rally chassis numbers

ben240z

ben240z

Club Member
hi there, this may have been answered before but could I please have a definitive answer as to what the numbers and letters after a rally car define. IE TKS 33 SA 988 cheers ben
 
there you go dave jumping to conclusions lol calm down . I was merely asking a question and plucked a number from the air as an example although on reflection i suppose the SA could stand for south african. maybe the count could give one of his difinitive and answers to this one. It would be appreciated as I am questing knowledge and fact not supposition. thanks in advance ben
 
i never jump to conclusions as there must still be some interesting cars out there waiting to be found, look at my sam went to buy some 48 dellortos came back with a
1973 samuri been sat in a barm for years
 
What rumours
is it the one that you have found a early works rally 240z that you are restoring it to use in next years classic RAC rally with dee as co driver is it that rumour
or the other one ?
 
ben240z said:
rally chassis numbers
hi there, this may have been answered before but could I please have a definitive answer as to what the numbers and letters after a rally car define. IE TKS 33 SA 988 cheers ben
Click to expand...
The title of the thread involves "chassis numbers", but you cite "TKS 33 SA 988" as an example - which is actually a registration plate number ( nothing to do with the chassis number ).

The chassis numbers given to the Works 240Z & 260Z rally cars were normal sequential production-line chassis numbers ( HS30, HLS30, RS30 & RLS30 prefixes ) and do not contain any 'secret' codes or other information. For example, 'HS30-00023' could have been a normal standard production car, but 'HS30-00024' was a Works rally car. The only link between them being the fact that '24' was slipped onto the production line process just after '23'.....

As regards to the Japanese registration number plates seen on the Works rally cars, these were known as 'Carnet' numbers ( after the French word ) and were actually 'translations' of the original Japanese number plates which were made for temporary export use.

Translation of the plates is quite simple. 'TKS' is a literal translation of the Japanese 'kanji' ideograms that are used for the Shinagawa vehicle licensing district of Tokyo. The two original 'kanji' characters ( 'shina' and 'kawa' ) were translated for the carnet plates as 'TK' ( denoting Tokyo ) and 'S' ( denoting Shinagawa ). Most of the the Works 240Z and 260Z rally cars were first road registered in the Shinagawa ward of Tokyo because it was the closest to Nissan's head offices in the Ginza district of Tokyo, and Nissan's competition engine building workshops at Omori, Tokyo ( which comes under the Shinagawa ward office ).

The two numbers following the registration district ( '33' in your cited case ) simply indicate the taxation code that the vehicle falls into. To cut a long story short, '33' used to be used for passenger cars of over 2-litre capacity.

The 'SA' ( in the example you cite ) is simply a translation into Roman letters of the Japanese 'Hiragana' ( simplified Kanji ) syllable that is seen before the Arabic numbers of the Japanese plates ( '988' in your cited example, which obviously can be read outside Japan and therefore needed no translation ). The 'SA' syllable ( pronounced 'sar' ) is the first syllable in a sequence in the Japanese 'Hiragana' alphabet. It is followed by 'SI', 'SU', and 'SE' on Japanese numberplates, and each syllable can have 9999 different numbers after it.

So 'TKS 33 SA 988' would have been a '33' taxation class vehicle, registered in Tokyo's Shinagawa ward, and was the 988th car to use the 'SA' prefix.

Of course, the carnet plates were translated because it was expected ( rightly ) that most foreign authorities would not be able to read the Japanese Kanji and Hiragana characters on the originals.

Hope that helps.........




As an example to illustrate, here's a pic I took of an original 'carnet' plate on the 1971 Safari Rally winning 240Z in Nissan's collection in Japan:
 

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thank you for that , yes it does explain what i wanted to know. thanks for your time it is appreciated ben
 
Alan,

Always though the whole plate was punched but now I see only the numbers…was that standard? Any idea why?
 
datsun dave said:
What rumours
is it the one that you have found a early works rally 240z that you are restoring it to use in next years classic RAC rally with dee as co driver is it that rumour
or the other one ?
Click to expand...
Ben what’s thru about his? Where smoke is, is fire…….:eek:

Or is Dave confusing you with Kevin?

 
guus, If there was any sign of smoke then I would put the fire out. Rallies are for the brave. ben
 
Legendary5 said:
Alan,
Always though the whole plate was punched but now I see only the numbers…was that standard? Any idea why?
Click to expand...
Guus,
The standard non-translated plates used on normal cars in Japan are all 'stamped' or punched into the plate....

But the translated 'carnet' plates were different. Why? Well, think of the logistics in comparison to the amount of use:

Each different licensing office would have to be represented with a 'translation' stamp ( not just Shinagawa ) and there are a great many of them. Then they would have to have a translated stamp for every Hiragana character prefix ( sa, si, su, se, etc etc ) too.

But how many Japanese-registered cars were being exported to be temporarily used abroad at that time? Answer - hardly any. Therefore the 'translated' parts of the plate were left blank at the stamping stage, and were simply painted on with stencils afterwards.

They still use this method for 'carnet' plates to this day.
 
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