It’s no secret that most of the Down Shift Magazine staffers and interns all have a soft-spot for sportscars wearing the Nissan hamburger emblem a love that runs even deeper when talking about vintage Datsun’s like the S30 chasis 240, 260 and 280Z’s or the GC10 2000GT Skylines… Everything old is new again and with that cliche out of the way we give you Matt Bordal’s inspired resto-mod S30 240Z. Wondering what is lurking under the hood? It’s starts with the letters RB.
In stock form, the 240Z and 260Z used twin, variable venturi Hitachi one-barrel side-draft SU-like carburetors. The carburetors were changed beginning with model year 1973 to comply with emissions regulations, but the earlier carburetors were superior for performance as compared to the later Webers. Fuel injection (L-Jetronic electronic fuel injection, designed by Bosch) was added for the 280Z in 1975 for the US. This was primarily in order to cope with the difficulty faced in getting enough power using carburetors while still meeting US emissions regulations.
Due to its relatively low price compared to other foreign sports cars of the time (Jaguar, BMW, Porsche, etc.), it became popular in the United States and was a major success for the Nissan Motor Corporation, which at the time sold cars in North America under the name Datsun. The 240Z also broadened the image of Japanese car-makers beyond their econobox success.
Continuing through the 1975–1978 model years, other non-USA markets still received the 260Z coupe and the 260Z 2+2 hatchback — the two-door, four-seat model. The S30 240Z is unrelated to the later 240SX, which is sold as the Silviain Japan, although initial advertising for the 240SX mentioned the S30.
