The Six Million Dollar Z

Sorry, I couldn't resist the click-bait title. I had been thinking about this for a while and finally decided to write this down. Stay with me. I think you'll like this story.

I vividly remember the years I spent in the Southern California desert near Edwards AFB. The neighborhood kids would hang out and talk or play kick-the-can while enjoying the cool summer evenings. Most of the time we were hanging out near my friend Rick's house.

For several years, the neighbor across the street from Rick had a nice orange 260Z parked in the street. I don't ever recall seeing the owner driving it, but at least it wasn't rusting away given the dry climate. The owner kept to himself mostly. He stood out in my mind because of the eye patch he wore. Some of my friends said he lost his eye in an aircraft accident. Sometimes he would come outside to see what was going on around his house, but we were well behaved and never did anything to upset him. Still the car sat on the street. It looked so cool to me.

Eventually Rick's father bought the car. Rick was 15, and I suppose his father thought it would be nice for Rick to have the car to drive when he got his license. I moved way not long after that, so I never got to see Rick enjoy tearing up the roads in the 260Z. I did get a chance to catch up with him about six years later and asked about the car. Unfortunately, someone ran into the car, and it was totaled.

Chances are that you have seen the man who owned the car before Rick's dad, but you probably haven't seen his face. He was on TV nearly once a week for nearly every week from 1974-1978. Sadly, he passed away about 10 years ago.

Bruce Peterson
Test pilot
Z owner

Click on the YouTube link to find out a little more about him.
https://youtu.be/lAwde1LwZdIa

Nice story, thanks for sharing it with us.

A brief article on his story:

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/may/05/local/me-peterson5