The specialist: Fourways Engineering

By Ryan Standen

| 7 Jan 2025

Classic & Sports Car – The specialist: Fourways Engineering

The exhaustive stash of Datsun 240Z parts packing the shelves at Fourways Engineering includes more than 20 engines and ’boxes, rows of cranks, doors, bonnets and steering wheels, plus various hard-to-find items.

Get hold of some sound bodyshells and you could likely build a run of ‘new’ cars.

It’s an impressive hoard, especially considering original parts for the game-changing Japanese sports car are getting increasingly scarce.

Datsun 240Z spare parts are stored on a mezzanine floor at Fourways Engineering

When Paul White acquired the firm in 2021, the team had the unenviable task of ferrying the stock to its new premises in St Mary’s Platt, Kent – luckily, just a few miles up the road from its previous home.

Late founder Geoff Jackson was a keen race and rally driver.

He was bowled over by the straight-six coupé when it arrived in the UK, and almost immediately started cooking up performance upgrades.

“We found 27 engines in a pit beneath the floorboards,” recalls office manager Nathalie Aldridge, who joined the company nearly 20 years ago.

Fourways Engineering is broadening its horizons while maintaining a passion for Japan’s finest

Now the parts are organised on a mezzanine floor: “It’s a bigger place, but with the same ethos.”

Some signs from the old workshop still decorate the walls. “I think it’s important to keep the history of the company,” says Paul.

The firm has long been known as a Z-car specialist, but it has never shied away from other projects – Jackson himself started out modifying Ford Anglias.

During our visit projects included a one-owner Ford Fiesta Mk1, a part-restored Jaguar E-type, a Ginetta and more.

Junior technician Lee Hodges fits brakes to a Datsun 240Z – new Fourways Engineering apprentices study at the Heritage Skills Academy

“Whether we are working on an MGB or an L24 straight-six, it’s the same skillset,” says Paul, who is keen to expand the non-Z side of the business without losing its existing expertise.

“Obviously our technicians will understand the nuances of the Datsun unit, but the more we work on, the more we learn.”

The firm has been going strong for more than five decades, and word has spread throughout the UK and beyond – owners have brought their cars from as far away as Scandinavia.

Senior technician James Carter reckons he’s worked on 50-plus 240Zs since he joined Fourways more than a decade ago.

Racks are stocked with hard-to-find components, most for the Datsun 240Z, including carburettors, gearboxes and panels

“I spent three and a half years at Geoff’s side, just learning about Zs,” he recalls.

James wasn’t much interested in Japanese cars before joining the team, but he now has a 1973 Datsun 1200 estate and 1970 Fairlady Roadster, and only sold his 240Z to fund an E39 BMW M5.

His first assignment was to rebuild a customer’s rally car, which he then helped to maintain on the 2013 East African Safari Rally.

“I went out to Kenya and Tanzania for a month,” he says, remembering this baptism of fire.

An 8000-mile Datsun 240Z on the lift at Fourways Engineering, with a Ginetta and MGB behind

“The driver went through a river and hydro-locked the engine, which pushed the head gasket out the side of the block,” explains James.

“I had to take the head off at the side of the road in the scorching heat.”

Would he do it again? “No way – I lost a stone in a month!”

That car’s roof panel now graces the workshop wall to remind James of his odyssey.

Left to right: Datsun 240Z rally car, late founder Geoff Jackson’s modified example, Paul White’s ex-Australia 240Z and the 280bhp GT2 racer

Meanwhile, another Z rally car is in for work. The team was initially tasked with building an engine, but the project escalated quickly.

“It’s got uprated and strengthened springs and shocks, a limited-slip diff, an upgraded ’box, extra lights and a 280 engine,” says James.

This red-and-black car sits beside a tweaked example previously owned by founder Jackson, plus Paul’s own 240Z and a 280bhp GT2 racer that has competed at Spa and Laguna Seca.

On top of the servicing, restoration and modification work that serves as the firm’s bread and butter, Fourways Engineering also hosts occasional Classics and Coffee gatherings.

The 150-strong turnout at 2023’s 50th-anniversary celebration was evidence of the Kent company’s long-standing commitment to classic machinery, whether from Japan or elsewhere.

Images: Max Edleston

The knowledge

Name Fourways Engineering
Address Units 12 & 13, Platt Industrial Estate, St Mary’s Platt, Kent TN15 8JL
Specialism Datsun Zs, plus restoration, maintenance and upgrades
Prices £90/hr + VAT
Staff Six
Tel 01732 884288
Email info@fourwaysgroup.co.uk
Web fourwaysgroup.co.uk