How I (Carl Beck) got to 240z.

This was posted to the mailing list by Carl. I thought it was interesting enough to post here. It might be an inspiration for someone.

Hi George/Everyone:

My Dad owned a Shell Service Station in Ashland, Ohio. So I grew up

watching him fix cars;-)... One day when I was about 8 years old, a

man stopped for gas in a then new

Ferrari...a little red roadster (250 I think)... I had never seen

anything so beautiful.. and that is when I fell in love with

Sports/GTs.

First Story:

When I was a senior in High School (1963) our local Ford Dealer (Jack

Topping) owned a 1956 M/B 300SL Gullwing. He wanted to sell it and

was asking $4,500.00 - I had managed to save about $2,000.00 but at

18 years of age, I could find no one willing to finance a car.

Every year I went back to look at that Gullwing - as Jack had not

sold it... So a few years later, when I had $4,500.00..... the value

of the car had gone up.. and he was now asking $6,500.00. All

through College and into the service - I chased that car with my

savings, but never caught up with growth in the value of the car ;-(

Second Story:

Years later I was living in Columbus, Ohio going to college. I had a

55 T-Bird then and there was a used car lot on Hight Street - that

specialized in used Sports/GT's. They had a Cobra with the 260 cid

V8. That was around 67 or 68 as I recall. The price on it was

something like $6,500.00. I loved the car, but when you are in Ohio,

in the Winter - you really want something with a bit better top,

windows and heater... So a year later I bought a 911 instead.. and

kept the T-Bird as no one wanted to give any real money for it anyway.

After college it was off to the Air Force - and my first duty station

was in Spokane, Washington. In March of 1970 I saw my first Z Car -

and meet Paul Jaremko...Needless to say the combination o the two

(the Z and Paul) lead to my buying my first DATSUN. Wrote him a check

for something like $3950.00 with tax and tags - and sold my other

cars (as he couldn't take the T-Bird nor the Porsche on trade - and

give me anything reasonable for them).

Then in Dec. of 71 I sold the 70 Z and bought the 72 Z that I still

have. For those of you that don't know your "DATSUN" history ;-)

Paul Jaremko won DATSUN their First SCCA Championship in the USA.

Today - I sure wish I could afford that new M/Benz SL - what a

beauty! But $85K to $110K is just a bit overpriced for me;-)...

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