Mondo

I'd go back to stock, personally. The custom buttons and plinths really spoil it for me...

Happy Burpday, Ash! :thumbup:

FunkySi's the man for this request :)

For me personally, JAE was pretty weak last year. Partly due to our club stand but primarily because the whole event seemed really disjointed and, as ever, all the clubs seemed to keep pretty much to themselves. I've never been to Japfest but I imagine that the main attraction for that kind of event isn't all the static displays from various clubs, but is all the things such as drifting or track action. Competing with those sorts of things, a club stand is always going to come in as a poor runner-up. Take, for example, the Nissan Experience that I attended last year. You had a field chock full of beautiful cars, and people weren't hugely interested in them. Why not? Because there were passenger rides in bona fide drift cars on offer... and passenger laps on the track... and spectators could of course stand and watch all of this, rather than looking at cars in a field. It's simply one of those things. Draxan's thoughts and feelings regarding Japfest strike me as being a little odd considering his activity within this club has been incredibly small since he pranged his Zed however long ago! It's the equivalent of me turning up at a Celica Club meet and wondering why nobody's really bothered about me being there. Whilst nobody likes to attend any sort of show and be ignored, people in turn need to have activity here so other members at these shows have an idea who the hell they are! The above is, of course, just my personal opinion. I think it's a shame that there were no club banners on display, but I don't know the reason for that. I do think, however, that on overhaul of the REO and NEO positions is in order - here in the North East, for example, we have two REOs who I like to think I'm pretty good friends with: Bird and Harby300. One of them is hardly ever present on here nowadays and the other hasn't, to my knowledge, organised anything locally for absolutely ages! This isn't a dig at either of them, by the way - it's simply a statement of fact. I'd love to get to more shows and meets this year, but locally at least, there aren't any. Not unless I want to go and hang around the Metro Centre under a huge police presence due to the amount of idiots that attend these things! I thought Lexx did a superb job as NEO but the man's free time is limited by both work and family. I imagine the same goes for a lot of members on here. It's not a position I'd personally want to take on, but I feel that we need someone who will. Something like Japfest should be classed as a national event and, as such, needs an NEO to take the reins and ensure that things like club banners and the like are organised and present. The Z32 has a very small presence here in the UK and, as a club, we could all do a lot more to enhance it's profile. We simply need someone or someones to take that responsibility on board...

I wish I had your amount of disposable cash...!!

Congrats, Tom! :biggrin: :thumbup:

You like black then...? :lol:

Today, I went and parked in a field at Thorseby Park in Nottinghamshire: A classic and "modern classic" car show. I tagged along with the Celica Club and it's been a good day, most notably for not winning anything in the show ring (quelle suprise!) but then talking at length to a couple of guys who wanted to buy the Zed and even went so far as to say that she was their unofficial Car of the Show! I love hearing things like that! :biggrin:

Same size as my discs, those :thumbup1:

Sad times, James!! :( As has been said, at least you walked away though. That's truly the important thing. Chin up, buddy.... *man-hugs*

So Nissan got it right, while Toyota got it wrong then, yeah...? ;)

This is the Supra in question though: And this is what the interior now looks like:

I was genuinely too busy working to take any snaps of them together, Joel - I had a three-piece headling to trim, a pair of sunvisors, gear gaiter, armrest and handbrake handle! His seats and door handles were ready for when he arrived, of course. Ended up working through the night on Wednesday to get everything finished as the owner had driven up from London and was only staying around here for one night. :pinch:

For the last couple of days, I've had what was once a dream car parked on the drive: a Supra Aerotop TT6. :) I wanted one of these for the longest time, but the only market that got the manual box in an Aerotop was the USA, so it would've meant a manual conversion or buying one that'd already been converted. In my nearly 3 years of Z32 ownership though, I've found the Supra to be slipping down the list of dream cars and, now I've been able to compare the two back to back properly, I've found that (in my opinion, at least) the Supra is to be found wanting.... It's a very brash car. Where the Zed is sleek and fairly subtle, the Supra is incredibly obvious - it's all big curves and big lights! It's also a very big car, especially in comparison to my little 2-seater. Dare I say that it's also a little vulgar...? I think the Supras look very much like a car of their time now, where the Zed seems pretty timeless. I found myself looking past the Supra to look at mine, possibly because it's mine but more likely because it's just the prettier car! There are other niggles too: I've discovered that I really dislike the vents at the base of the rear arches, the rear bumper is too bulbous for my tastes (which makes the rear plate seem utterly lost) and the stock rear spoiler is not a pretty thing at all. Then I found myself imagining a Zed with the Strosek kit on (with the vents in the rear arches) and a mid-height spoiler and realised that there was a very real chance that the designers were trying to emulate a stock Supra's look! Not a fan, I'm afraid. Don't get me wrong; I wouldn't object to owning a Supra, especially in the Aerotop form, but I wouldn't even consider moving on from the Zed for one of them. I love my car's presence and I like the fact that it doesn't shout about itself. It just gets on with what it has to, whilst looking impossibly beautiful. That's my opinion, anyway. :thumbup1:

Is the owner of the garage a Mr L Dent....?

