26th-Z

To the best of my knowledge original stripe kits are no longer available from Nissan / Datsun. I know about the stripe kit that is on eBay at the moment. As described, I can loosly confirm that several years ago the Black Pearl stripe kit was reproduced in a group buy effort. The kit on eBay is most probably one of them.

Johnny'O took first in class last night.

You can get a 240Z dash recovered / restored for about $700, I think. I did one a couple of years ago and it was $600. Search the archives. Parts for the Z are just going to get harder to find as time goes on. It has become a point to restore the part you have rather than replace it.

Dan, I can't answer that question and IMO John's comments are a perfect illustration of what has happened to the rules. In a recent conversation, it was suggested that a non-stock item in the stock class get an automatic five point deduction. Of course, that isn't in the rules - just a suggestion. Another conversation questioned the reasoning behind allowing A/C as an "option" but didn't recognize the full compliment of Datsun options available to the various model years. On that issue rode a first-in-class win with obvious dealer ad-ons two years ago. Point being that the rules are out of date. It is my sincere hope that revisions will be presented to the board at San Antonio. Chris

Furthermore, if you have a non "as shipped from the factory" part, it will cost you points. Same goes for "options"...at the moment. Series One Zs did not have fan shrouds or splash pans. In addition, tire originality is specifically mentioned in the current rules, meaning if you don't have original tires, you get dinged. No offense, John, but the problem with the rules is that several different people are making several different interpretations. Here is exactly what they say at the moment. Vehicles exhibited must be configured exactly as shipped from factory (NOT DEALER). Cars with Dealer add-ons such, as wheels, other than stock tires, side moldings, etc. can enter this class with deductions for same. Radios, paint color, tires, etc. must be as shipped. A/C must be factory installed except 240Z which may have same A/C as installed by dealer, i.e. ARA or Frigid King, with basic York compressor. Daily Drivers can enter this class if desired. (This section will be reviewed at a future date.) That "future date" will hopefully be on the agenda in San Antonio.

I want one, please. I'll get Carl to sign it myself...along with the charge slip...

Looking at illustration 20 of the NA parts book for US and Canada (revised Dec. 1973 edition), 22100-E4601 is a single point Hitachi D612-52. However on illustration 20 B, the Hitachi D612-52 is shown as 22100-E4603 for cars up to 6/72. On illustration 20, the E4601 runs concurrently with E4603 which is shown as replacing it on 20 B. Also on illustration 20 is mention of 22100-E4601 replacing Mitsubishi distributer 22100-A5500. I can't find A5500 in the Japanese Fairlady Z parts book, nor can I find the E4601, however both the Mitsubishi type TVC-6GL and the Hitachi 606-52 are referenced. How's that? Enough to confuse you? That's only the pre 1972 listings for manual transmission L20 and L24 engines. Suffice to say without looking at my stuff to see what I have that there were two types of distributors - Mitsubishi and Hitachi and that there are two references for the Hitachi. I'm going to look for clues in my garage.

Evidently. My book is the revised December 1973 edition for the US and Canada and only lists the two versions of 80900 and 80901. But those are the numbers for black. THe other numbers are for brown, blue, red, white, and beige.

80900-E4600 for the right side door panel up to 6/72 and then N3300. 80901-E4600 for the left side door panel up to 6/72 and then N3300.

Will's judging team at Cleveland included Chris Karl, chair of the Cleveland convention and ZCCA vice president, and Cathy, a convention participant and 350Z owner as I recall. I don't remember the classes I judged at Cleveland but I would say that the scoring was very light due to the high number of cars that made it into the Gold Cup / Medallion round. Of course you recall we tried to get all the cars out in daylight only to have it start raining again. What a fiasco. Al forgot to mention that he won the most unique top award. Guys, the judges do the best they can and you gotta recognize them for spending the time to look at all the cars. It takes around thirty judges to do the ZCCA show and it is an all-day affair for most. There simply aren't thirty people who consistantly show up at the ZCCA conventions year-after-year to offer the quality of judging we might wish for. My hat is off to anyone who will take the time to act as a judge and be around to help. To that end, the ZCCA judging is focused on cleanliness in an effort to keep the playing field level. I know it gets tricky in the stock classes but that's only one group of classes out of five groups. I know all about the rain issues - I judged exteriors for the final round. It's all supposed to be fun and no one should take anything personal. For the judges, it's rather difficult - frankly. Yea, I think it is time to publish a rules revision. We'll see... Generally speaking, the way scoring deductions work, 10 points for something that appears brand new, 5 points for obviously used appearance, and 0 points for disgraceful looking junk.

"NO - someone showed up with a Dayton Coupe - prehaps the best example of the design. It is planned to be sold in the next couple of months and they expect it to sell in the $10M to $12M range." Carl, Is this the car you are talking about? It was promoted for the RM auction at Amelia. 1963 AC Cobra 289 - first Cobra entered at LeMans - did not sell at high bid of $790,000 with expectations between $1,000,000 and $1,400,000.

