New book by Mr Uemera, 240Z engineer

[bluejon]

Thought you all might like to hear of this book available for the first time in English. It was first published in Japan in 2014 and has only recently been translated late in 2016. Mr Uemura of course Nissan engineer who worked on the Z project.

I received my copy this morning, so I'm looking forward to a log fire, red wine and reading tonight


You can find some discussion on the book here by a few notable Z movers and shakers. Will give you a bit of an insight.
http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/49565-mruemura-wrote-a-book-making-story-of-a-fairlady-z/

Link to purchase here ... you can only buy through this online publisher I think.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/hitoshi-uemura/datsun-240z-engineering-development/paperback/product-22879948.html

 

[Paul_S]

Looks good. Thanks for the tip

 

[SeanDezart]

Carl was pushing them via FB before Christmas - I have a spare one if anyone wants.

 

[bluejon]

A few interesting snippets I've read are that:


1. The original layout decision was for a car weighing just 820kg

2. The full Z team came together for the first time in June '67 and had only until November to complete the first prototype. Lightspeed.

3. The steering wheel was reduced in size to increase the gap to the door trim, in part because it didn't meet Swedish regulations. Huh? For a vehicle designed primarily for the US market.

4. Post-sale feedback from Japanese customers was to have the drivers seat set further back, like it was for US customers (since US Buyers were deemed to have longer legs). Mr Uemera hypothesises that either Japanese buyers had longer legs than national norms suggested or that they liked to drive stretched out like Stirling Moss. )

 

[Moriarty]

3. The steering wheel was reduced in size to increase the gap to the door trim, in part because it didn't meet Swedish regulations. Huh? For a vehicle designed for the US market.

It might be more appropriate to say "a vehicle designed with many markets in mind, one of those being the US"

 

[racer]

4. Post-sale feedback from Japanese customers was to have the drivers seat set further back, like it was for US customers (since US Buyers were deemed to have longer legs). Mr Uemera hypothesises that either Japanese buyers had longer legs than national norms suggested or that they liked to drive watched out like Stirling Moss. )[/QUOTE]

Thank Heavens they took that decision. At 6"4 I would have been in trouble otherwise.

It's a shame that many other great Japanese cars that I've owned/Driven since the Zed was produced, haven't followed suit. Ie S2000/Rx7/Supra.

 

[Albrecht]

4. Post-sale feedback from Japanese customers was to have the drivers seat set further back, like it was for US customers (since US Buyers were deemed to have longer legs). Mr Uemera hypothesises that either Japanese buyers had longer legs than national norms suggested or that they liked to drive watched out like Stirling Moss. )

I think you might be misunderstanding the point regarding seat mount position. The Japanese market cars had extra front seat mount brackets (L-shaped additions to the front seat crossmember) allowing the seat sliders to be unbolted and moved to another base position - effectively giving them two adjustment ranges on the sliders.

The most forward slider position whilst the sliders were bolted into the forward mounts allowed the seat to get much closer to the pedals, to cater for the shortest percentile of users - likely to be Japanese females. However, in practice it was found that most Japanese users left the sliders in the rear mount position anyway...

Rear seat mounts in all markets had two sets of slider mount holes for this reason. The second set were only usable when the extra front mounts were present.

You can see the extra forward mount brackets in this photo:

 

[bluejon]

Interesting Albrecht .. thanks for sharing. Note to self, I really must stop posting things from my phone #spellingmistakes