Forgot how to drive a Z

[Victor Laury]

So I bought this 71 Datsun Truck 3 weeks ago and I've been driving it every day to sort it out. Yesterday I parked it in preparation to pull the engine/tranny to swap out the transmission and do a little engine compartment cleaning/painting.

So I started the Z....

WOW! the shift throw is so short! Oh My God! What brakes! I nearly threw myself out the windscreen!

If you forget the Z is a Sports car. Drive a non sports car with 4 wheel drums and steers like a truck for a couple of weeks, then go back to your Z!

[jszarecki]

i've got one for ya...

my band went on a national US tour, and of course we all shared teh duties of driving the tour van. 15 passenger with a trailer. this thing was really big compared to a Z.

so 3 weeks ago, before my electrical issues, i jumped into my Z, startee it up, and stepped on the gas, and drove off. i forgot how cool these things handled...it was like, okay, im 3" from the ground, i can see a hood in front of me, and damn, a rearview mirror!

i totally agree...

[Fun_in_my_z]

Itle all come back to you

[240ZX]

Itle all come back to you

Nice spelling Bill! Itle = It'll...as in it will!!! Creative though!

[zguitar71]

I just started on a 4 month stint with out my Z. It is parked in the garage until March (or later) when the roads are clear of snow. I park the Z when we get a bigenough snow to bring out the de-icer trucks. I parked it on the 4th. Now I will drive my `87 Toyota with 230,000 miles on the original clutch, crazy huh.

[ggarrard]

Zguitar71 - Ahhhh....the joys of living in the north country. Our's was put in storage the 20th of October, and we'll have to make do with the family Altima until probably April, but...at least we have something to look forward to... (all the crazy drivers who don't know how to drive in the snow...)

GGarrard

Osgoode, ON, Canada

[Fun_in_my_z]

What is snow?

[ggarrard]

Fun in My Z - The dictionary defines Snow as: Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent hexagonal ice crystals that fall in soft, white flakes.

In reality it is a white layer of ice crystals that covers pretty much everything for 4 to 5 months of the year in the Northern hemisphere usually above 43 deg latitude.... depths may vary.

The most important asset of snow is that it teaches drivers the car control that they've forgotten for the previous 6 months... (although some never learn...)

GGarrard

Osgoode, ON, Can

[Fun_in_my_z]

Oh and i thought it was white stuff...

[zguitar71]

I taught myself how to feel a car's handeling dynamics on a long curvy dirt road I used to live on. I had a `90 Saab 900 and some good tires and will to make the most of the situation. The car was my old autoxer. I learned alot in the off season driving that car. In the spring the road turned from snowy to mudddy that was even slipperier than the snow so the fun continued. Now I live in town but I still go to the back roads to drive on the snow (safer than the city streets). Now I use my 2wd Toyota truck. We have about 4 month of snowon the ground in Missoula on a good year at 47 deg north. But the Mountains have 6+ months of snow to about 7000 feet then the snow last about 9+ months above that. The tallest mountains around here have had snow since late September. Something else that goes on around here is ice racing.

[zguitar71]

What is snow?

I am originally from Memphis TN, I know what happens to the south when it snows, everything shuts down. I never drove when it snowed there. I have visited my parents in the winter when it snowed and I had my car with me with the studded tires on. I still did not go out, people do not know how to drive in the snow in the south cause it rarely happens + they all have summer tires on. I have driven my Z with summer tires in the snow and It is very scarry.