It appears as though you have purchased the Interpart carburetor selection from the 1973 Interpart catalog - part numbers 2102032 for the manifold and 2102033 for the linkage. The Dellorato twin-choke sidedraft carburetors were part number 1106310 for the DHLA 40 type recommended for street use. Personally, I think you got a good deal on the price.

Mike, The exact wording is; "Vehicles exhibited must be configured exactly as shipped from factory (NOT DEALER). Cars with Dealer add-ons such, as wheels, other than stock tires, side moldings, etc. can enter this class with deductions for same. Radios, paint color, tires, etc. must be as shipped. A/C must be factory installed except 240Z which may have same A/C as installed by dealer, i.e. ARA or Frigid King, with basic York compressor." I can see a case for the hand throttle. "Tires must be as shipped" is interesting.

I don't know what the big beef is. Up until now, new replacement parts have been readily available at the Nissan or eBay parts counter. Many, many parts are still available and will be for some time. Try that with your restoration of a 1925 Franklin Runabout. Come-on guys. Reproducing parts is part of the game. Usually it is far more time consuming and costly to restore or reproduce a part than it is to go to the Nissan or eBay parts counter and buy it. Will didn't post my answer: reproduction is a good thing and I have tried to practice reproduction every day for the past fourty years.

I guess I was off-comment a tad and I didn’t mean to offend anyone. There is nothing wrong with reproducing a part or refinishing a piece. That’s what restoration is all about. The guy who spends all kinds of time and money to find a correct original is just restoring his project the same as the guy who spends the same restoring or reproducing his. In certain cases, restoring an original is far more expensive than replacing it even with a reproduction. What has me concerned is the faithfulness of the reproduction and how it is used. In the case of my last comment, how it is used. You see, in twenty or thirty years when we are all sitting around in the nursing home and we have nothing better to do than compare knobs, no one is going to remember who has the actual authentic correct knob. Or worse yet, they are going to try to convince me that their knob belongs in a place it never really was.

Good point, Unkle, which is another reason why I think the ZCCA rules need to be revised. For instance, the mirror 96321-E4600 differs from the later E4601 and simply placing a red dot knob on an E4601 mirror does not make it an E4600, does it? The fuel door knobs being reproduced have a similar difference with regard to the base plate as I understand. I still need to compare, but the early plastic thumb latch aligns in a different position to the base plate of the later style latch mechanism. Perhaps in this case, one cannot outwardly tell the difference however the mirror thing has me baffled.

Way to go, Kats! Your car is a centerfold, yes? A beautiful fair lady for the month! Love the racing pictures. Filipe, those are great pictures - would love to have a copy of the Fairlady cover without the comment. Great photograph. Chris

Hmmm....Note to self; "Find one of those Ansel Adams posters and get Mr. K to sign it". Way cool stuff, Mike.

I know about this one. What did you have in mind?

I forgot about that Edit Grid and looking at it reminded me of HLS30-00033 which I tried to buy several years ago. I thought MikeB would like these pictures. I started corresponding with a guy "jellobob" in New Jesey, I believe, about the car and he sent me these pictures. At first, I thought the whole thing was a farce, but some time later, at a ZCCA convention, I met the guy who goes by "jellobob". He still had the car but didn't want to sell it. Nice enough guy, he was known for his jello shot cocktails.

Dude! You made the big time! Nice video but I can't help giving you s**t about the birthday party video I never got! Non-the-less, we're such inept bastr'ds that we haven't figured out this video thing! Oh, the stories we could tell... Hell, you have enough cars - we could do episodes!

The picture was taken at the Mitty, correct. Ron, you beat me to it. Those are fantastic pictures of the ARRC in 1971. Thanks for the link to the ad. Those are great pictures of the restored Frisselle car.

Those are great, Mike! Just great!

It appears Bob Bell did. Here is the Speakman entry in 1978. Carl, you also commented about the bodywork. The car I photographed was a tube frame chassis with the original unibody cut up way beyond recognition. There is nothing that can be discerned from looking at the body as it was fiberglass. I also think it should be clarified that "Bondurant" did not sponsor the cars. They were entered under the name. Big difference between entrant and sponsor.

Let's go back to 1976 for a moment. Elliot Forbes-Robinson would take over driving duties for Bob Sharp who was injured in an accident in 1975. Bob had won the SCCA C-production national championship in '72, '73, and '75 having given it up in '74 to Walt Maas in his 260Z. Bob was campaigning a 280Z in SCCA C-production and a 240Z in IMSA Grand Touring Under 2.5 liter displacement. He was GTU champion in 1975. However eight of the eleven IMSA GTU races in 1976 went to Brad Frisselle and his 240Z. Brad drove to victory with John Morton in the Mid Ohio 6-hour and the Road Atlanta 1000k. Elliot Forbes-Robinson won only at Pocono where he finished a spectacular third overall. Here is a Datsun press release photo of the two cars from 1976. Sorry for the quality. The original documents are really old. Brad's car showed up at a Walter Mitty race in Atlanta in 2006 and I managed to grab a few shots of it.