it and I think he sent me a digital copy. I don't have a hard copy. Like most major corporations I've worked for, Nissan had a solid in-house Communications Dept. within their Public Relations Section. One of the major focuses of these groups was to communicate the party line to the entire company employee base, as well as to distributors, dealers, prospective stock holders and/or bond holders. It will be interesting to see how many of these various corporate communications media will show up. In hindsight I wish I had kept more of them. At the time however they didn't seem so unusual and they did tend to build up on your desktop if you let them. As I said earlier, we usually put them in the Customer Waiting Room. We used to get beautiful annual Calendars from Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. each year as well. Some featured photographs from Japan while others featured reproductions of various works of art. FWIW, Carl B.

Hello GrandPrixGreen: If you haven't already done so - I would highly recommend that you buy a copy of "THE RECKONING" by David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Mr. Halberstam walks you though both Ford Motor Company and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd post WW-II; and gives you an insight into the people who ran the companies, their strategies and inside corporate politics. The book is out of print now - but you can order a used copy from Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Reckoning-David-Halberstam/dp/B000LBFPTE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256053481&sr=1-1 From Halberstam's "THE RECKONING" Writing about how Kawamata came to be assigned to Nissan in 1947 and a little about the character of the man: "The Banker was a 42 year old man named Katsuji Kawamata, and he knew nothing about cars, not even, it was said, how to drive one. He knew even less about production and manufacturing. But he knew about money; he was a man of the bank." and "Kawamata, the banker from IBJ {Industrial Bank of Japan} was an immensely ambitious man, but few of his contemporaries at the IBJ had perceived the full measure of that ambition. On the surface he had not seemed that driven. By the standards of Tokyo's bankers, some of whom were exceedingly sophisticated and polished, men who either were from the upper class or were imitating it, he was a bit primitive - almost, it sometimes seemed, deliberately so. He had appeared a little too rough, too blunt, for a successful career at the bank and in 1947 he had been shunted off to Nissan, so urgently in need of financial help. The news of his transfer had not pleased Kawamata either. He was somewhat angered by the rebuff implicit in his being moved around. Indeed there were old colleagues of Kawamata's who thought that he had been somewhat lazy at the IBJ, and that it was only when the bank scorned him and placed him outside that he became ambitious, af if to prove that the IBJ had been wrong. Immediately after the war, fresh out of the army, Kawamata had returned to the bank as assistant manager in the loans department in Tokyo. He was resentful and irascible, his attention rarely focused. Like so many Japanese at the time, he was overwhelmed by a personal defeat as well. The Japan he had been a part of had failed completely; lost in that collapse were all his hopes. He was not sure how much point there was to postwar life. ("Not just the cities but the hearts of the people have been burned out"; Edwin Reischauer wrote of that period). At the office he tried all day to edge nearer a small electric stove, with an old army overcoat over his head as a kind of cape to keep him warm. Some superiors urged him to work harder, but he did as little as he could." = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = David Halberstam writes of Katayama: "Katayama's privileged childhood had made him different than other Japanese. For one thing it had given him a desire for a higher level of independence. For another it had made him an absolute car nut. He had grown up with classic cars in his family. His Father had owned two very sporty cars, an Erskine and a Star Durant. In the post war years when everyone else was preoccupied with finding a place to live and something to eat, Katayama was obsessed with finding a vintage car to drive and a place where the roads were not so bad that they would destroy it. He organized the first post war auto sports club in Japan. Its members were Japanese with found memories of other days and a handful of American Officers; their cars were a few treasured MG's and some prewar roadsters lovingly reconstructed. It was his love of cars that had brought him to Nissan. His fellow workers saw Nissan as a big company likely to expand. Katayama chose Nissan because it was about cars, and he was about cars, and he not only wanted to build them, he wanted to drive them. At one point in the early 50's, frustrated with the politics of Nissan, he tried to start his own company. He and a friend tried to design their own car, an ultralight car for people in a poor country where gas was expensive. The Flying Feather, Katayama named it. They built a prototype in the second story of a Tokyo office building, then found they could not get the car out the door. Finally it was taken out though the window. He was, he decided an insufficiently practical man to run his own company. That did not diminish his love of cars. When he was not working at Nissan, he was out driving a car as fast as he could. In a nation filled with laws and restrictions and inhibitions, racing around in a sports car was to him the highest form of personal expression. Years later when he became the Head of Nissan on the the American West Coast and purchased a house at Palos Verdes, California, he continued to speed. It was said of Katayama that he had more speeding tickets than anyone else in town. At first he passed himself off to the local traffic cops as a simple Japanese Businessman who knew no English, but the cops soon caught on. One of them would chase after him, catch up with his car, and say, "Good morning how are you today, Mr. Katayama. And by the way here is your ticket. By the end of his tour he had a chauffeur, since if he had gotten another ticket he would have lost his license." - - - end quotes - - - - I believe it would be very hard for anyone outside of America, that did not have a "Katayama" in charge of Nissan's Operations in their countries - to fully comprehend just how good his Leadership and Management Skills were, nor just how great it was to be a Datsun Dealer, Datsun Customer or Datsun Enthusiast during his stewardship of Nissan Motors USA. With Katayama at the head of the organization, Datsun along with its Dealers, Customers and Enthusiasts went from being the underdog in the market, to being Top Dog, both in sales and on the competition tracks of America. That success was worked for, and fully shared by, everyone involved. I guess that is the basis for the Datsun Heritage in America. I suppose that is to a very great extent, is also why so many of us resented the fact that Nissan Motor Co. Ltd was so set on its destruction. FWIW, Carl B.

