Who here remembers the time when, the day you got your zed you felt you had everything you wanted in a car no need to modify it, no need to feel a body kit would improve its looks and no needs to start talking about a big bhp engine build.

 

A time when a Z32 300zx in standard stock form was all a guy wanted.

 

 

I remember it, for me it was 1995 I bought my first zed, it was just 4.5 years old with 43k miles and I thought I had died and gone to heaven, my Sierra Cosworth which I sold to buy the zed just faded my memory within moment of driving the zed.......

 

Just not the same now is it guys, need to get that custom paint and body kit fitted, order a raft of upgrades from the US and mod it mod it mod it !!

 

Shame on you new owner heathens !! lol

 

Jeff

 

 

 

 

 

It could be 1997 I bought my Z in Southend for 6k cash red 91 auto uk model!

Drove from Folkestone in a VW Passat GT with cash in hand!

Left the VW there & drove back in the Z & oh boy what a thrill:biggrin::biggrin:

Sold it 4 years later cannot remember why???

The passion brought me back to the the Z I have now for the past 4 years, love it!

Art

In October 2010 I bought my second and current Z. It was for sale in England so flew over with my son and the owner meet me and took me to his bright red SWB TT. It was how he described and after a quick test drive a deal was done. So drove it to Zedworld to collect a lightweight prop but got lost and Jeffs wife rescued me and brought me to his famous garage :) Then to Holyhead to get the ferry to Dublin then the drive home to Belfast. Eight years of blissful ownership and it always puts a smile on my face.

 

It must be raining in retirement land today, first he is moaning about learner drivers in a country he no longer lives in, second he’s moaning about current owners modifications to a car he no longer owns. What’s next Jeff, the state of refuse collection in Tamworth? :lol:

It must be raining in retirement land today, first he is moaning about learner drivers in a country he no longer lives in, second he’s moaning about current owners modifications to a car he no longer owns. What’s next Jeff, the state of refuse collection in Tamworth? :lol:

 

 

Having not lived in Tamworth I would not know that one ?? but for anyone who does and wants to make a complaint then see here>>

 

 

https://www.tamworth.gov.uk/report-missed-bin-collection

 

 

Jeff

Individualism. I like stock cars and am not a fan of bodykits, however I like cars to be different, I like cars to match personalities. I personally like cars to put a massive smile on my face and make my inner child go "WooooooW"! My cars are mostly stock, both have up and over rear spoilers because like the supra, I think it suits them. The red car has a different front bumper because it came with the car, but I don't hate it. At the end of the day we are all different and they are our cars so we can and will do whatever we like to do to them to make each of us go "WoooooW"!

I remember my first 300 day. I was 21 and found a very nice “89 metallic grey import. £5.5k would secure this beast so I had to get a loan to cover it. I had a second stage interview to join the police service the next day and I couldn’t wait to drive her the 80 miles to smash this interview out. UNFORTUNATLY after getting home that evening and whist taking a mate out to show him how cool my new car was the auto box developed a fault and wouldn’t get out of first. :w00t:

Thankfully the dealer took the car back on warranty and fixed it with a recon box and auto cooler which took weeks to get done.

 

As you can imagine I was not in the best frame of mind for the interview, I got rejected under the grounds of “lacking in diversity”. It all came good in the end though as I ended up having a thing for UK manuals and joined the fire service. :thumbup:

Edited June 7, 20187 yr by Chris300

I'm sure a lot of people had my experience. I bought an already modded car, that needed work immediately. I honestly really like standard cars. The red one in your opening post is a dream. But they are mega rare and I followed a (in my opinion) "better than new/stock" approach to my refurbishment of the car.

 

And In my opinion, a standard zed isn't sporty enough to satisfy my car dreams.

I've always loved the stock bodied Z32s. I find that Nissan got it spot-on, or almost spot-on visually straight out of the box. Mine's gone through a few minor changes over the years, but essentially it's still a fairly stock car to look at and I've gone to great lengths to maintain that, moreso in recent years. I love the OEM+ approach.

 

I've never been a fan of big spoilers and fibreglass bodykits. The Z has a very graceful simplistic design and putting on huge spoilers and all sorts of other things ruins it. Mechanically however there are loads of things you an do to improve it if you go for high quality well made products.

 

The Z32 is individual enough without the need to paint it lurid colours and graft half a boat to it.

Edited June 7, 20187 yr by Funkysi

Guys my thread was light hearted look at how the motoring scene has changed, in the nineties a zed was simply wow, on par with Porche and Bmw at the time,

 

as I said "remember a time when a Z32 300zx in standard stock form was all a guy wanted "

 

Its just a shame that the essentials of what the zed was then has been lost to a degree, most likely as its been eclipsed now by newer cars with more tech and arguably more progressive looks, that said I firmly believe there really is no need to try and compete with later cars, the 300zx is more than capable of holding its own, films such as "Fast and Furious " did a lot for bring the Jap car scene to the attention of the masses, but at the cost of changing the perception of the cars for ever.

