Would you rally these!!!!!!!!

T

Throttleton

Well-Known Forum User
I dropped some parts off at Duncans at the Z Farm a few days ago and had a nosey around at all the different cars in various stages of rebuilding. There were a couple off pretty much standard and rust free 240's there and quite a nice 280ZX also. What caught my eye was 2 cars both 240's built for rallying. One for a marathon type rally and the other a works replica forest stage car. The Samuri Marathon coloured one was very very nice with lots of aftermarket parts as you would expect although the interior colour choice was a bit poncey for me (sorry Duncan). The Forest one was jam packed with all the best components for a historic rally car and was immaculate outside, inside and underneath.
My question is who in there right mind would take cars like that and potentially wreck them or at the very least make them look terrible having taken them on a rally?????
All those hours not to mention the money getting them like new only to beat them up for a few hours jolly!!
I dunno whether it's just me but I am not sure I could do it to them...................

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Well you have to have plenty of disposable cash and not care too much about the marque just that it is suitable car for your needs.

Or you use it as an advert for your preparation business.

Good topic!

Edit: actually thinking more about it, that's wrong. There are many many people racing and rallying rare cars. I shall be at Spa later this month watching guys racing such exotic cars as Lola T70s and they must care about them! And there are 'club' drivers competing every weekend in cars that they can ill afford to lose and have spent many many hours working on them.

Perhaps they think their enjoyment is more important than the car, is so it's difficult to argue with that!
 
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It must be a combination of the two Rob. My point is even if you are wealthy it's not like ordering a new rally ford focus when you bend it as they are readily available if you have the cash.....
If it was me and I was rich I would keep those cars in my massive castle safe and sound and rally a plated up scrapper....................
 
Nice cars Duncan

It always seems a shame to see these cars go to people who appear not to value the marque.
Couple that with the fact that some of the "monied" owners like to think they are of Scandinavian decent but in reality they are playing at it and inevitably end up bouncing off the scenery like an S30 pinball machine, Mr Vodka Kick for instance could hit a tree in the sahara.
 
Steve, you've hit the nail on the head.........
There are the guys who just want to be the best at the racing side of it and if they are up there in world domination with regard to their driving skills then give them a new car every time they mash it.
My point is has the Z (in this instance) become a 'toy' for the rich to smash up just coz they have the dosh?????
Steve I wonder if the people you mentioned that don't value the marque perhaps don't even realise what it is they are destroying???
Having said that I suppose it is all publicity that can only be good for the car????

Bolloks ...Duncan sell the cars to a Nissan Museum and keep them safe..............
 
Throttleton said:
Steve, you've hit the nail on the head.........
There are the guys who just want to be the best at the racing side of it and if they are up there in world domination with regard to their driving skills then give them a new car every time they mash it.
My point is has the Z (in this instance) become a 'toy' for the rich to smash up just coz they have the dosh?????
Steve I wonder if the people you mentioned that don't value the marque perhaps don't even realise what it is they are destroying???
Having said that I suppose it is all publicity that can only be good for the car????

Bolloks ...Duncan sell the cars to a Nissan Museum and keep them safe..............
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No rally as many of these as you can make mine worth more :devil:
 
I'm having a problem convincing my insurance company that my 'new' 240Z is worth a few bob. I've got Moggy on the case but I had a look at the DVLA stats and there are only 128 240Zs on the road (and I have 2 of them)! I pointed out that there were 30,000 MGBs and 5000 E types!

Makes you think!
 
Craig i never had you down as a put it on axle stands and shine a light at it type! at the end of the day it is a piece of mechanical equipment, if some-one built it some-one can repair it.should all classic race cars be put in museums? i love classic cars and motorsport and the 2 combined is what keeps me reasonably sane and in a job.Silverstone classic has several tens of millions of cars competing and i hope it stays that way!
 
Gosh, some interesting views here !

OK, my rule of competition - If you can't afford to trash it and walk away then don't do it.

If you are scared of damaging your car then you are wasting your time and probably just putting your car at as much risk as the guys who are pushing on. We all "run out of talent" at some point and generally when it goes pear shaped you are in the lap of the Gods as to how it will all end up.

So should folk compete in 240 Zs ?

Given some of the above comments, should you even risk taking them out in modern traffic. How many cars have been written off on a stage in the past 10 years compared to the number in road accidents?

There's an ex Works Z in the country, a very rare and valuable car, should it be put in a museum or risked on a demonstration run over a stage. Should the engine even be started in case it drops a valve and wrecks it's cross flow head?

Zs were raced and rallied in their day, and so they should be today. OK don't take a pristine matching nrs example and turn it into a rally car, but what is wrong in taking a rusty one, welding in new metal and making into a Works look-a-likey. Is it worse to do that or to rip out it's guts and stick in a modern motor and running gear, fancy seats, glitzy paint job and stick it on 19 inch wheels.

We all enjoy see these cars used as they were intended, and if you have the money to employ someone to build them for you, then good luck to you. I'd rather the bloke that ordered the car spent his 30 or whatever K on a Datsun, than some bit of modern funky art.

Puts steel helmet on head and retreats to bunker :)


Cheers

Mike
 
Alright - since you mention it :

1) anyone who can afford to buy one AND race/rally one can afford to fix it - otherwise stay doing doughnuts in your road Z in Tescos' carpark after dark !