Hello GrandPrixGreen: Mr. Kawamata and I had at least one thing in common in 1973 - we both smoked "Kent Cigarettes". I believe that Mr. Kawamata's remarks were honestly made. I think that when he was looking back though the eyes of a Banker, all he could see was the additional expense of supporting the advertising expense of maintaining two Brand Identities. On top of that however is Kawamata's reportedly huge ego. He was reportedly upset that people in the US didn't treat him like the President of GM, FORD or Chrysler, nor recognize his importance to the same extent as the President of Toyota. After all that effort to bring everything under a single Brand Name - - one has to wonder why Nissan would launch the "Infiniti Brand" to stand alone from the Nissan Brand. Or we have to wonder when they will change that Brand Name back to Nissan?

Hello GrandPrixGreen: We received "NISSAN INTERNATIONAL GRAPH" in 1971 when I sold Datsun's for a local Datsun Dealer. Later I was a New and Used Car Sales Manager for another Dealership owned by the same family; I received several different publications from Nissan Motors Ltd. in Japan. I only kept a few issues that related to the DATSUN 240Z {which was my main interest at the time} I recall having copies of "Nissan Compass" - but can't find them right now. All these publications were available in our Customer Waiting Area for the Service Department. Later the name and format of the publication was changed to "Nissan-Datsun Rally and Race Digest" Both came from "NISSAN MOTOR CO. LTD, International Advertising (E05), Export Division, `7-1, Ginza 6-Chome, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo 104, Japan. FWIW, Carl B.

What did you set the advance in the Unilite too? What does the spark advance curve look like? thanks, Carl B.

