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I just PM'd him! He'll have to post a link to his article if he lets me put it up on ze web, thank's!

I've just finished summing up the Skyline , if there's no takers, I'll begin writing about the 240Z tomorrow? I should probably post it here for critical review, I guess?

I'm building a short list of the greatest Japanese cars ever, and having burned out somewhere past the RX8 and Toyota 2000GT, I came to my personal favourite (240Z), and I'm too tired to write it, or trawl Google for royalty free images! Has anyone written a decent article on the Z or got some photo's I could use? It's for a small irish site, belonging to yours truly, I will (of course) credit you with writing it with a link to this site or wherever you want it to go!

You've hit the nail on the head Gavin. Really what I'm looking for is an in-between rolling shell which doesn't need serious structural repairs. Any of the modifications I make, I intend to design it so they can be undone at a later date should the car become a classic icon and be worth millions etc I think I'll go hunting for a solid starter shell, bung it on a rotisserie to kill any rust that is there and to underproof it etc, then build it up weekend by weekend.

Anyone that does LPG conversion kits can sell you a 12v fuel/gas solenoid suitable for shutting off the flow of petrol to a car, strong enough even to work against a fuel pump that's been hotwired!

I know what's involved in a ground up rebuild, where you're redesigning the car completely as you go along, so I know the level of work involved... I was just wondering if there's a happy medium between killing yourself with the work involved, or just buying a relatively decent one to start out with. I can see myself going the complete rebuild route to be honest, but I've learned the lesson from the last one that you can't prep the underneath of a car on axle stands... rotisserie all the way baby

In Ireland, there was a guy with a restored Lotus Cortina who's garage was always being broken into where someone was trying to steal his car. His solution was to get a piece of wood, drive six 9" nails through it, leave it on the passenger seat pointy end up, and leave a hanky over it so he'd remember it was there, and leave the door unlocked. He went down to the garage the next day and the entire seat was covered in blood, which was all over the ground outside the car aswell. His car was never touched again. I know that might be a bit extreme for most of you... but... A kill switch is handy but it helps to have more than one deterrant. If anyone is seriously determined to take your car, they will, the secret is to deter the casual thief/joyrider with a bit of smart arse engineering. Removable steering wheels are a great idea, as are cut-off switches, but another great one is to make a blanking plate for the air-intake that is slammed shut with a hidden switch on a solenoid. The thief will hear the car ticking over but not firing, and presume it's an ignition problem, confusing the wires going to the intake trumpet with a traditional intake temp/mass flow meter sensor. As they sit there trying to get the car started, they get clammy and nervous as the minutes tick by trying to get it started, and yet no messing with the ignition seems to work ;D I say if you're really paranoid, go with all three. Cut the fuel, spark, and intake with a variety of methods and let them try to figure it out. And tell NO-ONE what you've done. We like to imagine people who rob our stuff as mystery strangers, but usually it's someone local.

I've been finishing off my last project car and I'm going to follow it up with a tuned 240Z of some sort. The thing is, I'm buying in from the U.K. (Ireland resident here) and I've yet to find a compromise of work vs. purchase price. I can buy a Zed for as low as €600 (~$800) or I can go as high as €15,000. Obviously the €15,000 examples are for pristine original cars with a perfect history, useless to me because I'll modify it, but for example the cars that are worth about €600.. the amount I'm going to have to spend on such a car to bring it up to standard would probably put it in the region of a reasonably restored and running Z. So, where's the middle ground? What kind of condition strikes a good balance between a financially destroying restoration build, and buying a car that's just not worth the asking price? With your Z, what route did you take? Did you buy a running, good cond. Z or did you buy a banger, strip to bare metal and start from scratch?

Is it really worth the time and hassle? Dented motors never drive the same, ever, and that one looks like the inner-wing is also badly curved. If the wheel also got slammed into the kerb on impact, you could be looking at bearing or driveshaft damage too. Pick up the cheapest old Honda Civic you can find and move on. Well.. maybe not a Civic but you get my drift

I watch the Oz adverts for Datsun 240/260 2+2 Z's carefully, because I'll eventually export one to the EU for my own usage. I envy the amount of Zs currently for sale in the U.S. for very, very little, but it's gotta be RHD to make sense.

