An article written by John:

Icon: a sacred image, an object of uncritical devotion.

 

I was going to begin by saying the Z car is an icon, then thought I'd better look it up and see if this too often overused word fits. The Z is very special to many people.

Recently I met a doctor at a party and he asked: “Are you the guy who used to race the 240Z?" He told me: “That car saved my life.” He went on to explain that he was a medic in Viet Nam in 1969-70 and would send home two-thirds of each paycheck, around $250 each mouth to his dad so he could buy a new British racing green 240Z if he returned alive. He said when he was in tough spots, he’d think of the Z he’d have one day and it would pull him through. When he finally arrived home, his dad had a surprise for him in the garage. It was a brand new 1970 Jaguar XKE. Oh well, at least he’s alive.

My relationship with the Z car is not just special; it changed my life in a profound way. The Z isn’t exactly a sacred image to me nor do I have uncritical devotion, but it and the 510 are the two most important cars in my life and therefore they are icons in my book.

You see, before Datsun came into my life in 1969, I had raced for six years. Things had started happening quickly. In 1963 I won lots of races in my Lotus Super 7 and in 1964 even had some rides on Carroll Shelby’s Cobra team. But from 1965 until being employed by Pete Brock’s new BRE Datsun team in 1969, my career was in a steep downward spiral; club racing on a $3.25 per hour job making racing oil pans. The BRE team and the Z turned my life around.

In 1963 Carroll Shelby said that Ford was coming out with a new car and Shelby American would be racing it. Shelby called it the T5 Project and said I was a possible driver. As it turned out, the car was the Mustang and I was not one of its drivers. When the car appeared, I remember thinking this thing doesn't look like a race car. I only mention this because when Pete Brock was given a 240Z to look at in anticipation of preparing one for racing I had the same thought. This is a good-looking car, but doesn't’t look like a racecar.

After a brief drive, the evaluation became direr. The car was very soft and had a lot of squat under acceleration. The handling felt more like that of an American car, not a potential race winning sports car. This wasn't going to be so easy.

Mr. Katayama had brought a car to the United States tailored to the American tastes. It was beautiful, sort of in the Italian tradition. It was comfortable, fairly peppy and very inexpensive. The car sold like hotcakes. Our job at BRE was to win races with it. There wasn't much time for development and in the interim we needed to get National points with the Datsun 2000 Roadster while we prepared the Z. We installed a minimal roll bar, a fuel cell, dual brake master cylinders, front and rear anti-roll bars, stiffer springs and shocks, lowered the car, installed seven inch magnesium wheels, a front and rear spoiler and a very powerful underdeveloped hand grenade for an engine. We started racing the car well into the 1970 season with several mechanical failures.

With two races remaining in the season, we were not yet qualified with enough points to make the National Championship finals at Road Atlanta. We had to win the last two races: Ontario and Phoenix, or our season was over. We had received an updated crankshaft from Datsun and Art Oehrli, our engine genius, had changed the engine’s power band to avoid the destructive vibrations that occurred over 7,800 rpm. With a car that had never finished a race, we went into the final two “do or die” races and won them both. In Atlanta we had the pole and after a tough race with Bob Tullius’ Triumph, we were National Champions. We repeated in 1971. The BRE team with the #46 240Z and the #46 Datsun 510 were on pole position in every race run in 1971.

These were great cars prepared to near perfection by an equally great team assembled by Pete Brock. The key team members included Art Oehrli who had worked with Jim Hall on the first Chaparral engines, Mac Tilton who went on to create a competition parts dynasty called Tilton Engineering, John Caldwell of Nissan GTP engine fame who, among other projects, developed the Viper engines for Chrysler, John Knepp, who with Don Devendorf founded Electramotive Engineering, Trevor Harris, later designer of F 1, Can Am, Indy cars, the Nissan GTP’s and race winning Baja Trophy Trucks, and George Boskoff, without whose help you would never have heard my name.

BRE’s involvement with the Z ended with the second championship in 1971, but the Z car’s dominance of SCCA racing remained intact for another five straight years with drivers like Bob Sharp, Sam Posey, Jim Fitzgerald, Logan Blackburn, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, and Paul Newman.

All that is left of the #46 BRE Z car is the chassis plate, which I took off as a souvenir during the Z’s original preparation, and numerous toys, models, clones, and, of course, many happy memories.

Racing achievements I was fortunate enough to share with later Z’s include victories in several IMSA races co-driving with Brad Frisselle, victories at Sebring and Le Mans in Cunningham Racing’s 300 ZX Turbo with Johnny O’Connell and Steve Millen, and victories with a 300 ZX Turbo in South and Central America.

In 1995 I was asked to participate in the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Z car. An event was planned in conjunction with the “Make A Wish” Foundation in which Z’s from all years would cross America in a route that described a giant Z and was called appropriately “Z Across America.” It terminated in New York City at the Whitney Museum of Modern Art. The following year in a fit of ambivalence or perhaps schizophrenia, Nissan had another Z celebration in a museum on the opposite side of the country. The Petersen Museum in Los Angeles celebrating (?) to the shock and dismay of Z fans everywhere, the end of the Z. But as we know, the death was followed five years later with the divine decision and a little lobbying by Mr. K. (The only auto executive besides Harley Earle to be played by an actor in a T.V. commercial and Harley Earle has been dead for years.) to resurrect the Z car. Today the car is better than ever and now in completely stock form actually feels like a sports car that could win races. If only Nissan would give it the support it would need to have a shot, I know where they might find a driver.