Joely P

Looks like a nice, tidy, late spec 2+2 twin turbo, nice purchase. Do you have any plans for the car going forward? *Other than putting the wheels on the correct sides as the lads have pointed out! They’re handed to aid brake cooling and the eagle eyed amongst us will pull you up on these fine details! [emoji1]

Happy days, welcome to the club. Let’s see some pics :)

I think you need to check your playback settings Ian!

I think it’s a good thing for the club to have an official import agent and would personally welcome such activity. However, I would assume this would come with a certain level of responsibility and liability from the trader in much the same way all of the bigger agents act. That’s where I feel it could’ve been slightly misleading as, in this case it’s gone horribly wrong, leaving the buyer to have to fork out several thousand pounds more than he signed up for to get what he thought he was paying for. As you have mentioned, you do usually practice this responsibility as you won’t advertise the official price until the car is in the UK and in a presentable condition, that’s good and we’ve seen some great cars. With this situation I’m not sure how it should be any different though, in fact it’s more important to react swiftly knowing that a customers money is invested and negative feedback is looming. Do you feel this is a fair statement: If you had imported this car with your own money, you would have 2 options; One option would be to sell the car at considerable loss knowing it would be hard to sell on for the OTR price it owes you. Or option two would be to pay for the defects to be rectified and then advertise the car for a price accordingly to minimise losses, break even or maybe more.

Do you have a Conzult?

No problem, if it’s just for yourself (+ up to 7 foot passengers) I can do you a mates rates return ticket on a Learjet 45 for £37,737 or if you want the car moving too, I’ll have to break out the Antonov @ £47,747.

The Stillen ARB kit uses a 21mm thick solid bar on the rear. This is significantly heavier than the 27mm hollow tube found in UK cars and has arguably the same performance. What you do benefit from is the adjustable position for the drop links so you can customise the leverage of the bar. Based on that I’d say yes, it’s certainly worth upgrading to the Stillen kit. You’ll need to upgrade the front anyway and I’m fairly sure that Stillen only supply these as a kit. The Stillen front bar is 28mm solid. Mike Feeney (MJP) is an authorised UK Stillen dealer so it would be worth asking him for the current best price.

That’s a fair point and the question remains unanswered, did Steven fully understand that the risk was all his on this occasion?

You picked the car out for Steve though? From an outside point of view, it comes across that because you had no money tied up in the car, you have relinquished all responsibility? Everything has been done the same as your normal method, except it was somebody else’s money. Maybe I’m missing something but wouldn’t the right thing to do, be to offer Steve his money back and take it on the chin as you normally would? Or offer an alternative that doesn’t just leave Steve hanging out to dry. As for doing this as a hobby and openly admitting profit margins involved, I think it would be wise to get yourself properly setup as a VAT registered business or Sole Trader etc based on what options are available to your circumstance. I personally didn’t realise you wasn’t an “official” business and that would worry me when buying and possibly slightly misleading when advertising as an official club importer, when actually its no real difference to a sold as seen purchase from any other member.

I’ve been quite vocal on this as I’ve had history with importers so it’s struck a nerve! I’m glad you decided to post a thread and put your side across. Can I just pull you up on this bit... May I ask why this car wasn’t treated and purchased with your normal tried and tested format? I’m just wondering what was different in this situation.

I think you guys are misinterpreting the £300 paint part. This was to paint the roof and bonnet to match the rest of the car as they were listed as a different colour. Edit: Oops, I should’ve refreshed the thread before posting!

I thought I’d share this creation from Matt Francis: Brew anyone?

I’ve already prewarned a couple of magazines that we will be having an anniversary meet and they were both very keen to run a feature. It would be nice to open it up to the other anniversary models too. 50 years of the 240Z 30 years of the 300ZX, 20 years of the 350Z and 10 years of the 370Z, a celebration like that is screaming for a line up of these cars!

This plan is kind of already in action! The AGM has been nicely located for the last few years in Coventry, the Southerners get a nice meet at Beaulieu, the Northerners are a bit more active in a more wide spread series of events so tend to dot around the shows and also seem to be more active for local meets/shows. As for a road trip stopping at various locations in a tour de Z, that was the idea of the Lake District weekend at the Fat Lamb and will hopefully be repeated next year. [emoji41]

Brilliant ideas there Gary and as I didn’t manage to make this event, a post with all this info would make a great read. It would probably also drum up interest for the following year too. It just takes a willing volunteer to take on the roles of photographer and putting the words together!

Thanks for sharing Ashley, I used the Bosch 13091 on mine, they’re a great replacement for stock with a considerable saving. The OEM sensors are also made by Bosch and the only difference I’ve noted is that the original sensor has a few more openings around the sensor. It’s possible this could just be the way they’re made these days, even the OEM parts may be supplied like these now. All the big companies stateside sell these for the 300 as a big cost saving alternative to the parts with a Nissan part number and I’ve not read any reports of adverse effects or negative feedback. Jimmer also uses these.

Z1 have always (generally) been great at replying to emails when enquiring or making an order, I agree. Get a problem with an order from Z1 and you’re in for a battle! It’s always been the case, I’ve had issues of my own with them and usually prioritise SZ or CZP before them (in that order) if the parts are available. The only reason I still use them at all is because Jimmer has used them up to the value of all the houses in my village and hasn’t had any major issues! Or because they have something really cool that no one else has and they have a fair few of those! The whole import shipping value saga has always been a gamble if the package is lost and is equally dangerous for Z1 and their local authorities export laws.

It’s accurate since I’ve owned it and I just want to keep it that way that’s all, I have my little service record book and all my invoices with recorded mileage etc so is nice keep it all in line. Also, I really don’t want to have to explain to my insurance company every year why my odometer mileage doesn’t match and could even be liable for fraud possibly... somehow.. I guess! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t use my car based on its mileage, I have no real interest on what it’s clocking up as long as I’m enjoying every single one of them! [emoji41]

Gutted I missed this, it looks like there was a great line up of cars in attendance and superb weather to match! Any feedback from the AGM for those that didn’t make it?

I wound mine back when I installed UK clocks. As Lee says it’s not difficult to do and I’d rather keep it accurate.

You’ll need to have it out for inspection so have a look once it’s out. If it was me I’d probably just replace it anyway to remove all doubt of further failures. I have read an article from Greg Dupree which suggests aftermarket larger core roads are simply unnecessary (even in that hot climate), so I’d probably just get a good quality pattern part from Mishimoto @ around £100.

Nice one Andy, great job for rescuing the car.

I must’ve missed that bit where you said that? Makes me wonder even more what the importer actually did during this process!

If minimising NVH is important to you, I would avoid any adjustable arms with solid joints (everything Powertrix or similar) as they will ruin it! As Andrew has pointed out, you can get the adjustment on the front with a 300degree camber kit and there is one company (SPC) making adjustable arms to adjust the rear that use rubber bushes. You can buy these arms from the US but as they haven’t been around for too long, there’s no real world reports on the durability of the rubber yet. I would definitely recommend the MeisterR coilovers but, if you want a street compliant suspension that’s nice and comfortable without being crashy, ask for the 6/4 spring weight combo as it makes the car so much nicer to drive. When you take it on the occasional track session, you can dial up the rebound to firm it up a bit. You’ll also need some decent anti-roll bars to counter the body roll but once they’re on [emoji41][emoji106]

Welcome back dude [emoji106]