Carl Beck

Hi Mike: Wanted to check to see if my downloads came though correctly or not. Of if your PDF software left some pages out etc. I seem to be missing some pages as follows: Only page 1 for 06-04-72 Only page 3 & 4 for 08-27-72 Only page 1 for 09-03-72 Only page 3 & 4 for 09-15-72 Only page 1 for 09-17-72 Only page 2,3&4 for 10-07-72 Only page 2 for 11-01-72 Is it possible that Page 1 of 09-15-72 goes with Pages 3&4 of 09-17-72 ? FWIW, Carl B.

At Post #15 Chris posted a picture of a Z at Daytona with #81. At Post #16 Phillip commented that he was fairly sure that was HLS30 00008. At Post #17 Chris replies: At Post #29 -after some confusion among different pictures I replied in part: At Post #31 Chris replied: Well - actually appearances can be misleading. Looking farther... it seems that Bob Bell was a sponsor. He didn't run the car - Dave Duda did. At the time wasn't 1984 ... it was 90, 92. At least per the reference site you listed: http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/David-Duda-USA.html Interesting that Mike Speakman, Bob Speakman and Jim Novotne are listed as "Most frequent co-drivers". We also have to assume that at that time Dave Duda only had one Z, and that he did in fact modify HLS30 00008 so extensively moving it from SCCA C-Production to IMSA. Looking back at my e-mail exchange with Mr. Speakman - he said he sold the car to Dave Duda, and as I recall, Dr. Bork bought the car from Mr. Duda. {I'll have to go review all the messages from Dr. Bork to affirm} I believe your response here - is a carry-over from my confusion as to which "picture" I was originally looking at. My comment about the body was originally about the Bondurant entry being a 260Z body... again sorry for the confusion. Interesting about the uni-body being cut up beyond recognition however. Dr. Bork did not say that the original body had been so completely cut up.. Dr. Bork restored the car to it's as raced in the early 70's condition. It sounds like only the firewall was left . At any rate - I'll update the Z Car Home Page when we get back from Jim's... Are you going to make it to the show in Lakeland first?... I'm going to run over and meet some of the guys there in the morning. FWIW, Carl B.

I ask Mr. Brock the same thing a year or so ago. Isn't this all to common in the automotive media? I can just hear it now.... "Good Morning, this is Frank at American Racing Wheel - how can I help you?" "Hello - this is Peter Brock at BRE Racing. I need 12 LeMans wheels with the Datsun bolt pattern, in a 14" diameter, 7" width and with a 4" backspace. Can you get them out to me by next week?" "Sure Mr. Brock, did you want the outer lips polished as usual?" "Yes, and just put them on our account" "Ok Mr. Brock, we will have them cast to your specifications and you can expect them next week. Thanks for the order." So as we can see - If you ask Mr. Brock if he "designed" the Le Mans wheels - being primarily a Designer - he would of course say no. It is more than likely the original story from American Racing was that Peter Brock "specified" the LeMans wheels for his BRE cars. Along the way, someone in the media got sloppy with the use of terms, and by word of mouth or whatever - the act of specification became "design"..... Kind of like Mr. Goertz telling a writer about getting a one year contract for Design Consulting with Nissan Motors in 1963, and that being later reported as - being hired to design cars.... Huge difference however in that Mr. Brock refused to take credit for the design, where Mr. Goertz told, twisted and retold the story so many times - I think he believed the lie himself years later ... kind of like his "stint" at Porsche.... later being reported as "Goertz designed the 911" BTW - Mike - what happened to Terry??? Where do we get the center caps now? FWIW, Carl B.

Oh Mike.. .two sets! - you are smitten:love: Carl B.

Hi Mike: Thanks for publishing that issue of the Datsun Competition News... among other names my eye went directly to Craig Ross... I ran into Craig Ross a few weeks ago - at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club's Annual Classic Car Show. I hadn't seen him in decades! I first meet Craig at the races at Daytona circa 1975, and he is the guy that finally - fine tuned my triple Webers.... No one has touched them since. He still has his 65 Shelby Mustang!! Dan Parkinson called me several months ago to talk about BRE and the Z he bought when they shut down. {and we all know it wasn't a 260Z as mentioned in the article} I'm getting "old" but it still amazes me how many of the "older" guys are showing up on the Internet. Now Greg of course - is young enough that he can't remember a time when there was no Internet, and racing a car that is older than him - - how the world has changed, yet remained the same... Tradition........ Great going Greg... that is quite an honor.. to recognize quite an accomplishment... FWIW, Carl B.