Hi Andy: I have ran triple Weber 40 DCOE's on my 72 since 1975. Once they were properly set up - I never had an issue with them again. You can hook up the chokes on the DCOE's, although I never actually needed them here in Florida. I'm pretty sure I have 36's for actual choke size inside the 40 DCOE's on my L28. Want to enjoy driving your 240Z? Run the S.U.'s with electronic ignition. Want a "wow" factor under the hood - triple carb's man. Want to have a car that will start and run very well all the time - - get a modern Fuel Injection system. In all three cases, the induction system has to be set up and tuned/programmed to perfection. A few dyno runs with someone that knows what they are doing is worth every penny. Personally - today - I'd opt for a modern fuel injection system. If you want looks and performance perhaps fuel injection via the triple throttle bodies... Just my opinion... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Sara: If you are serious about this - I would suggest that the first step would be to find and buy a set of the G-Nose headlight covers. If you look at the picture I Posted, you can see that they are shown in the assembly of the factory parts. The last set of G-Nose headlight covers that I saw on E-Bay were NOS, sold over a year ago, and they went for around $1,200.00 If you take your time you might find a good used set for $600.00 to $800.00. The Web Site you listed - also show the hood hinges which are needed. So you might want to start shopping around for a set of them as well. Again a used set may save you some money. You'll need both the headlight covers and the hood hinges no matter which supplier you buy the fiberglass part or parts from. Nonetheless you'll want to check with whatever body shop you plan to have perform the work. Some body shops have the skills/ability/experience to work with less expensive parts {rough molded} and others will want to use only the highest quality "bolt on" parts. So beware of what would appear to be cheap/inexpensive parts, as their use may cost you two to three times as much in body shop labor, than it would have cost to install higher quality parts that are bolt-on and near ready to finish. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Rick: We are pretty sure that the external colors and interior colors listed here are correct. http://ZHome.com/History/colors.html Note that interiors called "white" in 72, became "Beige" in 73. An off white that was Flame Retardant per FMVSS for the 73 model year and forward. Although if they are not sitting side by side, they both look white to most people. Also note that there were some different mixes for Canada

Hello FastWoman: The Z - is the 1972 Datsun 240Z that was owned and driven by Mr. Katayama while serving as President Of Nissan Motors USA. It has a "G-Nose", custom mix Yellow Pearl Paint with firemist metal flakes, wire wheels and Automatic Transmission. When Mr. K. retired before returning to Japan, he gave the car to his long time Administrative Assistant, Johnnie Gable and her son Kenny Ueda. Kenny owns it to this day and Nissan Mortors still uses it for advertising/promotion. It was most prominently featured in Nissan's $500,000,000.00 Datsun Heritage advertising/promotion campaign in the late 90's as Nissan struggled to tie its past glory with Datsun to its then bleak present. The Super Bowl Ad - "the Dream Garage" lead a series of T.V. Ad.'s featuring a representation of Mr. K {played by an Actor} in the Ad.'s. I believe that there are still sources for the "G-Nose" if you would like to add one to a 240Z. It was offered on the Fairlady 240ZG in Japan, but was not an export model. Pictured below: Photographic copy #260 of 300 - represents my IZCC Membership number - 260 Photo of the "G Nose" FWIW, Carl B.

