While driving the 240 last night on a beautiful cloudless night I thought to myself.............

I love the fact that My 240Z:

Has that certain "Datsun" smell

Has a 160 mph gauge

Gets a little warm at red lights but then cools down when driving

Clunks in reverse

Clunks othertimes

Has Vinyl interior

Has a diamond pattern

Has an exhaust smell on occassion

Drips a little oil

Has SU's

Goes 0-60 in what, 8-9 seconds

Clock doesn't work, but always reads the time at 2:40

Has a crappy radio that looks great

Has crappy speakers that don't sound great

That my left arm is raised when resting on the door with the window down

Has only one side mirror

Has all those beautiful round gauges

Has the most beautiful body a car could have

That it says "Datsun" on the side's and front

That it says 240z on the back

Has a 4spd

Has original wheel covers

and of course many many more, but you get the idea.

Last night in the Z I couldn't help but start thinking about all the things listed above and how much I really love this old car.

Perhaps you choose the wrong occupation and should instead be working for Hallmark!

Good stuff. Or how about the song I composed the other day when looking at the restoration pictures of another member's car.

As yet untitled

(Sung to the classic tune of Dead skunk in the middle of the road)

(chorus)

You got your dead Z on the side of the road,

dead Z on the side of the road,

oh your dead Z on the side of the road,

and it's rustin' away to nuthin.

(end chorus)

Ohh, you got your dead Ford

and you got your dead Dodge,

your bent Veedub Rabbit

and your trash gas hog,

but your dead Z on the side of the road,

it's rustin' away to nuthin.

(repeat chorus)

...by Jack Handy (Handey)

As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a

bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way.

was what I was expecting. Your list is equally nice.

It's true, though. Older cars have a certain feel, smell, mystique that newer cars don't (yet) have. You either love it or hate it (sometimes both simultaneously).

Mr. Handy would be proud!

Will

HAAHAHAHA,

I got same feeling yesterday to Mally002 !

I was getting in Ruby for the first time in days after cleang her

completly out at the storage unit few days ago.

Sticking my head into the door I was greeted by "MY New Car Smell".

The old car smell of Vinyl and Carpet I hadn't sensed in months since

loading the hatch with all those parts and cans of STP, PB Blaster and

Gasket Sealent when I was working on her.

I was static to see it returned

OHHH I luv that smell ^^ Hmmmmm.

~Z~

I like my Z because every time I step out of it, I can't stop smiling.

I also enjoy that small moment of worry when, after going through a speed trap on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I find myself wondering if the rangers are going to stop me -- not for going too fast, but because my exhaust is too loud!

Very nice Mally...I might have added: that certain sound in 2nd gear when you hit the powerband and she just growls away...

Very fitting! Not a day goes by that I don't look forward to driving the Z!

I think each of you has hit the proverbial nail squarely on the head!

The Zs smell, feel, sound and look particularly unique. I know that's a double something-or-other, but it's true, is it not. Our own testimony gives proof to the truth that when our cars are even thought of in a fleeting moment of whimsey, they come alive. They whisper to us varying messages of times past, urging us to levels of Mitty-dom we rarely achieve in real life.

Mechanical objects should not have personalities, but they often do. They are earned personalities, to be sure, but they're there. Whether by performance or durability, economy of operation or the sheer joy of being at the limits, these Z cars give us the sense of having flown....to touch the face of God.

Ok, I went overboard a bit. But what the heck.

Frank

Too funny Arne! :classic:

This has happened to me twice now, and I think it's great:

Pull the car into a shop and pop the hood. Mechanics look at the engine, and in disbelief state

"Now that's an engine!"