I have a standard US car and have no intentions of upgrading anything.
Sorry for having an inferior car! As if I care!
I have a 1970 HLS30U too.
You understand why the 'softened up and dumbed down' point gets made though? It's simply a Newtonian
equal and opposite reaction to being told - time and time again - that the Z was "
made for the USA" and "
an American car, made in Japan" and that '
Nissan didn't care about anything other than the USA market'. The inference is that the USA spec was somehow prime, and - by default therefore -
superior.
I think its clear that the HLS30U was somewhat de-contented and simplified for the North American market (earliest deliveries didn't have carpet or a heated rear window for example, aligned with the Japanese market's 'Z-Std' base model rather than the 'Z-Dx' Luxury spec) and that was part of the pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap mass market philosophy adopted for the territory. Only one mechanical and trim spec available (apart from Auto transmission) and dealers in North America were adding bolt-on extras and charging premiums for them. An extraordinarily low base price (the dealers were making more than Nissan were...) that only made sense if maximum volume could be made and sold. Other manufacturers were doing the same thing at the same time.
If you were designing and engineering a new car purely for the USA market (and even ignoring Canada) with a clean sheet of paper, would you put the driver - with all his pedals, steering, instrumentation and controls on the same side of the car as the carbs, airbox and filter, inlet manifold, exhaust manifold and distributor? Would you route the exhaust pipe under his right foot, which he can't take off the accelerator pedal if he wants to continue making progress? On which side of the tunnel would you put the handbrake lever? This is some of the stuff most of the "
made for the USA" people don't even seem to consider.
So I think its fair comment to point out the differences. These are facts, after all.
Instead of dumb downed US spec cars, I prefer to think of them as lesser performance spec'ed Zeds.
Aren't they the same thing? If we consider the S30-series Z as a 'Sports' car - as Nissan did - then the relative sportiness of different variants is a real thing, isn't it? If we were talking about Limousines then the best appointed and most luxurious model would be considered more Limousine-like than one with less, right? I think its fair to cite a 5-speed close ratio transmission couple with a 3.9:1 (or 4.44:1) final drive ratio as being more 'sporty' than a wide ratio 4-speed and 3.3:1 combo. Likewise a 'faster' steering rack ratio is more 'sporty' as is firmer springing and damping. Road-tested aero tweaks (stock front and rear spoilers) combined with a dedicated suspension package clearly shows a desire to cater for the more serious driver in the European mainland, but not seen in North America?
SacCyclone said:
I'm sure many of us would have stepped up to the performance oriented bits had they been available to us.
Just sayin!
Of course. But the point is that there was no choice on the showroom floor, was there? If you wanted a 5-speed O/D transmission and matched final drive ratio you had to buy the car with the 4-speed and 3.3 and then spend extra buying and fitting the parts yourself. Meanwhile the local Porsche dealer had a whole range of models for buyers to choose from. There was a trade-off for that circa 3.5k USD base price and it was in the content of the product. Good enough for the market of course. Hot cakes.