ADVAN All Fairlady Z 50th Anniversary Meeting

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
May 5th 2019: ADVAN All Fairlady Z 50th Anniversary Meeting at Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

This years meeting, organised by S30ZCAR.JP club and attended by many others, marked the 50th Anniversary year of S30-series models. A thunderstorm on the night before cleared the air and Sunday morning broke bright and sunny, with cars queuing to enter the circuit from dawn. Marshalled superbly by the volunteers from S30ZCAR.JP, they were directed to line up by series wherever possible. In the end 1400+ cars attended on the day, with a very relaxed and informal atmosphere.

If you look around on the 'net you'll definitely find better quality, better framed, composed and more comprehensive photos than the ones I took on my already outdated mobile phone, but here they are anyway...!

If any questions, fire away and I'll try my best to answer.







 

richiep

Club Member
Saw these on Facebook, but thanks for posting them here too Alan. What an amazing event. And we thought we were doing well with 48 at Donington! (We were doing well - just a reminder of the sheer scale difference between the UK scene and the home market!). All those 240ZGs and 432s - fantastic.
 

JK240

Club Member
Ditto what Richie just said, and I would love to have the chance to experience an event like that, it must have been an amazing day.
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Saw these on Facebook, but thanks for posting them here too Alan. What an amazing event. And we thought we were doing well with 48 at Donington! (We were doing well - just a reminder of the sheer scale difference between the UK scene and the home market!). All those 240ZGs and 432s - fantastic.

That's one of the things that I often end up discussing with friends in Japan, and indeed at the show I was asked how many S30-series and S130-series cars are left in the UK. I said it's hard to know as S30-series cars are multiplying (with recent imports from USA, Canada, Japan and elsewhere) whilst S130-series have been on the decline for years, but I think the survivors are - on the whole - treasured, valued and well looked-after these days. And to get 48 in one place in the UK is pretty good going I'd say.

Japan was - of course - the second biggest single market for these cars and a lot of people don't realise how big the per-capita sales ratio was. There's a lot - a real lot - still extant in Japan and a show like this, big as it was, only represents a very small percentage of them.
 

SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
Thanks for the report and photos Alan.

Was there a breakdown within that 1400 of qty per model type ie :

Roadster
S30
S130
Z31/2/3/4....
Skylines
Others
 
That’s an amazing collection of special cars. Super jealous.

Does japan have the influx of LHD cars that we have here?

Do they have a sales area for parts etc?
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Saw photos of this event on facebook, what an amazing turn out! I'd absolutely love to go to soemthing like this and see all of the work and modifications they are doing in Japan!

Pressume there were some cars running those fancy looking OS Giken twin cam heads? I'd love to know more about them....

Thanks for sharing Alan :thumbs:
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Was there a breakdown within that 1400 of qty per model type ie :

Roadster
S30
S130
Z31/2/3/4....

Don't know what the final breakdown was, but could ask. Certainly there were around 12 SP/SR Roadsters there at one point (I counted them) but as cars were coming and going through the day I guess the data would need to come from the organising staff.

Does japan have the influx of LHD cars that we have here?

Do they have a sales area for parts etc?

I think a fair few hundreds of LHD S30-series cars have gone back to Japan, but they are still only a small percentage of the total. Hard to put any kind of total on it because of data protection and privacy laws etc. Generally speaking they tend to be cheaper than the Japanese market models and therefore more popular with people who are super-modifying, drag racing etc. The big exceptions are those fully restored to stock and especially a handful of the Nissan 'Vintage Z Program' cars.

There were a very few people selling parts - official traders at the show - and only one or two private sellers. I think they try to discourage it somewhat at this show so as not to create an autojumble type mess.
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Are those 100 or so LHD S30s mostly 280Zs ?

I think a fair few hundreds of LHD S30-series cars have gone back to Japan

As mentioned, I think we are talking about multiple hundreds rather than "100 or so". Judging from what I've seen and heard it may well be 250+. Some of them just as panel donors. It's been going on for a long time.

In my personal experience - so by no means definitive - I've seen far more '70, '71, '72 & '73 cars going back to Japan from the USA than later cars. They tend to be more attractive to those going for stock-bodied resto-mods and those making more modified cars with what they call the "One Tail" body style (referring to the tail lamps) for practical reasons.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
An amazing collection.

A ZG on steels and hubcaps has got to be the ugliest Z. They were a means to an end weren't they?
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
A ZG on steels and hubcaps has got to be the ugliest Z.

I can think of a few variants that would knock it into a cocked hat in the 'Ugly Z' contest.

Rob Gaskin said:
They were a means to an end weren't they?

Indeed. Classic homologation special formula. Legalisation of parts for race use, and not the finished article. Something to build on.
 

DarrenM

Well-Known Forum User
Thanks for the photos Alan, looks like a great show!
Didn’t see any pics of a Safari Gold car, were there any?
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Didn’t see any pics of a Safari Gold car, were there any?

Not a single one as far as I remember. Shame!

There are a lot of #920 painted S30s in Japan though, so maybe just the luck of the draw? You tend to see many of the same cars/owners turning up at shows like these and quite a few of the cars attending were ones that I've seen myself many times before at other shows/meets. I guess it reflects the hard core of active club members. They are only a small percentage of the total number of cars out there.

It's a pipe dream, but it would be wonderful to have a 'world meet' type event where representatives of all the Export market variants could go back to Japan and join representatives of all the Domestic variants. Would be something to see.
 
Top