 

My own first zed still is on the road today 20 + years after I owned it, I was shocked to learn it is now a frankenstein Fast and furious mash up.... and they call this progress :sad:

 

 

 

My old zed as it was in 1995 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My zed today :blink:>>>>>>>>>>>

 

 

It has turned into a Bat Car Jeff. :w00t:

The Z32 is quite difficult to pin point to a specific design era and it certainly doesn’t look like a 30year old car. The stock performance by today’s standards is pretty poor and a Ford Focus would give it a hard time on the street, a Focus RS would walk all over it! I’m not bothered by that fact but as the VG has so much potential to easily unlock reliable power that when items have required replacement, I chose to up the game and unlock that potential.

 

I absolutely frickin’ love the feeling of planting the throttle in 3rd gear and feeling those performance gains working away on my senses! As you say with times and technology moving on and the fantastic innovation amongst certain members/companies in the community, the potential of the 300zx has just evolved with these times and we’re just creating a 300zx that Nissan would’ve produced if it wasn’t for the 300bhp gentleman’s agreement!

 

 

My zed today :blink:>>>>>>>>>>>

 

 

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Hate to say it but I think this zed looks awesome, must feel good to still know it's running and being cared for though.

You would wonder how it passes an MOT with all the sharp edges on the front spoiler!

That looks absolutely hideous. What a mess of ugly shapes and nastiness. I'm glad things like that are becoming few and far between.

in the nineties a zed was simply wow, on par with Porche and Bmw at the time,/QUOTE]

 

 

But I think we’re taking an old mans view of it now? I mean to say that in the “90s did the “80s generation ask what we were doing to “their” cars. I know I Chaved up my fair share of XR3i’s ect... Yes the modding game has come a long way but I think it’s long since peeked and these kind of Max Powered, Fast and Furious cars are slowly being sent to scrap heaven.

in the nineties a zed was simply wow, on par with Porche and Bmw at the time,

 

 

But I think we’re taking an old mans view of it now? I mean to say that in the “90s did the “80s generation ask what we were doing to “their” cars. I know I Chaved up my fair share of XR3i’s ect... Yes the modding game has come a long way but I think it’s long since peeked and these kind of Max Powered, Fast and Furious cars are slowly being sent to scrap heaven.

 

Also if you take the 370z IMO it’s still on par with the low end Porsche and fast BMWs which, as you say Jeff, is what the 300zx was aimed at. :thumbup::thumbup1:

A stock ford Focus would give a Stock TT a hard time ?? not sure I agree with that, 286 BHP vs 120 BHP???. These cars are quick today even when compared to modern Vehicles.

A stock ford Focus would give a Stock TT a hard time ?? not sure I agree with that, 286 BHP vs 120 BHP???. These cars are quick today even when compared to modern Vehicles.

 

I had a new Focus ST (Diesel) prior to my zed and have to say the ST performance doesn't stand up to my pretty much stock TT at all.

Nice thread Jeff. I loved my original one even though it was a complete Lemon. But it was completely original, even the wheels.

 

My black one was tons better and I was quite keen on it's looks as it was fairly standard looking.

 

The blue one is a thing of FunkySi's nightmares. I like it just because of that :tt2:

A stock Z32 is a smart looking car but in bone stock form they are very 90s, obviously. The 90s was an ear of technological leaps but the style was a bit bland. Maybe the errors of the 80s put things in reverse, the 60/70s productions were beautiful machines. The Z32 was a real stand out car when I was a kid, many on here won’t agree but they don’t really stand out these days, sure you can tell it’s not a Eurobox but they aren’t aggressive looking, they have no where near the drama of modern cars.

 

Go take a look at your local Audi dealer as the RS models, covered in spats, splitters etc and that motorsport look that the OEM designers know sells new cars is what “the kids” are emulating (to varying degrees of success) in the modified cars. Compare a base model Golf to the R line, you’ll want the R line. Some of them are actually engaging in grassroots motorsport like drifting, autosolo etc. The old days of having fun on the roads and car parks in a car like what happened in days gone by are gone as are those horrible mobile boom boxes rolled in glitter from the early 2000s. Unfortunately the Z32 has remained a bit of a bling magnet, it’s just the owners have got older. It’s often viewed as a bit of fat old boat owned by medallion wearing duffers who care more about chrome that the tyres on the damn thing.

The Z left alone will always stand the test of time, I had a 9 year old kid at my sons school come to my son and say "wow is that a fairlady", the only place they have sen these cars is on computer games, but they recognise it as something special, none of them really give a second look to all the top end Mercs and BMW's knocking around the school as they see them every day. When some kids see a Z they recognise them and know its something special. The next generation will be different from this younger one and the classic Z look will continue its appeal. I cant see the day when it will fail to draw atention as they continue to become more and more scarce (especially without body mods).

A Z will get more positive attention than most cars on the reoads still.