RE: Datsun 240Z: PH Heroes

[Markgenesis]

Was offered a yellow 240Z back in the early 90's for £1000, body shop owning mate was selling on behalf of a customer, he had done a ton of work to it, new floors, rear 1/4's, door skins, etc, was all solid, rust free and just needed final painting and assembly when the owner got sent to jail for a very long time, he told the garage owner to sell it to get the cost of parts and labour back which came to 1K.

Knocked it back as i had a half built Mini project in my parents garage who i lived with at the time and they would have went mental

My one chance of owning one.

[s m]

Markgenesis said:

Was offered a yellow 240Z back in the early 90's for £1000, body shop owning mate was selling on behalf of a customer, he had done a ton of work to it, new floors, rear 1/4's, door skins, etc, was all solid, rust free and just needed final painting and assembly when the owner got sent to jail for a very long time, he told the garage owner to sell it to get the cost of parts and labour back which came to 1K.

Knocked it back as i had a half built Mini project in my parents garage who i lived with at the time and they would have went mental

My one chance of owning one.

Kevan Kemp had a yellow 260Z back when he ran the Zed shed in Ironbridge - they used to tune lots of 240Z/260Z cars in the 80s. He chopped the top off his car to make a convertible and put in a twin turbo Rover V8. Then he got into Cosworths and now is back with Nissan tuning doing GTRs

Edited by s m on Saturday 28th June 22:52

Edited by s m on Sunday 29th June 09:55

[s m]

danjama said:

This is my favourite one - and yes i know it's wrong!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcjC00J8FaM

Beautiful cars.

There's another one built by some kid in his garage that was featured on a popular youtube motoring channel on youtube - i cant find it now. Would really appreciate if someone could think of it? It has that bald guy presenting it.

edit: ignore that i was thinking of this beast - still awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjpXbMiCtg

Edited by danjama on Friday 27th June 22:17

I wondered if you had been thinking of this one? The Petrolicious video?

http://youtu.be/EO2y_-vpolA

Is a good watch if you like the 240Z

[Gorbyrev]

Used to walk past lines of these on my way to school. Blinded by "Buy British" bigotry I did rather resent the Datsun garage at Eskbank toll but I couldn't help noticing that the 240Z looked like it came from a different century compared to the 100A's and 120Y's around about it. Absolute classic.

[NailedOn]

73RS said:

Here's my RHD 1973 example.

Fantastic!
Shades of a Jensen Interceptor.

[Colin RedGriff]

The Datsun 240z was my first taste of a performance car. Back in the early eighties , where I worked one of the guys I worked with owned one and he took me out for a ride one lunch time. Until then I had never experienced performance like it.

Still think it is a great looking car.

[danjama]

s m said:

I wondered if you had been thinking of this one? The Petrolicious video?

http://youtu.be/EO2y_-vpolA

Is a good watch if you like the 240Z

I love Petrolicious videos but never seen this one - that was excellent. I love that they let the viewer hear the car. And what a sound that makes.

[jason61c]

PZR said:

It still exists, but it's been off the road for a few years. I sold it pretty much as you see it in the photos. Would have been maybe something like 10(?) years ago now.

Colin Goodwin borrowed it back for a day, and used it for a feature in CAR Magazine when the Z33 debuted (2002?). I've got a copy of the mag around here somewhere...

Is it looking for a new home at all do you know?

[slarnge]

This 240 looks so cool. I love the Datsun sports bag .

[PZR]

jason61c said:

PZR said:

It still exists, but it's been off the road for a few years. I sold it pretty much as you see it in the photos. Would have been maybe something like 10(?) years ago now.

Colin Goodwin borrowed it back for a day, and used it for a feature in CAR Magazine when the Z33 debuted (2002?). I've got a copy of the mag around here somewhere...

Is it looking for a new home at all do you know?

Not as far as I'm aware. Last I heard, the owner plans to refurb it again. It's been sitting for a long time.

[dinkel]

Love these.

[Contigo]

Saw this minter in Oregon last month.

[pSyCoSiS]

Retro chic at it's best.

[LuS1fer]

A truly beautiful design though I fail to see any E-Type in there at all, more a hint of MGBGT/Fiat Coupe and muscle car bonnet length to placate the Americans.
The back end is more Capri/Mustang than E-Type too.
Still gorgeous though.

[gareth h]

That takes me back..to being a 19 year old blatting around Andover and the surrounding villages in my rather rusty example, whichg replaced a rather rusty GT6, bit of a theme there!

[stephen300o]

GravelBen said:

Lovely cars

Don't know about the 'more than a hint of E-type' comment in the article though, I don't see much in common and the 240Z is a far better looking car!

Just what I was about to write.

[427James]

stephen300o said:

Just what I was about to write.

Its the long nose, recessed lights and the shape of the rear quarterlight. Agree that the back is pure American styling though.

[PZR]

427James said:

stephen300o said:

Just what I was about to write.

Its the long nose, recessed lights and the shape of the rear quarterlight. Agree that the back is pure American styling though.

As I wrote earlier in the thread, it'd be nice if we could accept it as Japanese styling. But...

I struggle to see it as "American" styling. If anything, the design team on the S30-series Z project were looking more towards Italy for their inspiration. Chief Designer Yoshihiko Matsuo has said that he and his team were shocked to see pictures of the Maserati Ghibli when in debuted, as they had been working on broadly similar themes:

[dinkel]

Jap and Yank styling back to back:



I think the Japanese have found a styling of their own.


It's quite a sight and sound to see one approaching towards you.


This though ... is something else.

[s m]

Nice Petrolicious vid featuring the 240Z

http://youtu.be/eDUkBpn_R6M