ORIGINAL CAR: 1971 Datsun 240Z
Owner: Luke & Ross Carrington
Length of restoration: 5 years
For us, there is a long relationship with 240Zs. I had one when I was very young. My older son Stephen, I got him one for his first car and he had it for 22 years.
Luke and I looked at another and thought they looked good and this is something we can work on. Something that has helped, is our good long-term friend in Lindsay Drife, who owns the Z Shop in Melbourne. I’ve known him for around 30 years.
We’ve always had a love of the 240Z – and it seems to be a common theme that people return to them.
We have two. The other one is unrestored and is a one-owner. He had it from new and sold it when he was 92.
The fellow who owned this car was living in Sydney, and he had started the restoration. By the time he went to sell he was in Poland and wasn’t returning, and was planning to buy one over there.
It wouldn’t run but was good value, so we put it on a trailer and brought it home. We went through the car and the issues were mainly mechanical. The cosmetics and body were restored and he had done an excellent job.
Much of it hadn’t been done up properly, such as suspension wishbones. That all needed to be checked and sorted out. All the bolts had been anodised, that sort of thing, but we had to go over the whole car to ensure it was tied down.
This is the issue with buying a part-completed project. While much of the hard work had been done, we were nevertheless in uncharted waters and had to go through the whole thing very carefully to ensure it was correct.
The engine is a straight-six with twin Japanese copies of SU carburetors. We pulled it apart to check it and it was in good shape, but it hadn’t been sorted.
The motor is interesting, its history is a development of an earlier licenced build of a Mercedes design. They’re rated at 150 horsepower, which works in such a lightweight car.
This was a car that was always in decent shape. It was a concours-winner at a show in Canberra when the previous owner bought it, but then he pulled it apart. I’m glad he did, because when you look at the work that was done, it did require a good paint shop to prep it. There were signs that rust was just starting to get to the car, so they got it just at the right time.
It’s had no panel replacement – they’re all the originals.
You might ask yourself why someone would pull apart a concours-winning car. But in the creases and the panel joins there was the start of surface rust. They got right into it; repriming and repainting it, so it’s all protected. In that respect, it was an excellent and wise decision to buy.
As with a lot of restorations, the hardest part was just getting those last few bits required to finish the job. That’s where Lindsay came in. He can procure just about anything from his racks of spares, because he’s wrecked so many over the years.
With those rare pieces, he’ll say, “It’s such a worthy car, I’ll let you have this.”
Some of these pieces aren’t something you’d find online, such as the rubbers around the bumper bars. Or inside there’s a map light in the middle of the dash, and someone had broken it. The lenses are very difficult to source.
More generally the parts supply is quite good, with businesses in America remaking some pieces.
Luke has taken on a lot of the maintenance on the car, and has found himself becoming the chief detailer. He also tackles the tuning on the Datsun.
He has shown a talent for mechanical puzzles, having revived a Honda XR250 dirt bike, and is currently playing with a 1975 Toyota Corolla paddock monster, running a supercharged 1600 engine.
Now the 240Z is sorted out, it drives beautifully. We had to do the springs and shockers, as they weren’t right. And we did the wheel alignment the old-fashioned way by string-lining it on the factory floor.
They’re a beautiful car to drive, and are good on the freeway with the five-speed gearbox. It corners okay for the era. They did rally them successfully – they scored a one-two finish in the East African Safari in 1971.
A lot of people modify them, but my experience is the factory-spec cars are a better drive. They spend a lot of money on research and development at the factory and it’s hard to match that.
It rides really well with the stock suspension set-up now that it’s been overhauled with adjustable Koni shocks, and the driving position is good. It’s a great cruising car, revving fairly low on the highway.
It’s interesting having the other original car to compare with this one, as the former drives a little better. That to me says you have to be very careful when doing these restorations, to ensure you don’t lose the feel of the original car.
VITAL STATS
1970-73 DATSUN 240Z
NUMBER BUILT: 156,076
BODY: Steel integrated body/chassis two-door coupe
ENGINE: 2393cc overhead camshaft six-cylinder with twin side-draft carburettors
POWER & TORQUE: 112kW at 5600rpm, 198Nm at 4400rpm
PERFORMANCE: 0-96km/h: 9.1 seconds, 0-400 metres: 16.7 seconds
TRANSMISSION: 5-speed manual
SUSPENSION: Independent with MacPherson struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar (f); independent with coil springs, struts, trailing arms (r)
BRAKES: Disc (f) drum (r) with power assistance
TYRES: 175/70R14 radial