SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
And so, whilst Becky and I were casually chatting during a surprise meet in some dreary international airport lounge, doing our best to hear each other over the loud rednecks sipping ice-cold Buds and wearing funny outback hats, I turned to him and asked « do you still believe that the Z was created for the US market ?" "Oh yes " replied Becky "and I’ll prove it to you, open up that bit of bedtime reading you’ve got there by Brian Long, look at page 45 – you’ll see a clay model with bumper over-riders ! Now these were only specified for the US market, no JDM spec cars had them, nor European ones either so Nissan were already planning the marketing of the S30 (240Zee as we call it) in the pre-production stage, to be more precise during the clay model building, (aided by our adopted royalty Count A.) and before any tooling manufacture" !
"That’s an interesting point of view my friend but I’m Counting upon another element – the hand-brake is always on the right of the centre console indicating that the drivers’ position was always intended to be on the right ! "
"Nonsense ! "he cried, "everybody knows how big we Americans are, just look at the leg-room (our adopted royalty Count A.) gave us – it was obviously decided to give us some more thigh-space and for us, the hand-brake is just at the right (longer) arms’ reach" "What about the steering column looking squeezed in next to the exhaust and under the carbs, looks better on the other side " I said, groping for more substantial facts. "Aha" he said, « why would Nissan want to fill up such a superb space giving access to everything that needs it – starter motor, dip-stick, plugs, wires, oil-filter etc ?" "Err" I said "do you really want to convince me that a Japanese car, made in Japan by a Japanese company was designed and produced mainly for US export ? " "Yes" he shouted triumphantly, "that’s where the money is boy – they saw it already with the Roadster – that car tested what Nissan saw as their major foreign markets at the time and 87.5% of ALL S30 buyers can’t be wrong although I’ll admit that a few got sold in other countries than the US but they were all repaying us for lend-lease and Marshall Aid so we still kept all their money J "
We parted, me bewildered, after having been a believer most of my adult life, my very existence felt punctured – could I hold my own in front of a Corvette now…..or worse, an MG ?
"That’s an interesting point of view my friend but I’m Counting upon another element – the hand-brake is always on the right of the centre console indicating that the drivers’ position was always intended to be on the right ! "
"Nonsense ! "he cried, "everybody knows how big we Americans are, just look at the leg-room (our adopted royalty Count A.) gave us – it was obviously decided to give us some more thigh-space and for us, the hand-brake is just at the right (longer) arms’ reach" "What about the steering column looking squeezed in next to the exhaust and under the carbs, looks better on the other side " I said, groping for more substantial facts. "Aha" he said, « why would Nissan want to fill up such a superb space giving access to everything that needs it – starter motor, dip-stick, plugs, wires, oil-filter etc ?" "Err" I said "do you really want to convince me that a Japanese car, made in Japan by a Japanese company was designed and produced mainly for US export ? " "Yes" he shouted triumphantly, "that’s where the money is boy – they saw it already with the Roadster – that car tested what Nissan saw as their major foreign markets at the time and 87.5% of ALL S30 buyers can’t be wrong although I’ll admit that a few got sold in other countries than the US but they were all repaying us for lend-lease and Marshall Aid so we still kept all their money J "
We parted, me bewildered, after having been a believer most of my adult life, my very existence felt punctured – could I hold my own in front of a Corvette now…..or worse, an MG ?
I'm just getting into gear again 
