The car was stripped to bare metal and totally rebuilt from the ground up with all new components to meet the IMSA GT class specifications.New molds for the body were created and new panels made and fitted to the car, while the engine was completely rebuilt.The car was painted in a very striking yellow and orange color scheme to complete the essentially new racecar. The former BRE crew chief, Joe Cavaglieri, was chosen to lead the team comprised of John Knepp, Don Reynolds, Trevor Harris, Mac Tilton, Dave Kent and Yoshi Suzuka. Frisselle would finish 14th overall and 2nd in class. The nose of the 240Z dives as Frisselle brakes for an upcoming turn during the May 1975 running of the IMSA GTU race. He found a very early car owned by another Datsun racer and Datsun dealer, Jack Scoville, then hired several of the ex-Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) team to begin the conversion into an IMSA GT class car. Since he had built a relationship with Datsun, he decided to look for a 240Z to buy and rebuild. In 1973, Frisselle decided to move up to professional racing with the IMSA Series, in the GT class. Frisselle would finish the race with a 2nd in GTU Class. Frisselle is positioned behind Jim Busby (61), Bob Sharp (33), Walt Maas (45) and Bob’ Harmon (5). A full field of cars takes the pace lap at Laguna Seca in May 1975. during the 1960s so its no wonder that a University of Colorado college student, Brad Frisselle, caught the bug and decided to give it a try.He purchased a Datsun 2000 sports car,in 1970,which he raced in regional SCCA events for the next few years.He qualified for the SCCA Runoffs twice and in 1973, won the Kimberly Cup at the Runoffs,which representedthe driver who hadimproved the most in the past year. Sports car racing was in full bloom across the U.S. In the pit lane during the May 1976 IMSA race at Laguna Seca. As IMSA continued to grow in popularity, it attracted new fans and drivers alike, with ever increasing prize money and racecars that looked like what could be driven on the street. The 1973 season brought a change in the form of a two class structure, GTO for over 2.5 Liter GT cars and GTU for under 2.5 Liter GT cars. Reynolds and the series was named the “Camel GT” with Corvettes, Porsches, 240Z, Mustangs, Camaros and other similar models continuing the production based car theme. In 1972, IMSA attracted a major sponsor, R.J. Their inaugural season was in 1971, with a series of six races for small production GT, rally and production cars. A former SCCA employee, John Bishop, with assistance from NASCAR President Bill France Sr., decided to take a different path for professional sports car racing than the SCCA. BRE wasted no time in preparing the car for SCCA Class C Production car competition and, at the end of the 1970 season, they won the class National Championship beating Porsche, Triumph, Alfa and Lotus cars to win.įor the decade of the 1970s, the 240Z and its successors (260Z, 280Z, 280ZX) dominated the SCCA C Production Class, winning consecutive National Championships by drivers John Morton, Bob Sharp, Walt Maas, Elliot Forbes Robinson, Logan Blackburn, Frank Leary and Paul Newman (yes, THAT Paul Newman).ġ969 was a key year, not only for the 240Z, but was also the same year a new racing organization was founded- the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). Having already established a good working relationship with Nissan, BRE received one car from the first shipment into the U.S. One such team was Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) founded by noted car designer Pete Brock (Cobra Daytona Coupe, Split-Window Corvette). automobile press giving high marks to the 240Z as it made the rounds of the car show circuit in late 1969, many race drivers and teams took notice of the car’s potential. Indeed, the arrival of the 240Z hastened the demise of several competitors in the U.S. 4) they concluded, “The Datsun 240Z hit its particular import market bulls-eye with such a wallop that its competitors will probably never recover. In the 1971, issue of Automobile Quarterly (vol. More importantly, it helped establish the Datsun name in a very important market. So, was the stylish body, 150-hp six-cylinder engine, independent suspension, five-speed manual transmission all for $3,500, considered a success? Judging by the 156,000 produced between 1969-’75, which exceeded Nissan’s expectations, it definitely was a major success. to make the rounds of the major car shows, in order to whip up demand from the public. In late 1969, the 240Z production line slowly began to produce some cars with a few going to the U.S.
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