Toecutter

Jack my comments are general advice based on my experience was'nt refering to any particular member here. My first car was a Gemini. Had the car for three years and at the end those 3 years it was ready for the tip as the motor was completely buggered and body work was in a miserable state too but the car went every where and had a lot of good memories in it. At 21 I bought a BMW and treated that differently as parts were not as cheap as thr Gemini. But now that you have mentioned the car being off the road problem, thats another thing to keep in mind when looking for a 240. A car thats sat still in a garage for years might look ok but theres always rubber bushes and hoses etc that tend to deteriorate to cracking point after 30 years and these will be some of the first things to go on heavly acceleration. A Z car, 30 y/o car really needs attention every so often which translates into dollars and the more it's cained the more dollars you can expect to fork out. For blokes with an established income and a couple of cars in the household the "required fix's" on a Z are often just taken as a hobby. For a young bloke with a part time job at uni it must be a different experience. If you can afford a regged and running Zed thats had all the work put into it go for it as people have often put much more dollars in to the car than you pay for it. Sulio

Odd to hear about so many having problems with their 240's and 260's!? Well I'd like to add some posative experiences as I've used mine as a daily driver for about 3 years. Initially picked it up as a pretty rough car and spent a few daollars just to get it legal. Drove it to work from St.Kilda to Bayswater every day and parked it in the rain. Did'nt service it on a regular basis as was always hoping to change the motor. Never touched the SU's as the car started nicely even on cold winter mornings. It never missed a beat. Never had any serious problems in that time. When I bought the car it had bad synchros in the old box but even then kept driving it for at least 1.5 years and found a 280 box for $80.00 which was in great shape. I suppose when your 18 you tend to really cane a car thinking you look great hammering it from every second set of lights. However as you start to break things and realise you have to pay for new parts & it is truely amazing how exponential the learning curve is. I think they call it "the school of burning a hole in your ass pocket". I think we've all done some part of that course! I suppose my advise on wether you should get a Z for a first car comes down to what you expect from the car as the guys above have mentioned. If you want to impress the disco boys or run your car up against late model Jap cars spend 10K on 200sx and get all the go you want. Thats what my brother drives, he's pretty young and impressionable but he's very happy with it, (I think he's just starting to admire Z's pitty his 200sx is clapped out from all the line ups he's done with it, I'm pretty sure he did the full course mentioned above! Good Luck with your desicion but if you decide to buy a Z don't rush in to it, there are plenty of people here that will gladly help out. Cheers, Sulio

Not really big on customised body work to the original Z lines but surprisingly this doesn't look too bad.

Aussie distributors for such wheels as 3 piece SSR wheels. http://www.stuckey.com.au/wheels_details.aspx

Nice car Sam.

Nice car Scando, always interesting to hear about the first ride in a Z experience especially if your lucky enough to find an L28 turbo for the right dollars. Ah the guys in the states must have a ball visiting junkyards to pull apart L28ET's. And if kill the motor just go and pull another one. I think it followed from XRQTR's story and wheel query. Anyhow we should continue the SSR discussion and further info in the wheels section for ease of reference.

What are your plans with the car Pauly?

The framed pics with the info is an excellent idea! You should also promote your serves on ClassicZcars. Shipping in a post pack to the US would be cheap! Good work.

Welcome Tony, good to see european Z car enthusiasts on the site. From our chat it sounds like you plan to build a very nice 240. Looking forward to following your progress! Cheers, Sulio

Craig sounds good. I've got about 6 on my list atm. I'll check my PM's and e-mails. Modular9, should be plenty of pics and video just hope we get good weather!

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1458.0.html

Ah excellent to hear you've hooked into it. Pretty good find, especially with the tripple Mikuni 44's! A lot of the S30's I look at these days are getting pretty bad in the rust department as far as whats left out there so I reckon you got in at a good time as the prices have been creeping over the last couple of years. I was surprised to see that even the seats in the car have no tears and the dash no cracks! yes very good find. You gotta get your pics up in the gallery section and maybe start a thread on the car in the Members Project(s) Journal section of the forums!? Futher to the conversation we had re wheels I think the ones you have on the red car pictured are Enkei wheels, not sure if they still make em?? Get it regged for the Apollo Bay Cruise the first week of August!

