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RACE: Rendezvous am kleinen Klausen (10.10.2021)
Yesterday i spent my day at the “Rendez vous am kleinen Klausen” historic car hillclimb, which was more or less a celebration of an annual race that was famous with both spectactors and racing drivers in switzerland (and across the border) in the past and used to happen the last time 71 years ago. Actually it was planned to do a 70 years memorial event last year, but it was delayed by one year due to covid. Honestly i didn’t have any big expectations. One of the organizers is my former schoolmates dad, who also happens to have this collection, so i thought it would be more or less a…
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240Z: Photos from Geneva 1970 & new Yokohama Banner
Lately i found a set of original photo prints from the 1970 geneva international motor show, where the Datsun 240Z (US-spec version) was shown one of the first times to the public. The two photos are very similar, but were taken from a slightly different angle within a short time. You can see the Datsun sign in the back. The car was then part of a bigger Datsun (Suisse) SA display at the GIMS. Oh and then Yokohama tires switzerland was kind enough to sponsor me a huge-ass Yokohama Banner as a garage decoration. Thanks a lot! It will definitely find a nice home at the garage wall, coming with…
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EVENT: The “Rendevouz am kleinen Klausen” classic car hillclimb & Rallye
I usually don’t promote other stuff, but i thought this one is rather special and deserves a bit of promotion: On the weekend of the 9. / 10. October a cool event is held close to my home. The “Kleiner Klausen” Hillclimb and rallye. It is a revival of a historic hillclimb event that used to happen on this road in Opfertshofen. Named “kleiner Klausen” (Small Klausen) after the famous Klausenpass in the mountains, because it had so many similar windings. It used to be a pretty spectacular race with around 4’000 visitors at it’s peak times and a drivers favourite in the race calendar. Since many years, this is…
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GARAGE / OTHER: Garage upgrades & Datsun 240K-GT / Datsun 1000 brochures
Since i’m now completeing my business education, my progress with the car is a bit slow until – after two years – my exams are completed in April next year. Then i plan to get that damn car back on the road as soon as possible. in the meantime i only have limited time and mostly like to spend it for research and buying stuff. I therefore decided it’s time to upgrade my workshop a bit, so i can get some work done by myself in future. The first pallette arrived af few days ago: And it contained a nice sandblasting cabinet. It was super cheap and i don’t expect…
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240Z: The rest of the missing Datsun toolkit arrived
Keen readers might remember i was collecting parts to puzzle together an original, complete tool kit. With my first orders i got some wrong parts and some were still missing. Thanks to a tip from my Datsun-Mate Dan. i recently found this kit with the exact missing parts for sale in UK. Naturally i had to get it. So this is what arrived today: An original Nissan branded pliers, along with a double-headed screwdriver And s et of wrenches. This time metric ones and not inch-based sizes. I still have to check all the details. But i guess with my previous purchases the kit is complete now. More parts are…
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HISTORY: Old datsun suisse press releases & Press photos
So i got another bunch of rare old Datsun switzerland documents in my mailbox yesterday: It includes quite a big press release from March 1980 describing the market situation for Datsun globally and in switzerland as well as japan. With some interesting facts and figures and comparing to other brands in switzerland and globally: The rest of the documents were all released in 1978 for the Geneva International motor show, where Datsun Suisse SA of course had a booth. Below is the official press release and spec sheet of their full lineup at that time (dated to 10. February 1978). Interresting here is maybe the “GT Tuning Kit” that was…
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240Z: Small gimmicks arrived (Contacts, Book & RAL chart)
You may have realized by now that the project is a bit on hold by now. The reason is i took over a management role in my job, and besides i’m also studying management. Good thing is after some first chaos i’ve settled in my new position and things are getting calmer and then i have my exams soon, so after that i have finally much more free time (after 2 years of school = home-study in the evenings and school on the weekends). The plan is to jump right back at where the project stopped aroun april 2022 and go full throttle. i really want to complete this build…
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HISTORY: The complete Story of Prince / Datsun / Nissan in Switzerland
In order to uncover and bring you the (most) complete story of Datsun / Prince and Nissan in switzerland from the very beginning to today, i went through the major task of reading hundreds hundreds of documents, tracked down more than 350 Commercial register entries of more than 35 associated companies and spent hours in various online and physical archives and libraries. I’ve talked to dozens of involved people and collected hundreds of rare internal and public documents over the years to painstakingly puzzle it all together. Since the story grew quite big once i fell into the rabbithole of information, i decided to split it into different slices, which…
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HISTORY: The story of Datsun, Nissan & Prince Switzerland – Part 3 “The early years” (1960 – 1977)
This is the third part of a multi-post series about the (hi)story of Datsun, Prince and Nissan in switzerland. Check out the other parts HERE In this third installment we’re looking at the inside of Datsun (Suisse) SA and the Fehlmann Motor Group (excluding the industrial vehicles, which will be covered in a later post) in the years 1960-1977 a bit more in-depht. It was basically the period when the Datsun brand was brought to switzerland and established as a serious car brand from scratch. Remember, back then japan was still a far away and “mystic” country, and it took serious efforts to get goods to the other side of…
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240Z: Repair tools kit pt. 2
A while ago i decided to get myself a complete, original toolkit for the Z, just for completeness sake. In part 1 of the story, i got my first items, but i realized that some of the tools where not from the Z as they where not metric. It’s nothing high on my bucket list, but when i see something for sale locally and the price is ok, i try to get it. So this is why i got a few things in front of my door today, all the way from a german 240Z owner. Still have to figure out if all the pieces are really from the 240Z,…
