For all who care to know,
I am currently having the molds finished up for the smooth finish
factory style tops. I am in the process of finding a source for the
compound curved rear window when that is resloved I will continue
production. I also will slightly alter the back so that it cannot
possible touch the paintjob. Plans at this time call for the early low
windshield version first and then the 1500 with 3 latches. Then the mold
will be cut and extended for the late model top. For those of you who do
not know the original from Japan is fiberglass and it is so thin that
you can barely breath on it so much re-inforceing is being done and also
making the insides a little easier to trim out. I was going to surprise
everyone with these but since you are all talking about them this is
what we are doing as we speak.
Part 2 is that 5-6 years ago I made the BRE front spoiler from a friend
of mine who was a local racer and had a decent one! One day when I
talked to Pete he explained that they had made about 3 different ones.
He told us something about SCCA requiring that only a 3 inch extension
could be used and only because it was incorporated in such a way that it
would direct air to the brakes. So there was a 3 inch with just brake
ducts and a 3 inch with brake ducts and a oil cooler hole in the center
and a huge 5-6 inch deep one with just brake ducts to the best of my
recollection. Well back then Pete gave his blessing to make a new copy
so instead of the chopped off ends of the racing one we tried to add
some extra material to extend to the wheel wells and may be able to be
trimmed if needed. Since it was designed for a race car and the mounting
was quite primitive the lower front of your car needs to be quite
straight and you will need to be pretty creative to make it look really
great on the street cars. But it can be done and we will post some
pictures of it on Dennis's 66 in the next few days. By the way the one
we molded and have availible is the 3 inch with the brake ducts and the
center hole for oil cooler/driving lights/etc. They cost $130 plus
shipping.
As for what I have heard about the demise of the roadster it goes mostly
along with what Gordon said. But add to that some of you have 69s that
are really 68 cars and 70s that are really 69s and some even go the
other way so it really depends on where your car was sold and if they
were big sellers in that area. Back then the dealers were allowed to
take last years cars and stamp a new ID tag for the next year with the
same serial number. I have 8 of these plates that were removed and
replaced with next years tags and a letter from the Nissan service
director to the dealers telling them this. The thing I am not so sure of
is what year this all stopped as I believe our government put a stop to
this for all manufacturers. Anyway the point was that the cars were not
selling as well by 69-70 that is also why the dealer installed the
wheels and solex set-ups some people have to try and make the cars sell
better. The main problem goes back to what Gordon said that due to
demand for the Z car and since they were built on the same line it was
easier to phase out the slower selling roadster and not try to sell 2
sports cars through the same dealerships. I think it was probably better
that it died when it did or it could have the same fate as the later MGB
with its anemic little one carb 1800 and big rubber saftey bumpers. It
was better to go out on top like the Beatles did. Just my 2cents worth!
LES
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Les Cannaday
Dennis Currington
Classic Datsun Motorsports
345 Olive Ave
Vista, CA 92083-4915
(760) 940-6365 (phone/fax)
http://www.classicdatsun.com/ - Classic Datsun Motorsports
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