26th-Z

Can't help it...drive your car exclusively on pavement and you won't have to worry about weeds getting into your secret compartments!

Alan, Following this thread straight into the parts catalog and I notice with delight some various differentiations. A couple of things; there are a few notes "up to 72 model year" associated with PZR applications and some of the PZR parts also apply to the ZL and ZS models. ?

Interesting photo of John. That's his Lotus and if I'm not mistaken, he's out in front of Shelby's shop.

Oh yes...change constantly.

Thanks for posting the pictures Alan! I'm sure I'll have more questions but first to mind is the underbody coating. Is that a coating? Black paint? And is it stock?

These pictures of Don Kearney got me walking down memory lane for a moment. Carl has a picture on his Zhome site. Other pictures can be found on this site: Don Kearney - Racing Sports Cars An internet search turned up this one at Road Atlanta. Although I don't remember, I suspect Don had more than one car. Perhaps he continued to upgrade the chassis, I know he had an early car, but the various pictures show development of his front spook and brake ducting as well has the fender flares.

The car is different from the previous picture you posted, Rob. Still, it looks like PBIR. Could be Lakeland but I doubt it. Fond memories of Don racing his Z back in those days.

Looks to me like Palm Beach International Raceway.

That looks like a fiberglass repro of this front spoiler which was available for the S30 and HS30. The Nissan spoiler is made of a coated flexible material. It appears to fit in a very similar manner to yours.

Personal opinion; the first 100 of any particular model have collector value. The earlier car may have particularly early examples of individual parts that the later example will not. Interesting, if you're into that sort of thing. However, both examples will be pretty much the same in terms of general appearance and performance. Interesting topic for me. Keep us posted - pictures?

Let me know if you are looking for a specific issue to complete your collection. I have a pile of "SportZ" and "Nissan Sport" taking up shelf space.

This doesn't surprise me. When I first began the process of restoring 26th, I spent a huge amount of time and money buying the parts I would need. (The whole scheme backfired on me when the economy took a dump in 2008) Back then, buying, say a correct windshield for a 1969 build, was no more of a problem than finding the correct Nissan part number and ordering it. What I found was a very (did I say very? Yes, I said very) confusing part to build date correlation and I think that is where some of the misinformation we see from a reputable vendor like Black Dragon comes from. The old part numbering system was apparently revised a number of times and the updates include missing build months and incorrect serial number ranges to name but two confusing gaffs.

The data Blue posted has a VIN error. Up until July 1972 (I think) the serial number was 5 digits, not 6. The six digit serial number began with HLS30-120000 I believe.

Greetings from Florida. Look forward to your videos!

"He needs to be eating his own dog food". Can anybody catch the serial number of the Vintage Z at time 5:33? Same old 'factory' blunder about the Vintage Z. Disappointing. I would need to know the VIN to be sure, but in all probability that car was restored by PierreZ in California. None of the Vintage Zs were restored by Nissan Motor Co. at a factory facility. And Matsuo san is saying the same things he was saying in 2004 however this is the first I have heard of him test driving the prototypes at night. I need to look at the Music Air Graffitti video again.

I should chime in and explain some things - based on some of the comments I'm reading. Actually there were options however as Carl points out, none of them made it to the North American market as "advertised sales" options or accessories. Not until the 1972 model year when published North American sales literature described what we might commonly refer to as the the AMCO aftermarket accessories. The Datsun 240Z Sports came in several configurations; one of which was the HLS30U exported to North America. The standard S30-S did not come with a clock or radio. They were optional in Japan. The S30 had them as standard equipment. The S30-S had rubber floor mats as well. That is why the very early HLS30s have them. Carpeting for the very early cars was added in the United States. The S30-S did not come with the hatch glass defogger option either. Early HLS30s have clear glass and no console switch. The brochure page you are looking at was prepared and distributed in North America prior to the arrival of the first cars. It is evidence (I believe) of the original confugurations of manufacture planned for the North American market. The same sort of issues apply to the picture of the engine configuration and technical data. This information reveals what was obviously an anticipated manufacture configuration but not the final.

Nope! Stock buckles were painted satin black and the center part is textured black.

Merry Christmas, Kats! I love Fairlady girls!

Arne, I'll get Vulcan with you for a moment. If we accept your original premis that we humans are neither rational nor logical then nothing would be appropriate for all, would it? And I have little objection to your emotion and prejudice observations. In this case, I thought some of the prejudiced comments were just going a little to far, the sort of prejudice that I'm growing very tired of hearing. I didn't appreciate the "ignorant" comment after responding to what I recognize as hypocrasy. Enough said. I have no need to start a stink; nothing vesting in Mike's graphic and no need to carry that flag either! (pun intended) Live long and prosper.

Cuban, Those are exactly what you want for your build date 10/70 Z. There are two versions of this design; one with fewer, widely spaced teeth and the valve stem hole centered in a spoke, and one with close teeth spacing with the valve stem hole centered between the spokes. The fewer, widely spaced teeth design is very early and did not provide a very tight fit to the wheel. They had a tendency to fall off. The revised design with increased, closely spaced teeth hold the wheel better. The valve stem hole isn't in any relation to the 'D'. If you don't like that they are "upside down", take the 'Ds' off and rotate them.

Ok, let me try to my finger wrapped around this, Glenn. You hold deep emotion over this subject matter yet you own and drive how many Japanese cars? This is what prompted my 'harsh' response. Sorry. I'm not of Asian descent; German. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any nation, flag, symbol, emblem, representative graphic which does not hold a dark moment in history including the United States of America. I suggest, from one human being to another, that holding a deep emotion (grudge) isn't good for our souls; that we would do far better (collectively) if we would forgive and move on embracing our future. Justice was served. The event of our emotions is over. I won't argue that we should forget our past, rather forgive our past, learn from it, and not let it cloud our thoughts about what we enjoy and can contribute to our collective society. Peace.

The Nazi swastika is the symbol of a political party whereas the Hinomaru is the symbol of a nation. The Nazi swastika is banned in Germany unlike the Hinomaru which is not in Japan. In fact the Hinomaru forms the basis of the current Japanese flag, ratified in 1999, and is in common use today. Like the ancient swastika symbol, the Japanese symbol representing the rising sun dates back to the 700s. Wouldn't you agree that your issue is a perfect illustration of how ignorant people can be, spitz17? Hinomaru was used extensively during the art revolution in Japan during the 1920's which significantly influenced Western art at the time. The Rising Sun design certainly represents national pride to the Japanese people, but it also has roots to our Datsuns. These logos date back to the thirties. Also, the red ball Datsun logo is an obvious derivation of the Hinomaru and it could be well argued that the current Nissan logo is a progression. Mike, your graphic is inwardly leading, focusing, unique, and quite imaginative for such a recognizable image. I particularly enjoy the t-shirt design which incorporates the image down the side of the shirt body.

That's the Suzuka 1000km race in 1970 with drivers Nishino and Fujita. Wasn't this picture posted previously?

Logged in to comment just about this topic. Absolutely brilliant design, Mike. GREAT logo! I noticed the headlight shape right away. You guys with all your WWII and "can't change anything" attitudes; "GET OVER IT"! I can think of two web sites in the last nine years that have failed because they DIDN'T change, grow, evolve, keep up with the times. Popular web sites. Run by one of the most popular guys in this group (Z-Car people). I fully support what you're tryingto do, Mike. Keep up the good work!

Thanks DatsunDoc. That's the kind of info we're looking for! I was thinking the GP was Joe Hauser, national champion in 1976, 1981, and 1982.