What is the best part of taking your Z out for a spin?

[guy_geo]

The look, smiles and thumbs up I get from other people as since there is not a lot of Z left in Quebec.. all the other ones are rust buckets..

And young kids mistaking this car for an old Porsche....

[Montezuma]

For me it is being able to take my boy Larry Dog for a ride and coming home smelling like fumes....it is great.

[280~Master]

I would have to say the best part of my Z is-its in the 90's, I'm almost done with the AC restore, I have a 2" pipe that runs all the way back with no muffler a full tank of gas and a chevy next to me reving the engine like he's gonna win. So I hit the gas to about 3500 RPM's pop the clutch and start shifting gears like a hell dog. Listening to the tires spin the engine reving and away we go.

[Poindexter]

I tighten down the seat belts, making me feel like a fighter pilot strapping his ship on rather than simply climbing into a car. Everything falls right into my hand- except the radio controls...but I won't be using the radio this trip. The engine provides the only music I need to listen to. Even twisting the key feels different in this car, more technical, "clicky", and more serious, again like cockpit switching in an airplane. If she's already warm, I've never known another car to start as quickly. Broooom. A little blip of the throttle with the side of my foot as I snick the lever into first (I wish! ) More like a thunk as I start to accelerate. First goes by quickly, and as second gear reaches towards 3 grand the noises start coming, and if I'm on my "private course" I've already hit a corner, or level change, so the wheel is tugging back at me, telling me exactly what I need to know about the road under me. 5,000 and another shift into 3rd gear, and the engine is singing that sound that only straight pipes can give....a melody of mechanical gear, cam tappet and valve noises, tires squealing slightly through one of the 90-degree bends, off camber, then on, apexing every corner, sometimes starting the turn in the oncoming lane when I have clear visibility ahead.

It's great when stone walls appear along the left side of the road because the sweet, raspy exhaust notes bounce back at me, reinforcing the fantastic engine sounds. I rev so high that sometimes I worry about the engine, almost 40 years old now, how can something so intricate still hold together after all these years and miles, but it does, again and again as I run up and down the gears, tossing the car around like a dog with a favorite chew-toy, hoping that I've removed everything from the hatch area because if I haven't, it will certainly end up bouncing all around the car. Ratchet set cases hurt when they come flying into your side in a hard, right corner!

If I turn just right, I can make the tires squeal just a bit even at slow speeds, making it feel like I'm going 80 when I'm only at 35. And that's part of the magic of the Z car, the feedback comes into you from all angles, sight, sound, touch, the incredible burbling of the exhaust note as you engine break before a down-shift, and of course- the smell, just a hint through the open window (I can dream, can't I?) I love the feeling of the bolsters as you go through tight ess-turns, and the pull of the steering wheel as the car rolls slightly from side to side, adding a bit of power to make the tail come around a bit faster in the tighter turns. There are several steep dips, where the elevation changes a hundred feet or more, and you accelerate quickly, reminding you of a roller-coaster ride- which of course, it really is! Then back up again, only to turn into a blind hard corner, the sunlight dappling the road, going from warmth to cold and back again as you cut into and out of the sunlight and deep shadows. And all too soon the red light of the bridge ahead tells you that the ride is over, thank you for riding "Air Z", and why not turn around and do it again? Which of course means *another* trip will have to be made coming back!

Who needs a radio?