Hello GrandPrixGreen: To put the full concept of the Datsun Heritage Museum into concise terms is not really possible here, but if you are interested in gaining some understanding of the intent - I'll give it a try. Nissan Motors Ltd. Japan, established their own sales and distribution organization here in America. To protect themselves under U.S. Law, they established Nissan Motors in USA Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of Nissan Motors Ltd in Japan. {there is no public ownership of Nissan Motors USA}. First - clearly understand that there is a huge difference between a "Datsun Museum" and a "Datsun Heritage Museum". A "Datsun Museum" would have a primary focus on Datsun Vehicles, it would be all about the cars and trucks. An attempt to capture their history via snap shots in time. On the other hand - the "Datsun Heritage Museum" is all about the people involved with the Datsun Brand of cars here in America. It is about the people that built something of significance, something of value and who then passed that on to following generations. Things of value go beyond money, they include personal values of individual effort, integrity, pride, cooperation with others, connection with and contribution to one's community. etc etc etc. Human values flow from generation to generation and within organizations they originate and flow from the top down. Your heritage is comprised of things of value passed from one generation to the next. The Datsun Heritage Museum here in the U.S.A., was founded by private investors with no help/funding from Nissan. Their intention is to capturing the story of how the Datsun Brand of Japanese automobiles were brought to America, how people had to strived to overcame many cultural, financial and business obstacles during their startup years - while laying the foundation for future growth and future success. Growth and success not only of the Datsun Franchise, but of the people involved. We hope that "story" will be captured in hundreds of individual examples. People that worked for Nissan Motors USA, people that became Datsun Dealers, people that bought Datsun's and received something more than just a car. People that raced Datsuns. people that repaired them, people that drove them. "The Heritage" that has been passed on now to two and in some cases three generations of American's, is a heritage rich in the values of individual hard work, risk taking entrepreneurship, personal growth and development. The Datsun Heritage in the USA, is rich with stories of economic upward mobility provided by free and open markets, where competition from all corners of the earth can be matched or beaten. The Datsun Heritage here in America is one of individuals recognizing "Opportunity Knocking", grabbing it and fully developing it. The Datsun Heritiage here in the USA is one of a major corporation willing to reach down to enthusiastic individuals of limited means, then working together with them for mutual benefit. {a business model that the major US Auto Makers had long before forgotten}. Nissan U.S.A grew from very humble beginnings along with its first 10, 100, 500 and 1000 Datsun Dealers. Many of the people that helped found the distribution chain of Datsun Dealerships in the early 60's, started with very little to no personal wealth, no experience in Dealership Management etc. etc - and twenty years later retired as multimillionaires. Still others continued their growth and development to this day. One of our Board Members is Mike Sage for example. His Father was one of the first Datsun Dealers on the West Coast. Today Mr. Sage owns the Sage Auto Group, which in turn now owns/operates Infiniti, Mercedes-Benz, Scion, Toyota and Nissan Dealerships. Mike Sage understands the value of the heritage passed on to him from that original Datsun Dealership. I bought my first Datsun from Paul Jaremko in Spokane, Washington. Paul's parents were one of the first 50 Datsun Dealers in the US. Prior to gaining a Datsun Franchise, they owned operated a used car lot. Now some 40 years later, Paul is passing on that heritage to his son's via Jaremko Nissan Saab. Paul by the way won Datsun their first SCCA Regional Championship in 1963 driving a Datsun 1500 roadster, he and his son still race Datsun roadsters in the Pacific Northwest, and his son has won several SCCA championship titles. This family is rich in Datsun heritage . Within the physical museum, there are and will be many Datsun vehicles and many items of Datsun memorabilia. In and of themselves they are an interesting and fun bit of history - - but in a more abstract sense they are all icon's that remind us of the heritage of unlimited opportunity we Americans have inherited. Unlimited opportunity based on the values of individual effort and self-reliance in a land that provides individual freedom and liberty, combined with a capitalistic system operating in free and open markets. A heritage that Nissan shared in by coming to America with their Datsun Brand. {opportunity denied to them at the time in many closed or restricted markets around the world}. Yes, we hope people will come to the museum to see the cars and things - but we really hope they will leave with a deeper understanding of the things of lasting value, passed on from generation to generation long after the Datsun Brand disappeared in America. This Classic Z Car Club is itself a part of the Datsun Heritage. While the Z Car brings us together with a common interest, we hope that there is something of equal or more value here. Hope that gives you a little better understanding of the purpose of the Datsun "Heritage" Museum here in America. FWIW, Carl B.

Moved...

Very Interesting. I want to make sure I understand the distribution and sales organization in Norway. 1.Nissan built the cars in Japan, then sold them to Marubeni who transported them to Norway and then distributed them to their {Marubeni's} local Datsun Dealers. Would that be correct? 2.Later Marubeni collected and restored the cars - and then sometime later sold them off to the public. Would that be correct? 3. Do you know how many Datsun Dealerships were in Norway between 1960 and 1980? thanks, Carl B.

Hi Rick: Here is one for you - I found a buddy's 240Z after several years of looking... http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31481&highlight=Bill+Jones FWIW, Carl B.

Thanks Bruce. MEZZ: By all means let us know what you find - you never know till you go look. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Bruce: So - - in effect you are telling us that Steve bought and now owns the #30 car - Yes/NO ? Or are you telling us that Steve is servicing the car and storing it for David? thanks for the update... Carl B.