Hi Guys. We’ve put together a cruise to take us from Melbourne through Lorne to Apollo Bay via the very scenic Great Ocean Road. Saturday night we plan to enjoy dinner and drinks and stay overnight in Apollo Bay, making our way back to Melbourne on Sunday morning. Of course if you don’t have the luxury of the entire weekend to devote to your Z, you can make it a day trip. The cruise in summary will be as follows - - Melbourne to Lorne 130km (1 hour 36 minutes) - Lorne to Skenes Creek 46km (36 minutes) - Skenes Creek to Lavers Hill 46km (36 minutes) - Lavers Hill to Apollo Bay 49km (37 minutes) The plan is to meet up at 10am Saturday morning and depart soon after. The first stretch is from Melbourne to Lorne (130km). Our first stop will be for lunch at the seaside town of Lorne. We should arrive there at noon to chow down and rest for an hour. We will then depart Lorne heading toward Apollo Bay via the Great Ocean Road enjoying all the seaside road offers through long sweeping bends and occasional hairpins. Next stop will be at Skenes Creek where we plan to break for 10 minutes and wait for all those that may have got stuck behind English tourists driving rented camper vans or the slow Lamborghini Countache that frustrated the NDSOC convoy on their last cruise. The course will detour at Skenes Creek from the main road and ascend through the winding roads that take us to Lavers Hill. This 46km stretch of undulating road will take around 36 minutes driving at a leisurely pace. Leaders will stop for a 10 minute rest at Lavers Hill to then complete the cruise via a 49km run to Apollo Bay. All those planning to stay overnight should make their own arrangements to check into a hotel in Apollo Bay. We will send out some suggestions as to accommodation. Anyone wanting to drive out to the 12 apostles can do so. Saturday night we will meet up for dinner and drinks at a restaurant in town to talk of the days run. Sunday morning we can make our way back to Melbourne via GOR. Everybody attending the cruise is expected to drive safely, obey all road rules and extend every courtesy to all other road users. Please send me a Personal Message or an email with your e-mail address by Saturday July 28 if you are definitely coming along and we will send you all final details regarding meeting times, locations, maps and hotel accommodation options. For the members who can’t attend there will be photos and a video posted on the site after the cruise for you to enjoy. Cheers Sulio, sulio_m@hotmail.com

...and the questionairre we have prepared Gav?

Anthony, if you have any further probs I would be gald to drop in and pick then up if he's metro! cheers sulio (never hurts to have some spares carpets! nah just kiddin but yer give me a heads up if you need some help!) Cheers, SUlio

Are they now called Black Dragon? http://www.blackdragonauto.com/

Hi Matt, Just in case you have'nt seen these: seat straps http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240Z-260Z-280Z-510-Seat-Reinforcing-Strap-Kit_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ46093QQihZ019QQitemZ290134249644QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW new seat foam insert http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240Z-260Z-280Z-Seat-Foam-Insert-NEW_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ46093QQihZ019QQitemZ290134230136QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW Vynil seat uphoslrty kit http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240Z-260Z-280Z-Seat-Upholstery-Kit_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6755QQihZ019QQitemZ290134231833QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW or perhaps in leather!? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-240Z-260Z-280Z-LEATHER-Seat-Upholstery-Kit_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6755QQihZ019QQitemZ290134252788QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW Good Luck!

What a teaser hey!? Looks nice from what can be seen. I got this pic from a fella in Poland. He could'nt find the others showing the whoole car but is looking and will forward them when he does. I asked him to post all his "inspiration" Z pics here when he gets a chance.

Came across this artical on HybridZ. Skimmed through it and hope to read it thoroughly later tonight. Very helpful for intake manifold etc for an amature like me! http://www.grapeaperacing.com/GrapeApeRacing/tech/inductionsystems.pdf

ooh this is a good one!

http://www.efihardware.com/ looks like they sell some nice gear!

205 front with 225 rear work well for same rolling diameter front and back. Tyre wall height will be the same. I used this on my 15x7 superlights worked well. Pic below,

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1205.0.html http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1417.0.html

Hi Ben, Yer the R31 rear disc conversion is close to a bolt on from what I have heard. The only part that might be tricky is how to mount the handbrake. I've had it ready to install for some time however just no time to instal. A write up would be excellent, if you do so take comprehensive pics and send us some words via the site e-mail as we are putting together these sort of tech articals via the front page. Any way I posted some pics of the parts I pulled on this thread: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,200.60.html

Will, how did you get on the track? Is it open to the public?