Right I said I was going to talk about the brakes next - well I will get there but first some history on the racing of the Nissan/Datsun S30 that I already knew or found more out about long the way.
This part of the project took me a bit of time - most of that was looking over the books, magazines, interweb and emailing contacts all around the world to learn even more about what was used in period (I knew a good amount already but you can never know too much)
I already new the FIA homologation number for the Datsun 240z so a copy of this was sort. I also acquired as many parts catalogues as I could. Given the Datsun Z cars racing history it was obvious Nissan/Datsun had racing in mind when this car was designed/released to the market.
I know this is build thread but some might be interested to know of some of models sold in the home market of Japan.
When Nissan decided to export cars to other international markets they did not want to damage the Nissan brand if the take up in the foreign markets was not as expected. So they turned to their earlier name of Datsun for the export brand.
So while the Datsun 240z was sold international internal Nissan was marketing the Fairlady Z (based on the same S30 chassis platform). However the Nissan engineers decided they would take the S20 engine and install this into the Fairlady Z also. The S20 engine was like a BDA to a Ford Escort. After the merger between Prince and Nissan, Nissan acquired the Skyline brand. Prince had a strong focus on racing and some might recall the S54B aka Prince/Nissan Skyline GTB that raced locally here in NZ in the late 60's by Carlos Neate. A bit of info for those interested is that Prince when they decided to extend the length of the 4 cylinder Skyline to install the new G7 OHC 6 cylinder and go racing they wanted to produce large number Skyline GT-B with triple weber DOCE 18 carbs, 5spd and LSD in a few months to get the paper work in to the FIA ASAP for the coming 1964 season. However weber could supply the number of carbs required so the maximum was order and 100 cars were manufactured for homologation purposes. A total of 500 GT-B were produced during the production and most of those were exported to Australia and New Zealand (I would really love one of these but today they are hens teeth - if you know of one for sale let me know) - so where was I that's right the S20 engine
The Prince engineers developed the S20 engine which was based on the GR8 DOHC that was used on the Prince R380 LeManns type sports car. These new S20 engines were installed in the new Skyline KPGC10 GT-R in 1969 (and the first car globally to carry the GT-R badge) and also the Nissan Fairlady Z432 and Z432-R. Again due to supply issue webers were used on the first few runs of the S20 engines but then Nissan started to source the locally made Mikuni/Solex carburetors.
Here are pics of the GR8 Prince 1996cc DOHC 6 cylinder engine
And here is a pic of the S20 engine 1988cc DOHC 4 valve 6 cylinder engine
Here is an image of the engine bay of the factory produced Nissan Fairlady Z432
So the Prince Skyline Engineers were not happy that Nissan was installing their Skyline race engine into the S30 (chassis code for the Datsun 240z/260z/280z and Fairlady Z range of cars) as it was soon to compete against their GT-R on the track in the coming 1970 season. You see the Skyline GT-R was heading towards a track record that has not yet been matched by any marque/make in Japan. This record has made the first Skyline GT-R a legend in Japan (I would really love one of these but I don't have spare 150K to 200K to purchase one) 50 wins from 50 start.
Approximately 480 of the Z432 were build including a smaller number of Z432-R. The Z432-R were again a JDM model only and were sold to the general public - aimed at races teams. The Z432-R (internal code name PS30-SB - all Z432 had the chassis code PS30, Datsun 240z were HS30, 260z RS30 and the Fairlady Z was just a S30 - there is more to that but this is not the place) were built and sold as the homologation special with FRP bonnet, lexan windows, no heater, no clock, cut down loom and other parts Nissan wanted to homologate.
While these S20 power cars were racing around the track in Japan the like of Pete Brock (not the Ozzie but the American of Daytona Cobra fame) was heading up the BRE team and push the other marques around the tracks of America with the L24 power export S30 aka Datsun 240z. With BRE providing feedback to Japan and Japan starting to support the L Gata (L6 or L Gata = L20a, L24, L26, L28) engine in racing and rallying, Nissan start to see the potential of the non cross flow OHC 6 cylinder engine and soon the Prince engineers were left to focus on their S20 power Skylines while the Nissan team moved focus to the L Gata (I believe there was a bit of internal politics and competition between the recent merged companies)
In the UK an ex broadspeed cylinder head guy Spyke Anderson was busy building and racing an ex works Rally Datsun 240z. His company modifying Datsun Z cars was called SAMURI (the correct spelling was already a registered trademark) His own race car was nick named SAM - however after a big crash the car was reshelled and renamed BIG SAM. BIG SAM still exists today with a number of the ex-works parts still on the car. BIG SAM was raced by very young and then unknown Win Percy after he paid £50 a race to drive it in the 1974 BARC Modified Sportscar Championship they went out and won the three-litre class, beating Porsches and TVRs on the way. I discovered that BIG SAM was fitted with CAN-AM brakes during this era of racing.
Anyway here are some pics of BIG SAM - as it was in the 70s and as it is today
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