EVENT: S30.World grand opening & platform launch
If you’re an S30 enthusiast, you may have seen some photos on the social media sites or heard it through the grapevine: On the 24.10.2024 – exactly 55 years after the first public presentation of the S30 / Fairlady Z at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1969 – there was the grand opening of S30.world in Buren, Netherlands.
Therefore there was a replica of the original Tokyo Motor Show ticket from 1969 given to the guests.
But why do i only write about it today? Well there was a reason: Today also the official S30.world platform was released to the public. But more on that in a minute.
1. What is S30.world?
1.1. The Brain behind S30.world
S30.world is all the brainchild of Chris Visscher, one member of the Visscher Family, all well known for their love of the Automobile. Chris one day decided that his love for the S30 / 240Z / 260Z / 280Z / Fairlady Z and it’s derivates needs a project to show the world that there is so much more to know about these cars than what you find in (oftentimes full of wrong facts) magazine reports and websites, and also a place where the cars are restored to nothing less than perfection. So after planning this for many years, the time was finally ready to go live!
1.1 Museum / Collection
Located just next to the Visscher classic car collection / Museum in Buren, just a short drive from Utrecht, Netherlands, you will find the S30.world Museum. Which shows a changing exhibition of 15-20 cars of the incredible S30.world collection. Completely original cars, very low VIN number Cars (22, 23, 29, 57, …), historic race cars, and cars restored to absolute perfection by S30.world, from all parts of the world and all model years and variants, 2+2 versions and including limited series cars like the Black pearl, and ZZZAP edtions.
It’s an ode to the early Z-cars and a place where you can compare all the different models and colours next to each other. Here you can see one corner of the museum:
Here is just a small excerpt of the cars in the collection, which are grouped into Icons, Masterpieces and Heroes. New cars are constantly restored or added to the collection.
1.2 S30.world Platform
The Platform is a Website where you can find anything about the early Z-cars. See chapter 3 for all the details.
1.3 Workshop
Just below the museum, there is a little workshop, where Chris and the team prepare and maintain the cars from the Museum and give them final touches.
1.4 Restauration program
But the real work is done by his long-standing team of S30 specialists. from Bodyshop to interieur and Engine-work, they do everything out of their specialized workshop in Hungary. And the result of their work is incredible, mostly focusing on full restaurations and repairs of S30 Z cars.
1.5 OEM spec parts production
S30.world made themselves a name in the recent years for bringing a small but best-of-its-kind selection of S30 reproduction parts which are NLA. Chris has managed to release seleced parts manufactured to absolute OEM specification perfection from Fuel tanks, to rubber parts, to hand brake cables and much more. Absolutely stunning products for a really fair price! You won’t find any better parts then those! Chris has spent incredible ressources to get the absolut best fitting and looking parts from his suppliers. Also expect more cool parts being released very soon.
1.4 The team
Chris has managed to gather enthusiasts from all over the globe. People who have always been doing research and collecting rare parts out of enthusiasm and curiosity and trying to get historical facts right by going the extra mile. A group with incredible collected know-how, documentation and connections. I think it’s fair to say that this is one-of-a-kind. So who’s the founding group?
Chris Visscher: The Man behind it all.
Me: Writer on JDMjunkies.ch, S30 researcher and will mainly write Articles for the Platform.
Florian Steinl: The man behind https://datsun-autowerk.com/ , Writer of Articles and Webdesigner.
Alan Thomas: The UK based Z-car Legend with an incredible collection of cars, parts and know-how.
Kats Endo: Our well-known Man-in-Japan with again, an incredible collection of Cars, Parts and documentation.
Jos van der Aart: The S30 Rallye Car enthusiast with an incredible Photo Archive.
Jeff Agner: Our man in California, USA: Again a huge know-how and will report from east of the Atlantic and the American market. Also organizer of one of the ZCON’s and Z-club owner
Jon Prynn: Chris’ engineer & parts sourcing man behind a very special, secret “Zero” project.
Gavin Doolan: Our man reporting from Australia, with an incredible know-how and parts-collection, again.
