Bringing the Heat

The SCCA National Championship showdown at Road Atlanta was even more difficult than our regular Pacific Coast races. Instead of battling the top four C Production cars on the West Coast, we now faced the top three qualifiers from every SCCA division. It was without a doubt the most competitive grid ever seen in SCCA National competition.

Katayama’s dream rested entirely on what the BRE team had created for him and ultimately how Morton would fare. When qualifying was over, the first eight cars on the grid were separated by just half a second. Morton, incredibly, was on the pole, but lined up alongside him was several-time national champ Bob Tullius driving America’s fastest TR6.

Another challenge that weekend was the weather. It was unusually cold. So cold, in fact, that ice was hanging off the power lines. With all the cars so competitive and the temperatures so unlike anything we’d ever raced in, we knew that we needed some creative thinking to win. As a team, we were all trying to determine what we might do to give John an edge.

Since the temperature was the one obvious variable that impacted everyone, we looked to turn it into an advantage. One thing we knew for certain was that engine power was related to temperature–but not just induction temperature, as that would affect all teams equally. That was simply about noting the barometric pressure and getting the mixture right.

Operating temperature was something different, and the common-knowledge ideal other teams used wasn’t exactly correct. Art Oehrli and his young assistant, John Caldwell, had proved consistently on our dyno that several extra horses could always be extracted at the top end by keeping both oil and water temps high. The trick was to maintain that high level without it becoming destructive. If the water temp could be kept at 220, it was easier to keep oil temps high as well, and that resulted in significantly more power.

If we could hit the track with our driveline already at operating temperature, we theorized, Morton could enjoy a boost of power for the first lap or two.

The trip from our paddock spot to pre-grid wasn’t long, and once there we’d have to sit for several minutes until the previous race completed. All engines were required to be shut off on pre-grid, and that wait in the near-freezing conditions was sure to cool the engine oil well below our ideal max-power temp.

The solution was to use a remote generator powering a heating pad adhered to the bottom of the oil pan. The engine was pre-warmed in the paddock and then driven to the pre-grid, where the power cord was attached. When the cars were driven out to the grid, we were at full operating temp.

Morton gained about three lengths off the line, a critical distance he maintained throughout the race. A few degrees of temperature had given us the slight advantage to win and deliver the national championship that confirmed Katayama’s dream of success for the 240Z in America. It was the first of the 240Z’s many national championships, including Morton’s second victory in 1971.

The racing season had started slowly for BRE and the 240Z program, but it ended well thanks to the team’s experience and attention to detail. The preparation from every member of the team paid off, and Mr. K was pleased. Sales of his dream car were going so well that by mid-season there was a three-month wait to take delivery on a new 240Z. By the time BRE’s racing contract with Datsun ended in 1973, the manufacturer’s import sales in America had climbed from number seven to number one in the nation.

Even more telling of Datsun’s competition success: Every other manufacturer in C Production had moved away, looking for another class or type of competition in which to excel. Porsche teamed with Roger Penske and dominated the Can-Am series with the 917. Toyota and Shelby never even made the SCCA Nationals and quit competition for 10 years. Tullius and Kastner both found new classes to dominate, but C Production remained Datsun territory for years to come.

Reappearance

When Morton’s two-time championship-winning 240Z was returned to Nissan headquarters in 1972, ostensibly to be placed in the company’s planned museum, it mysteriously “disappeared.” It was quietly repainted and given to top California privateer Dan Parkinson.

Somehow Parkinson lost control in a private test session and destroyed the car. This priceless piece of Nissan racing history was crashed so badly that it was pushed behind Parkinson’s home and forgotten.

Years later, Randy Jaffe, a hardcore BRE fan if there ever was one, decided to build a new No.46 BRE racer for vintage competition. Months of research, including numerous phone calls and emails with everyone involved, finally revealed the real story of what had happened to Morton’s “lost” racer.

Jaffe’s plan to build a new C Production racer then became a mission to restore history. He went to California and bought the ex-Morton wreck from Parkinson’s dad. He also gathered every component that had been removed from Morton’s 240Z and used on Parkinson’s new racer.

Jaffe acquired a new tub and started building. Every detail and dimension that had been built into BRE’s original 240Z was incorporated into the new car. Even more important were the mechanical components he’d salvaged, which were rebuilt to as-new condition and incorporated into the new racer. Jaffe had top Nissan engine builder Dave Rebello recreate the racer’s BRE engine using the original manifolds and external fittings and linkage.

The result was a perfect recreation of Morton’s racer. Jaffe even called Morton to race the car. History would repeat at the 2018 Classic Motorsports Mitty, held this spring at Road Atlanta. Rob Fuller’s Z Car Garage was tasked with prepping the chassis for the annual event.

During Friday practice, on Road Atlanta’s long back straight, a rod bolt fractured at well over 7000 rpm while in top gear. The block returned to the paddock as a steaming, oil-soaked disaster with gaping holes in both sides. For any other team that weekend, it might have been the end. But not for Jaffe and the Z Car Garage crew.

Jaffe went back to his Atlanta shop and pulled out a couple of dust-covered, 40-year-old EB Parkinson race engines that Randy had bought as “spare parts” along with the destroyed ex-Morton chassis. In the paddock the next morning, with an encouraging and highly vocal crowd watching, both engines were disassembled, inspected and combined to make a single almost-new 240Z race engine.

Incredibly, Morton was able to improve his lap times with the new mill, even though it obviously didn’t have the power of the Rebello engine. It was still strong enough that his skill put him back on the podium.

Where Failure Meets Success

Racing isn’t always about winning; it’s about proving who is best. On this memorable Mitty weekend, it was the entire team’s courage against all odds, combined with Morton’s skill and determination, that proved their championship spirit.

If ever anyone remarks that racing doesn’t improve the breed, BRE’s example of discovering an engineering problem on the eve of a new-car announcement, then developing and proving the design of a new production 240Z crankshaft that was immediately incorporated into every new Z-car, must be used to disprove their point.

We never did get a formal answer to our reports or learn who within Nissan engineering actually designed the new cranks, but we were all pretty certain it must have been the really savvy guys from Prince who knew something about high-rpm inline sixes. The strange (to us) silence was probably something we didn’t understand culturally about “failure,” but it was obvious the problem was noted, quietly studied, understood, tested relentlessly and then solved.

The 240Z’s L-series race engine has gone on to be one of the best and most reliable production engines in history. Thousands have been built. The Z 432, powered by that rare Prince engine, never did go into full production. Only 452 were ever built, but the engine has gone on to be the basis for the one found in the legendary Skyline GT-R, one of the rarest, fastest and most desirable automobiles ever to come out of Japan.