PHIL HYETT said:
ZHead thanks some people take life to seriously
It is a tough one to call whether it is actually
"worth" being pedantic about the minutiae or not. Without a passion for historical accuracy, all sorts of ridiculous, almost offensive innacuracies occur like Hollywood's portrayal that the Americans captured and worked out the Enigma Machine and that Robin Hood had an American accent.....oh..... and that the Z is in fact an American car built in Japan.
I personally take offence at military innacuracies because Hollywood dismisses and dishonours people by rewriting history. Alan as we all know takes issue with innacuracy where Z nomenclature, model numbers and details are concerned.
Do not fall into the trap of thinking this is an anal crusade, Alan's passion for historical accuracy is borne out of respect for the cars, the people that designed and built them and the truth surrounding a very complicated situation where models were constantly evolving throughout the production process rather than having a defined series 1, series 2 and series 3 as some of our American friends would have us believe. (Although I doubt anyone in Nissan would have recognised series 1, 2 or 3 as meaning anything in relation to the S30)
Having spoken for Alan who is more than capable of speaking for himself I half expect to be shot down in flames now although I am being supportive
The reality is, other marques' clubs such as Ferrari, Porsche et al are incredibly specific when it comes to models and their variants. Their cars are percieved as high value, rare (or at the very least desirable) classics. The whole buzz in the marketplace is that they are something special, each model or variant having it's own foibles and character.
The Z world on the other hand often questions why a concours 240Z is still only worth 12K according to the magazines and has been for many years even though the car per se is actually better than many much more expensive classics of the period. Part of the reason is that we collectively do not pay attention to specifics like nomenclature and historical accuracy. There are people (un-named) but we all know who, who have tried to pass off an amalgamation of bits as genuine ex-works cars, so the market does not take us seriously. No two cars are the same, most having been modified in some way from the sublime (triples) to the ridiculous (V8s, Turbos, Skyline motors, Nitrous etc). The standard of a lot of the more recent rebuilds though seems to be going through the roof - people do seem to be spending much more time and money on doing the job right, that HAS to help our cause.
In short, one of the best ways to right the wrongs of bad reporting and bad authorship of books is to be meticulous in the use of correct model numbers, race car details etc. This will also help build the Z profile in classic car circles.
Personally I want a dirty great V8 with trick suspension and brakes, a decent paint job and a lot of fun..... I will not however be claiming that it is an original 240Z
In order that I do not get accused of going off topic .... FANTASTIC CAR .....BUY TOYOS.