Mechanic Team: Gustav, Laszlo and Tom: Working their magic on the cars every day (see below):
And Honorary Member: Myazaki-San
2. The Opening
The grand opening was held at the Museum on the 24.10.2024 – exactly 55 years after the first public presentation of the S30 / Fairlady Z at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1969. Not a coinsidence :-). It was a great day with the official opening Ceremony with the speech of Chris and Miyazaki-San, but also the Who-is-who of the worldwide Z-family and of course all the family and friends of Chris, great food, many great gifts for the visitors and loads of Z-car-chatting.
During the evening, interviews were held:
Guests checked out the incredible cars and got to know each other. I’m sure a few new friendships where made that night. For me it was great to meet all the internet-friends in real life for the first time. Great to see you all!
After the Apero, the official opening ceremony, and after people had time to check out all the cars and mingle around, people were moved to the Visscher classic Bistro where an excellent choice of cold and hot meals and a huge dessert buffet was served. It ws hard to not eat too much. that night.
1.2. Takeo Miyazaki
What a huge honour: 81 year old Miyazaki-san came all the way from Japan to hold the official Opening speech of the Evening. Miyazaki was one of the original test team engineering members at Nissan Motor Co., who was involved in aerodynamic testing of the S30 and also part of the Z432 engineering team. He was also one of the main responsible members behind the “Euro final Spec” 240Z. He told some cool lstories from when they refined and tested the car and his personal opinion about the car. Read more about his story here in the Interview which was done the day before the opening here.
1.3 The guests aka Who-is-who:
Aside from the Illustre S30.world team itself, and Chris Family and friends, the who-is-who of the Z-car world was there. Especially from Europe.
Jakub from Datsun Europe (Poland), Romas from DCW Classics (Lithuania), Sean from Zstory (france), Marco from Autohaus Wild (germany), Former Datsun Switzerland managers, the anonymous man behind Mymechanics (Switzerland), Works Rallye car owners, Journalists, some of the original owners of the cars in the collection, and many, many, more. Sorry if i forgot anyone.
1.5. Platform discussion
Before and after the official Ceremony, there was a tight schedule for the team members itself to discuss and brainstorm the platform ideas, projects, and many ideas of S30.world and where it’s future lies. Chris had organized a special consultant for such event and it was big fun discussing all ideas with all the great people in two days. I think at the end we got a really cool concept, which will be filled with new content constantly.
1.6. The rollout / Test drive
The next day we had the possibility to drive around and compare some of the exclusive cars in the S30.world collection. An US-Spec car, VIN22 Car, Automatic Transmission car, EU-spec car, Modified car, etc. We had a photographer and film team following us and we had loads of fun comparing all the small differences and the sometimes surprising effects that you could feel. Miyazakin san joined us for the ride and it was really great seeing him witness the love of enthusiasts so many years after he worked on the cars, and more than once i saw him smiling at the cars.
Unfortunately i had to rush to the airport at the end so i didn’t really have time to say good-bye properly, but i finally made it to the gate just in time. What a great day. And thank you Gustav for your Taxi-ride!
3. Platform / Website
The Website / Platform is now online and the idea behind it is to have a one-stop place for everything S30. A website where you can find Stories behind the S30 / 240Z, Technical and historic articles, Documentation, comparisons, owner stories, but also details about the Museum, the Cars in the collection, restauration program, the Parts shop, the Team and so much more….
S30.world is so much more than what i wrote here. It’s probably the best-of-the-best when it comes to the S30 chassis cars. the Knowledge, enthusiasm and love for the car itself. I missed many small details here but best you check out the website, knowledge database and collection yourself: www.S30.world
And an 21 Page report about the ceremony, Mr. Miyazaki and the Cars in the collection can also be found in the Octane (NL) Magazine Issue 073, December 2024.
Thank you so much Chris for bringing us all together and setting this up. Your passion, and the one of all the other members is a bright light in the sea of S30 information and your work is an outstanding piece of art. Thank your for making me part of this Family and thank you for your outstanding hospitality!
Foto Credit
All professional photos on this site are taken by Jurian den Besten and Luuk for S30.world


2 Comments
Noctophobia
Such a cool article, I whish I could try these cars in oem stock condition as they came out of the factory, maybe one day.
Merry Christmas,
Fabrizio.
JDMjunkies.ch
Thanks a lot. It was indeed great fun to drive along in all those cars and compare them to each other and see how much of an impact the small changes mache. I have to say, the Z’s really have aged very well and still feel very comfortable and sporty compared to todays cars. I was very positively surprized to say the least!