Modified VZ car on eBay

[Mike B]

I have never seen a VZ program car this heavily modified (Rebello stroker motor installed after purchase, etc). http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-Z-Series-240Z-1972-1996-DATSUN-240Z-REBIRTH-MODEL-UNREAL_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6187QQihZ008QQitemZ180350628118QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

I wonder how that will affect the value. Carl and Chris, do either of you know anything about this car?

-Mike

[MikeW]

Carl and Chris, do either of you know anything about this car?

It appears to be one of those not yet accounted for:

HLS30-53543

http://www2.zhome.com:81/IZCC/ZRegisters/VintageZ.htm

Edited April 26, 2009 by MikeW
Added VIN

[Mike B]

Yeah, I noticed that too. It is also one of the VINs that Chris said he was trying to track down, so it appears to be legit. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=262292&postcount=9. I wonder if it was restored for the VZ program by CDM or one of the other restorers.

-Mike

[26th-Z]

This is indeed one of the missing cars from my list and I'll have to dig through my records to see if I can find anything more about it. CDM did very few restorations; two if I recall correctly. In all probability, this is a Pierre.

[lonetreesteve]

The black diamond vinyl on the rear strut towers in the pic looks terrible (see below).

And yes Mike, I would say that the mods definitely affect the car's value.

[Carl Beck]

Hi Mike:

Thanks for pointing this out. The VIN was listed in Pete's book and thus was on the VZ Register at ZHome.com Now we have a picture of it, and a little more information about it. We now have 29 of the 37 VZ's at least accounted for.

It is one of the VZ's that did not retain its original engine to begin with, so now the question is "did the owner retain the VZ engine installed, that would match the paperwork - if one wanted to return it to its VZ configuration.

As far as the market value goes - I'd have to say that the future value, once we are out of this recession, would have to be negatively effected... VZ Collectors want Vintage Z's not street mod'ed Z's.

In todays market who knows? At any rate I doubt he'll be getting many bids above $20K to $25K. The fact that it had to be put on E-Bay should tell us something, as most VZ's have changed hands privately over the past two or three years.

If the reserve isn't set too high - someone will get a very nice car for reasonable money.

FWIW.

Carl B.

[MikeW]

Not only is in on eBay but it's being sold be a dealer which indicates to me that the previous owner didn't know the best way of selling one of the VZ cars.

[lonetreesteve]

I've read through the archives on this site in years past about the Vintage Z program and I know that some of the cars weren't fully completed. By any chance was the subject car one of them? With all the modifications and the amateurish vinyl installation in the rear hatch area that I pointed out earlier, it makes you wonder.

[Mike B]

I've read through the archives on this site in years past about the Vintage Z program and I know that some of the cars weren't fully completed. By any chance was the subject car one of them? With all the modifications and the amateurish vinyl installation in the rear hatch area that I pointed out earlier, it makes you wonder.

I doubt that this was a car that was not completed. The ad shows a copy of the VZ window sticker for this car. If you zoom in on the picture you can see a price of $25,625. I don't think they would have sold it with a program window sticker, medallion, and VZ sticker, if it wasn't complete. The window sticker also shows it had an L24 engine. Its kind of hard to read, but it looks to me like it could be engine #56518. Based on the Zhome registry data, it looks like originally that VIN would have had an L24 with an engine number around 66500.

To me it just looks like someone with a lot of money that bought a VZ then upgraded it to what they wanted performance wise and eventually it was sold or traded to this dealer.

I have heard that some of the work on some of the VZ cars was not perfect, so the vinyl in the back doesn't really surprise me. Then again, it could have been done when they put the rear strut tower brace in too, if it got torn or the owner just wanted to put new pieces in.

-Mike

[Carl Beck]

The price on the window sticker also indicates that it was one of perhaps the first six or eight cars done. Nissan raised the MSRP pretty quickly after they started to accumulate the actual costs of remanufacture etc.

I'm pretty sure that the engine history on the Z Home VZ Register is accurate.

FWIW,

Carl B.

[Mike B]

Carl, the VZ window sticker must read 66510 for the engine number then (instead of the 56518 that I guessed above). Interesting that they would list the original engine number, instead of the replacement L24 number installed during the VZ program.

-Mike

[Carl Beck]

I've read through the archives on this site in years past about the Vintage Z program and I know that some of the cars weren't fully completed. By any chance was the subject car one of them?

Hi Steve:

Pete Evanow worked for Nissan and was assigned to add some management focus to the Vintage Z Program well after it got underway. I had been asking Nissan to document and release the VIN's on the VZ's for years after the program was ended. Pete was kind enough to provide me with a list of the cars VIN's, but would not allow publication until after his book was published. At least that way I could verify for potential buyers - that the cars they were looking at were indeed real VZ's.

Once the book was out - I put the list on the Z Car Home Page, on the Vintage Z Register - to discourage counterfeits, or mistaken representations etc.

When he was finalizing his book - Pete went to the Nissan Warehouse to get the VIN's for the cars that Nissan hadn't sold to the public, and in the dark, dirty environment - he wound up putting the VIN of one Z that was in very nice shape - but which wasn't actually a VZ on his list. So the hard copy book shows 38 VIN's when in fact it should have been 37. One of our members here owned that mistaken VZ car -

I tried to help the person that did most of the looking/buying of 240-Z's for the VZ Program. He sent me copies of the Quality Control Check Lists, the accounting done to track the free publicity the Program generated etc. All in all about 59 240-Z's were purchased by Nissan for the program {might have been 58, might have been 60 - some were just parts cars and their VIN's weren't accounted for}. Many were used for parts, many were crushed after being stripped and as we know 37 were completed.

Pierre sold 3 cars to Nissan for the Program, and Les sold one to Nissan for the Program. I know that Mr. Sages sons found the car they had put through the Program for their father..

According to Pete - only ONE Official VZ was actually completed after the official "shut down" came from H.Q. - and was sold as a VZ - that was one that Datsun Alley had 98% complete at shut-down. Pete said he sent the paperwork, the official dash plaque etc to Mark for the customer. That one is included in the 37 listed. Mark had as I recall about four or five body shells in various stages of competition which he sold off after the program shut down. We all saw one of the cars on E-Bay - that was bought by a father/son as a project..

FWIW,

Carl B.