Phillip / Chris: Reviewing our discussion: Post #16 To which I answered Post #25 I now realize that Phillip was taking about the picture Posted by Chris at Post #15. I was responding to the picture Posted by Chris at Post #21. Sorry for the confusion on my part. So the question is: Did Bob Bell run the 00008 car as #81 at Daytona with G-nose and very large IMSA rear fender flairs. At Post #18 At Post #21 - Chris caught that 26th finish.. and questioned it as Bondurant finished 24th in that race. Looks like I was getting my own notes screwed up there as well. That sentence should have said: At the 1978 24 Hours of Daytona, Bob Speckman's Z was the first Z to cross the finish line, taking 16th overall and and 4th in IMSA's GT-U Class. Bondurant finished 24th O/A and 7th in class. Sorry for the confusion Chris. I looked at that "26th" three times and it still looked right!! Should have been 16th... I will now go back to my e-mail archive and see if I can find the pictures of the car we think was the Bondurant car in 78, as well as review everything that Dr. Bork and Mr. Speckman wrote... might be a few clues in there as well. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Phillip: Trying to pin the history of these cars down is always fun. The car that Chris posted is a later body - more like a late 260Z/280Z. That was the car that Bob Bondurant drove. Speckman was in the same race, also sponsored by Bondurant. No problem at all. At one time, we thought that BSR had received both HLS30 00006 and 00008..... That was how I had originally written the information on the Z Car Home Page. I got an e-mail from Mr. Speckman setting me straight on that oneLOL He wanted me to know that Nissan shipped the car directly to him - and Bob Sharp had nothing to do with setting it up:finger: Mr. Speckman seemed to believe that #00008 was the first Z to "finish" 24 hours at Dayton. But as with many of the guys - it's been 35+ years ago - and most of the guys that raced really didn't keep track of weekly, monthly or yearly history.. Their focus was always on running the next race.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Chris: Bondurant finished 24th 0/A in the 78 race and it looks like 7th in Class. He also sponsored Speckman's team. Speckman's car is listed as a Datsun 260Z... but then it couldn't have been in GT-U if it really had been a 260Z. So that was most likely HLS30 00008. Dr. Bork may have the log books from that period... I'll check.. FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Chris: Dr. Bork and Mr. Speakman provided the history - and it may indeed have been off the tops of their head. Looking at the Site you reference - it looks like the sentence should say; At the 1978 24 Hours of Daytona, Bob Speckman's Z was the first Z to cross the finish line, taking 26th overall and and 4th in IMSA's GT-U Class. Sponsored by Bondurant Racing School, Bob shared driving duties with Chris Doyle and John Maffucci. It looks like the first Z to finish a 24 hour race at Dayton was Bruce Mabrito and Jack Steel's 240Z in 1975. 26th O/A and 7th in GT-U. Interesting site - I'd like to see where their source data comes from - a lot of it seems to be contributed by specators...I wonder if they had access to Daytona's actual records... FWIW, Carl B.

Try This: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=259990&postcount=1

Nissan P/N 41060-R1120 which consists of 4 new M2800 "medium hard" FIA pads for the FIA calipers that use the solid OE rotor. You might e-mail Courtesy Nissan - at one point they had them. See: http://courtesyparts.com/ FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Arne: No - you are correct. I did say "cars" in North America - and in that case the number would have been closer to 36000.. I should have checked the On-line Register... :stupid: I was looking at my personal data base, that is supposed to include the on-line Register, but has about three times as many cars listed - some people that didn't want the info made public, some info gathered by people other than the actual owners, some gathered from on-line discussions etc etc. thanks for the input.. Carl B.

Overall - Brian has done a great job with his web site - documenting what he's found and sharing what he has learned. The drawback is that he hasn't really flushed the information out on a public forum. Usually it's close enough for discussion purposes... If I had to guess - I'd guess he got that 10,000 number confused with the 2400 OHC valve covers... My 46,000 number was off the top of my head, based on Nissan saying that the 72 Production started at HLS30 46000 - - but then I knew better than that - - I have 72 Model year cars on my list with VIN's in the 4300 series.. As you can see - the advantage here is that someone, Arne in this case, is quick to add/correct any data they see as misleading or outright wrong... FWIW, Carl B.

I believe that Jim Wolf used the first part of the Nissan Part Numbers, to show the different heads.. so in that first reference The E88, N33,N33/P50 are part numbers that all carry a CASTING NUMBER of E88. 11041-E3100 Assy-Cylinder Head up to 08/71 11041-E8800 from 9/71 up to 05/72 11041-N3300 from 7/72 11041-P5003 L26 from 08/73 I should add a note to that chart... FWIW, Carl B.