Yep, that's exactly what I did: The light spread is now really really good with no dark spots anywhere. These have been done for a good couple of years now and I've had no issues. :)

That is a nice looking 240! I'd almost be tempted to have that rather than my Shortie... almost....

Pictures required of the 240Z please! :)

My first Zed was an auto, but didn't stay that way for long. Whilst it was an automatic though, I didn't hate it - certainly around town, it was far easier (read lazier) than constantly stirring the cogs myself. All said and done though, I prefer a manual box. Maybe the more modern autos are more fun and more responsive but, for a 90s car, I'd be opting for manual all the time. :thumbup1:

I saw this. If I wasn't getting the whole thing built from scratch, I'd have been all over this! Looking at it though, I honestly can't tell if it's OEM or not... the bore of the tubing looks bigger than I'd have expected stock to be.... maybe it's just the photo.

Thought I recognised the username! Welcome aboard, buddy :)

There's some great history coming via this thread! :thumbup1:

I used to love Spender, but I confess to only remembering his Sapphire Cosworth.... :(

There have probably been a number of these threads over the years, but let's have another one anyway. :biggrin: My Zed was in use yesterday - topless, no less! - and she's currently parked outside the house. So I'm looking out of the window and finding myself asking "So what is it about her...?" Personally, there are a couple of reasons: I always loved the shape as a kid... they were just so sleek and almost space-aged. I remember being in the car with my parents and there being a Zed behind us and it was like being trailed by a shark! When an opportunity arose for the driver to overtake, I watched it go past (it was a nice day so the driver had the roof off) and I just thought "That's the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Fast forward to a few years ago and I'd grown used to the power of my old Beams Celica so decided to start looking for a different car. A Celica GT-Four was an option, but I quite fancied some open-top motoring again (after owning an MR2 for a while). Plus I could have two turbos instead of just one... ;) So I started looking at Supras. But an Aerotop TT was waaaaaay out of my budget and, to be honest, I wasn't convinced by the look with the roof off. Perhaps an MR2 Turbo then? Nah - I'd owned an MR2 before and, whilst it was fun, I wanted something different and that had a little bit of exclusivity. :) So a Zed then. Ideally a 2-seater TT, but again out of my price range at that point. So I arranged to buy Baz' old white LWB and I got very excited at the prospect! Sadly, the deal never happened and, if I'm honest, I was a lot more gutted than I ever let on. Long story short; I travelled to Norfolk and picked up a black LWB auto... and loved it. It was just as space-age as I remembered and riotous fun to drive! Fast forward another 18 months and those rear seats were starting to niggle at me a little, so the hunt began for a SWB. Which, obviously, I found. :) So today. I look at her out of the living room window and ask "Why this car?" Well, here's why: For starters, she's like my childhood fantasy given form. She looks like no other car around here... an ocean of bland, generic hatchbacks and suchlike... and there's my Zed, standing out! But, for all that obviousness (possibly a word I just made up!), she's subtle. There are no lairy wings or bumpers on display - wheels aside, she's pretty much as Nissan intended - but she just looks impossibly cool. Whilst driving around yesterday, heads were turning everywhere and quite a few thumbs-ups as well, and I could see a lot of people thinking "What is it??" I like that confusion :) In comparison to her stablemates of the day (Supras, GTOs, RX7s), I think she's nowhere near as brash or vulgar. Supras look big and powerful in comparison, but (in my opinion) a little dated now as well - the big headlights and circular taillights are very much a 90s styling choice. So again, subtlety. Which I like. There's a local "car club" I'm a member of and someone has recently joined with a silver Supra Aerotop and people are fawning all over him, saying things like "Nicest car in the club!" and suchlike. And it's a nice car... a very nice car... but it's incredibly obvious. There's another member, a friend of mine, with a Ferrari 355 so that pretty much automatically prevents a Supra from being the nicest car in the club, but that's by the by. :lol: Subtlety. I think that's what I love about my Zed. It doesn't hide it's light, but then doesn't shout it from the rooftops either, but can still play with much more modern machinery and surprise plenty of people. As I look out of the window this morning, I simply can't imagine a time when I don't own this car. To me, it's the perfect one: a SWB manual TT with the targa roof. It's almost like I'd been waiting for this very car since one drove past my parents all those years ago... :biggrin: So, your turns now. Why a Zed for you?

2016 is a brutal year... and it's only April!! :(