1970 Chicago Auto Show

Re: 1970 Chicago Auto Show

I might be able to offer a little info in the meantime. (To head off any disputation, each VIN#
quoted below is understood to have prefix (model #) HLS30-.) Also, the frame of reference is
that the Chicago Auto Show is held in late Feb each year.

Now I would love to tell you that that was OUR car, (see NissanSportMag issue #13), but I
doubt it, since Lucky 13 was imported through Portsmouth VA and first sold at a NC dealership.

The first couple of ZCars to hit the continent were "prototypes" which were being shown at the
NY and I think the Toronto car shows in late 1969. But HLS30-00006, which was one of those
cars, had its roof damaged at a show and was sold to Bob Sharp, and became the several time
National Champion C/P race car. I think the others might have been VIN#7 and 8, which also
were turned into race cars (#8 for sure, it now belongs to Dr. Tom Bork up in Rochester).

The Chicago show being held in late Feb each year, the #6 car would definitely have been off the
show circuit by that time, and even so, it was a #907 racing green car. The 1969 production run
went from VIN#13 thru we think #587 (owned by Carl Beck). Due to crankshaft harmonic issues,
production was halted for most of Dec 69. But it appears that the cars minus their engines were
still being produced in anticipation of this problem being solved, since Jan70 production, by VIN#,
zoomed to about #01769 (roughly 1200 units); it then subsided in Feb69 to about VIN#02236
(about 500 units).

What to make of all of this? Only that the car had to fall into one or more of those VIN ranges.
The likelihood of it being Jim Frederick's #16 car is slim since that car was imported thru Houston.
So it seems fair to say that if one of you Midwesterners has a car which falls into that VIN range,
and is (was originally) that butterscotch (#920 Safari Gold) color, then that could have been yours!

All Z Best,...........................Kathy & Rick