I've been a datsun nut ever since I had my L's. My first car was an R30 skyline. Since then I've owned another R30, Sunny, Bluebird, and 180B SSS.
Around the time I started uni I wanted a project car to build a weekend/club car. I loved Zeds but the price was out of my range. In the end I bought a 180B SSS and over time stripped the whole car back to bare metal and had it in primer ready for panel beating. In the meantime I had picked up a part time job and managed to save some money for the bodywork and an engine conversion. While looking for possible engines I came accross an add in the trading post for an unregistered L28 turbo 240Z. I didn't have quite enough for the $7.5K price tag but figured the owner might be negotiable so I went and had a look at it.
When I saw the car I was disappointed. The crappy green paint job looked terrible and there were a few rust spots that needed serious attention. I was still kind of interested so the owner organised a day registration so he could take me for a run in it. Heading from his house he was getting it on boost a bit but it wasn't doing much and I was once again disappointed, then we hit the highway...........Going onto the highway he opened it up through 2nd and 3rd and I'd never felt anything like it! I'd been in modified WRX's, Skyline's, Gti-R's, etc but nothing compared to the acceleration of this thing. I had to have it! The best thing was that suspension and brakes had also been taken care of so it was going to be a much cheaper option than doing it all on the SSS.
I purchased the car for $6.5K and used it for a couple of track days and I was hooked. Thanks to some friends I managed to get a CAMS approved roll cage in very cheap and what was supposed to be a quick and dodgey patch up and paint job, actually turned out pretty damn good! Over 12 months or so with A LOT of help from my dad we did all the necessary bits and pieces to get it ready to race and this is how the car had turned out.
I'm now running it in its first season of racing in Targa B class. It's a class setup for road cars with pretty much unlimited modifications on DOT approved tyres. Other than some reliability issues the car has been going well and we're currently 2nd in the series. As with most peoples Zeds it's far from finished and there's plenty more to be done when I can save the money.
