Z432Rs hardly ever come up for sale, but last year one sold at auction in Tokyo for 88.55 million Japanese Yen. In terms of Japanese collector cars, there's the Toyota 2000GT, there's the Z432R, and then there's everything else. Takeuchi-san's 918 Orange Z432R is one of the most famous cars in Japan because he is so unselfish with it.
He shows up at classic car events all over the islands. Every year, he drives it between 40 miles, and has been doing so for the past forty years. How many Z432Rs were made is a matter of some contention, as many were used as racing machines by both factory works and privateer teams, and thus never registered. Nineteen road cars are known to have existed, with total Z432R production thought to be less than fifty cars, including racing machines. The cost to purchase an ordinary 432 was roughly double that of a normal Z car, but the Z432R cost slightly less.
Adjusted for inflation, a Z432R would set you back the equivalent of $60,000 today. What you got for your money was a machine with purity of function. Like the 2000GT, the Z432R was handmade, but where the curvaceous Toyota is an object of beauty, the Z432R is a tool of focused performance. Put it this way: during the long peace of the Edo period, ruling samurai elites carried masterfully crafted katana as ornaments of their position and wealth. Their constantly warring ancestors owned swords that were far more plain, but very, very sharp. Sections of the bodywork were stamped out of thinner-gauge steel, and all the glass apart from the windshield was replaced with acrylic. There were no creature comforts, no heater, no radio, no clock, no glovebox, and no sound-deadening. All the stainless-steel garnish was missing from the windows, not so much a decision to remove weight as about only adding the essentials. Some road-car owners optioned heaters just to clear the front window on a wet day, but the R was as bare-bones as it gets. Under the hood was the aforementioned S20, a 2.0-liter inline-six producing just shy of 160 hp in factory tune, the same as the more common Z432. This was the engine (and transmission) out of the four-doored PGC10 GT-R, which was already cementing the GT-R's legend in touring car racing. The two-door Skyline coupe didn't come out until after the Z432R, and this created a Z vs. GT-R rivalry, which we’ll explore later.įirst, it's worth pointing out that both the Z432 and Z432R weren't just Zs with a Skyline engine stuffed under the hood, but probably closer to the original intent of the Z-car. Original 1967 clay models for the Z project were built around the S20, and the hood had to be stretched to fit the L-series engines that powered most production Zs. Both the U.S.-market 2.4-liter, and even the 240Z badge, came later. The S20 straight-six had come under Nissan's umbrella as part of their acquisition of the Prince motor company and their Skyline sedans.
Former Prince employees were perhaps not enthused about giving the Nissan Z teams equal support in development. Far from it: the svelte Z432R was obviously prettier than the hakosuka Skyline, and Prince's team jealously considered the S20 “their” engine. The Oppama (Nissan) works team was as much as a year behind in being supplied race-tuned solutions such as mechanical fuel injection. It was first victorious in April of 1970, at the Race de Nippon, and also at the subsequent All Japan Suzuka 1000 km race in May. These were convincing wins, beating the likes of the mid-engined Porsche 906. Had the racing Z432Rs been able to access the same level of engine development as the PCG10 and KPCG10 Skyline GT-Rs, they might have been even more dominant.
The proof, perhaps, is in the Z's early rallying wins. Before 1972, Nissan's works rally Z cars were actually lightweight Z432 bodies fitted with L24 engines. Nissan won its first SCCA Run-offs championship with Bob Sharp.Set seven speed world records with the Nissan R380-II.Winner, East African Safari Rally, Under 1,300cc class, Datsun Bluebird 1300SS 1967.Winner, Japanese Grand Prix, Yoshikazu Sunako, Prince R380.Set five speed world records with the Nissan R380 1966.1-2, Japanese Grand Prix, T-VI race, Prince Gloria Su.Prince Skyline 2000GT, Finished 2nd to 6th – the beginning of the Skyline/GT-R legend.Winner, Japanese Grand Prix, B-11 race, Genichiro Tahara, Datsun Fairlady 1500 1964.Winner, Around Australia Trial, Class A, Datsun 210 "Fuji" 1963.The move was slightly underhanded, but the team got away with it, winning the 1971 East Africa rally outright.
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