THE DATSUN Z - PACE CARS

Contributed By: Carl Beck, IZCC #260

This section is intended to give you a some information related to the Datsun / Nissan Z Cars - as they were provided by Nissan USA and used as " Offical Pace Cars " at some of the Speedways and Racing Events held around America. I have included the 1985 Nissan MID 4 because most of us consider it a "Z Prototype".

If you have an interest in this subject area, have special knowledge related to these cars, their drivers or the people that built them, please contribute it. We can put hyper-links in for any additional explainations, information or special interest articals.

As of 15 Feb., 1999....cjb


Pictured above is the 1974 Datsun 260Z that was presented to Bobby Unser at the " California 500 ". Having won that race Bobby was awarded the Official Pace Car as part of his winnings.

The First Z Pace Cars:

Pictured below, as far as I know from my research to date, is the first Z Car that was used as the "Official Pace Car" for a major racing event. Here Mr. Katayama is presenting the keys to the Datsun 240-Z Pace Car to Mr. John Cooper, President of Ontario Motor Speedway. This 1972 240-Z was to be used as the Official Pace Car for the Third Annual " California 500" held on Sept. 3, 1972. This Z was used to pace the 33 USAC Championship Cars around the O. M. S. 2.5 mile oval track.


Twins? - It was standard practice to build two " Official Pace Cars " for an event. One would be used for promotional purposes. It would be driven around town, used for photo sessions and then presented to the winner of the race. A second car would be prepared to actually " Pace " the race. This second car usually would have it's suspension and power train modified for higher performance, to assure that it could preform the on-track functions of a Pace Car. (that is to keep ahead of the pack of cars it was pacing ). Having thus been modified, it could no longer be Smog Certified for use on the highways. Thus the need of having one for "Show" and one for "GO"

We believe that the car pictured above was the actual Pace Car because it has the built in " Checkered Flag Holders " and is missing its hood oraniment.

Duplicates? Pictured below: - fifty southern California Datsun dealers take delivery of duplicate Datsun 240-Z Official Pace Cars during the ceremonies officially opening the " California 500 " at O.M.S. Driving the lead car is reigning USAC National Champion Joe Leonard.


To date we have not found any of the fifty duplicate 240-Z O.M.S. Pace Cars. However we believe that Bob Bondurant has the car prepared for track duties in 72 or 73 and is having Les Cannaday restore it to its original Pace Car condition.

Below is a photo of the 240Z O.M.S. Pace Car - contributed by Garry Savage
This is the only color photo that we have been able to find of the 240-Z O.M.S. Pace Car.

Click Here To See More: Of The Cars That Ran At O.M.S. and the Z Pace Car.

The 1974 O.M.S. Datsun 260-Z Pace Car:

This beautiful 1974 Datsun 260-Z O.M.S. Pace Car now belongs to Cindy Unser. It was awarded to her father Bobby Unser as a result of his winning the 1974 USAAC Championship Race, the "California 500" at Ontario Motor Speedway. It is also interesting to note that Bobby, teamed with Tommy Smothers (of the Smothers Brothers) during the first OMS Pro/Am Celebrity Race - and they won that too!

This is one of the only Datsun Z Pace Cars known to be still in existance. It is RLS30 - 00020, the twenth Datsun 260-Z built on 07/73. Its original color was Blue #307.

Click here to see next page of Z Pace Cars.

Hope you enjoyed this brief summary, if you would like to help or have information that you would like to contribute, please e-mail me!
Thanks,
Carl
beck@becksystems.com