2) anyone doing serious historic competition SHOULD have a catch-tank (think rules AND enviroment)so the pretty filter on the cambox is doing nothing.

3) the rear number plate is ***** on such a car with such a classic colour scheme and such otherwise nice detail - Halfords' special ?

C'mon man, FINISH the car in style - it deserves it !
 
I must agree with Sean, that rear number plate is ugly...
Anyway, I like the fact that the car "will" be driven, and not just put in a garage showroom for years to come...

You can always expect potential damage, even when driving on the road to work... We all have have had that "damn..that was close" moment? However, it hurts me to see any classic car that gets beat up..
 
All I can see is the cardinal sin ..................................THAT aerial ! What IS going on there? All the dosh spent, and then........................"I know - lets give a contemporary feel ....."
Other than that - if someone wants to race it , or go to the dark side and rally it, then good luck to them. But I wouldn't have started with a Sam. They pay's their money and they takes their choice.
 
i have yet to see a requirement for a catch tank for rallying? racing yes! if you put the breather into a catch tank you will still get fumes so what is the difference? the motor unless running closed circuit breathing has to vent somewhere!
 
Rob Gaskin said:
Well you have to have plenty of disposable cash and not care too much about the marque just that it is suitable car for your needs.

Edit: actually thinking more about it, that's wrong. There are many many people racing and rallying rare cars.
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Sorry but who says Z's or s30's are rare cars? They may be rare(ish) in the UK but there are thousands of them stateside /Japan so lets not get carried away when you see a s30 in rally uniform. :eek:

Had it been a Z432 , I could have perhaps understood the agony but even then AFAIK a few of them are raced in Japan so should they be wrapped in cotton wool?:unsure:

Most rally drivers dont really give a monkey about the marque. They want a car that performs within the parameters of their requirements. I cant see Mr Vodka Kick sitting on HybridZ, this forum or any other Z forum night after night reading about Z's just because he happens to own a few Z rally cars with a bottle or two of his produce.

If anything, I would celebratethe fact that Z farm and others are preparing cars that compete in UK/Overseas rallies and increase the awareness and popularity of these not so rare cars:)

If I had the cash, unlike most I would arrange for a few replica rally cars to be built for me using mint shells.....Safari, Monte, RAC, Invory Coast etc etc:thumbs:
 
What qualifies a car as too original to race? Most of the 60/70/80's rally cars around the car carry the original numberplate and that's it, so really where is the historical value in parts?

I have the pleasure of working at Goodwood every year, alongside £3-5million worth of 'original' gt40's/italian exotica etc, the RAC grid from a year or two ago was valued at £45m. Having a chat to the guy who prepares Neweys' gt40 which is about £3million's worth, he pointed out that all the cars on the grid have been crashed and rebuilt that many times that the only original part is the VIN number, that's why people with cash don't mind crashing them as they can afford to get them fixed and technically its just new sheet metal/alloy anyway.

It can be only good for the brand if people are paying Duncan and others decent money to prepare cars for them, there's plenty of bodies in the states to keep them on the track, it raises the profile of Datsun as a brand on the racing scene and can only help us peasant's out in the long term through continued development and parts availability.

Surely its better than the Sultan of Brunei's cars that just sit gathering dust and not being used as engineers designed?

The Sultan of Brunei's rotting supercar collection
 
Great comments, it's funny how we all like the car but have different view points on it.
Brian ,my wifes old man had a Merc SLK supercharged affair. It was brand new and he chucked me the keys, I loved the thrill but if I was rich and it was mine I could crash it daily and not be bothered.
There is something about the Z that makes me think irrationally.
datsfun I agree we should celebrate the Z farm for preparing cars like these, it's just the thought of bending them that makes me gulp!!
Mike B you have reinforced Rob's 1st post, it all comes down to the money...........

Duncan.... here is a question for you.............
You have built up that forest stage historic car over a time period and spent god knows how much.................
If you won the lottery would you just rag it till you smashed it and not give a toss as you could rebuild it anyway or do you think there is any 'heart and soul' in that build.
Tricky question for you my friend, either way people will disagree...........(sorry:))
 
Lottery winner ? I'd shaft a Z on circuits to WIN and if it got stuffed - I'd build another, better one.

Z s are for driving - I still think Nissans' museum is a sad place........
 
Motorsport always comes down to money. Best tyres, best engine, best suspension, etc.

If you are going to do it, decide on your pot of money, build / buy a car to fit the budget and then be prepared to lose it all. That's the game you play when you put a helmet on. You just play with bigger fish, the more you spend. And there are always bigger fish :)
 
So to finish the thread.................................
It appears that the car, marque, style etc all become less important if your bank balance becomes large enough so that you can wash away all those initial reasons we all bought one in the first place............
 
Throttleton said:
So to finish the thread.................................
It appears that the car, marque, style etc all become less important if your bank balance becomes large enough so that you can wash away all those initial reasons we all bought one in the first place............
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What ?

Some wild suppositions there matey.

If I had the money, I'd have me the closest I could get to the real thing AND create a stable/team of other Zs to beat the **** outa the established opposition - I like an under-dog and an underestimated, understated car - THAT'S one of the initial reasons I bought one.
 
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