Hi Arne: I'll bet your original engine serial number is close to 46,000 - right/wrong? Let me know so I can add it to the data base... thanks, Carl

Hi Mike: Great - I was looking for pictures of that car a few weeks ago... thanks, I'll add it to my collection... FWIW, Carl B.

I have to respectfully disagree. I think there are too many errors there. Wrong. The E31's came on all 69, 70 and 71 240Z's in North America. That would mean that there were about 46,000 Z's equipped with the E31. They were used for racing by BSR and BRE in 70/71, but both switched to the E88 heads when they came out. The E-88's had better flow through the intake/exhaust ports, and a slight milling brought the compression back up. The E88's also had better castings, as the E31's tended to crack around the exhaust valves. 42.4 cc combustion chambers, with 42mm intake and 33mm exhaust valves. Wrong - There are at least four different heads that carry the E88 casting number. 1. The E88's started showing up on the last of the Series II 240Z's. Although carrying the E88 casting numbers, they still had the smaller combustion chambers of the previous E31's ie. 42.4 cc 2. The E88's that were standard on the 1972 Model Year or Series III 240-Z's. These had the same combustion chamber design as the E31 and early E88's... only increased to 44.7cc 3. The E88's that were standard on the 1973 Model Year or Series IV 240-Z's. These were emissions heads. The combustion chamber design was changed to improve emissions control, and the size was increased to 47.8cc. This is not a good performance head.. and it is difficult to rework to make it good. 4. The E88's that were standard on the 1974 Model Year 260Z. These were the same combustion chamber as the 73's but with a larger 35mm exhaust valve. I believe that these are better references: http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/128combo.html and http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/head.htm and http://ZHome.com/ZCMnL/tech/E31andE88Heads.htm FWIW, Carl B.

As Mike B. noted - the hood hinges were painted body color - but the torsen rods were black away from the hinges. {at least on every car I've checked} If you order NOS hood hinges from Nissan - they came Yellow/Gold Cad. plated. At least the set I have did. FWIW, Carl B.

That would be the 280Z body he used, after totalling the BRE #46 240-Z. Dan said he used many of the parts off #46 to build this car. Thanks for the pictures... Carl B. IZCC #260

No no no - if you're going to swap in an L28ET - then use the 260-Z. If you were going to keep either one stock - then the 240Z would make a better choice. It will be easier to find parts for, it would hold it's resale value better and be easier to resell later if you need or want to. There is a reason the 260Z is $2,000.00 less expensive - so save the money for your new engine. FWIW, Carl B.

A front "inner fender" is usually that part of the car that is toward the inside of the car, relative to the back side of the wheel/tire - and which protects and/or forms the engine bay. In that case, Yes there are innerfenders on the 240Z. They are listed as ASSY-HOOD LEDGE LH and RH in the parts catalogs. I don't believe that rocks can hit the under side of the top of your front fenders. Rocks would hit what we usually call the front fender horns - but which the parts catalogs list as ASSY-REINF HOOD LEDGE RH & LH. If you take your front fenders off - you will see that these parts are under the tops of the front fenders.. FWIW, Carl B.

?????????????? N42 blocks all have dished pistons unless modified - - FWIW, Carl B.

Depends on how much you have paid for it. Hard to tell from the pictures, but the good parts might be worth more than the car. Bumpers, Tail Lights, Hood, Front fenders, read deck lid... Can't really tell from the pictures - No way to fix it - at any reasonable cost in terms of dollars or time. I'd strip it for parts and crush it. FWIW, Carl

The Series III 240-Z's started production 9/71. All automobile manufacturers start producing their next "Model Year " cars ahead of the current calendar year for sale in the U.S. So YES it is a 1972 Datsun 240-Z, with most of the improvements for 72 included. The Date Of Manufacture is on the car because the US Safety and Emissions Regulations are made effective as of certain specific dates. So any car made on or after that date had to be in compliance with the laws in order to be legally sold to the public here. Early 72 Model Year cars did not have the retractable seat belts, nor the seat belt warning light on the center console that cars produced a few months later did. The car still has the ARA - Dealer Installed A/C evaporator and thermo contol installed in the interior, but I don't see any compressor under the hood. So when you refresh the car, you can eliminate them as well. Looks like the heater core may have been leaking, or one of the hoses let go. So the water inlet/outlet hoses have been cut off - and a loop put in the tubes on the block. When you take the old A/C evaporator out, you'll want to replace the heater core and get new hoses to hook everything back up. If nothing else you'll defrosters for the windshield in Northern Calif. Personally - I like the 72 Z's about the best of any of them. I also like that color combination - so I'd strip that car down to a bare shell and start on a complete "refresh". It could easily be a stunning example and a wonderful car to keep for decades to come. FWIW, Carl B.

What Casting Number is on the block?