I think that someone should get in contact with Keith Hege,
Fitzgerald's wrench guy who may know something about this also.
Mike Faggart
----- Original Message -----
From: <RoadsterGB@aol.com>
To: <RRyan@frk.com>; <Jsk977@aol.com>;
<Richard_Tillinger@dresser-rand.com>;
<datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 3:16 PM
Subject: Re: Factory lightweights and Roadster frames
> Hi
>
> My 2 cents.
>
> I am certain that there were factory lightweights - Dick Roberts was
really
> fussy about who he passed things too - BRE was originally an outfit
backed by
> Nissan Tokyo, not Nissan USA, and it is well known that he and Pete
Brock did
> not get along - PB would have been the last person to benefit from
any
> lightweights that went to the US - and if the shells went to Nissan
at
> Gardena I can quite see that Bob Sharp on the East Coast was not
sent one -
> he was doing very nicely on the East Coast. Until BRE came along,
Datsun was
> struggling in the West where they wanted a higher profile - the
Datsun
> Racing Team's 2000s had done nothing - the Jack Scoville
lightweight went
> originally to a guy in the MidWest (apparently a friend of Dick)
and,
> following poor results, Dick decided it should go to Jack. Jack is
in no
> doubt that this was a 'factory thin' car.
>
> Also, I had the honour of going through a secretly stored factory
240Z Rally
> car inch by inch two years ago. The car had been completely stripped
for
> restoration but retained its original paint and some rally decals -
it had
> not been messed with at all. The shell was super thin, the fenders
too, it
> had fiberglass hood and doors (again with the original decals) - and
there
> were loads of little tricks to the shell that differentiated it from
a stock
> 240Z. The rear of the shell had some similarities with the rear of
the
> Japanese spec Z432 and 432R, but was still not the same. The side
windows had
> the same 'nissan' etchings on as the glass but were perspex and like
the
> Monte Roadsters there was a dual wiring loom if anything failed.
Super trick
> car that to the rally tech inspectors looked like a stock 240Z - now
if I
> could only turn up a Monte 2000 roadster.
>
> Also, last month I saw probably the last genuine unused original
early 240Z
> shell in existence, that was apparently destined for BRE but never
got there,
> for whatever reason - even the wiring loom retainers were still
straight and
> it had never had anything bolted on it - although it was just a
shell it had
> a serial number in the first 200. Amazing. Unfortunately, it's not
for sale.
>
> Rob
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