Get her the latest 320i BMW E21 you can find. They make lots of noise, but they're not particularly fast, and are mechanically bullet proof. You can get parts for next to nothing compared to other BMW's because they're an unloved semi-classic. Fantastic car to drive and own, I was lucky enough to be given a free one.

Well, if your going to have a go at the Irish I demand the right to reply.. There's an Irish farmer digging potatoes in a field when up strolls an American tourist to watch what he's doing. As the farmer pulls a few potatoes out of the ground the American tourist exclaims 'Yikes those are small, in America we grow potatoes the size of pumpkins'.. to which the Irish farmer replies 'We just grow them big enough for our mouths'

350Z GTO, Any chance of some pictures of the car? Post them here or email them to : eamonn_obrien@hotmail.com

I was hoping that the 240Z wouldn't be much more complex than the 100A, where the 'blanks' for various components such as the steering column etc are already stamped in the right hand bulkhead if not cut out. The point of buying from the UK, I need to explain. At the moment, the $USD is almost aligned with the €EUR, but the British Pound Sterling almost twice the value of the €EUR, which means a £3k Sterling 240z in average condition is equal to a $6k USD minter. Generally, Californian 240z's are in better condition too. I also have a lot of contacts in the US, especially in Phoenix and Seattle, who I trust to inspect a car, hand over my money, and deal with shipping, value for money wise, the US makes a lot of sense. Either way, I'm pretty eager to own one. Possibly a stomping V8 Chevy Z considering they don't seem to appreciate or depreciate based on how close or far they are from originality, and track days are probably going to be the cars natural habitat because I'm 21. To insure a 1.3 Corolla here under my own name would be in the region of €6,000. What are your impressions of Z ownership overall?

I've been aearching the net and I can't seem to find any classified ads for Z's for sale, or even get an idea of what price they go for? Anyone over there got one to spare? I want a RHD to export to Ireland.

Irish member, posted here before, currently stuck on a drieshaft problem with my project car outside, and I've decided I definitely want a tuned 240Z next having downloaded a video of an awesome Chevy V8 engined beast from Kazaa. When we're talking about engines here, any chance of clarifying codes for an experienced petrolhead who knows nothing about Z's. What is the ultimate Z engine that will mate with the original gearbox without the need for installing a new box/axle combination? What sort of power can you expect? Another thing, is there any RHD Z's left? I have a friend in Phoenix, Arizona and I'm trying to persuade him to ship me one in a container.. he's not keen being so far in land and he says he's seen a few and they're all rust buckets

Perfect. I knew there were 2+2 versions of the Z, I just wasn't sure which ones. The reason I'm asking is this. In Ireland, if you own a car 25 years or older the you can insure it for 25 punts (about $32) a year. BUT, if it's a 2 seater sports car then this doesn't apply and it's judged by capacity. So a 240Z would cost about $600 to tax!! A man called Albrecht Goertz designed the Z, I read somewhere he had something to do with the E-Type, though i doubt it considering he's a German and he designed the BMW 507 (pick up a picture of the 507 and you'll see the similarity, and the beauty) It's pretty well understood that the Z borrows an awful lot in design terms from the E-Type and the 507, back then Japan just copied what Europe, making it more reliable and more practical if losing some of the spirit in the process, but it's not mentioned much how copied in concept the Z is afterwards. Ask someone about early Japanese sports cars and they'll rattle off some rubbish about the Honda S200 (great car), but really the Z did things nobody would ever believe. It was a latter day Supra, and trounced German, European and American rivals in terms of reliability, as most of you know from driving them. They're tough, their parts are relatively unstressed, the only problem being rust as it was with any Datsuns/Toyotas/Nissans of that era. Many cars coming after the Z followed it's formula to great effect. The Toyota Supra is basically a Z for the nineties. The best thing for us though, but maybe sadly for the Z, is that it was such a huge success that they sold 1000's upon 1000's of them, which makes the car less valuable than it ought to be compared with Alfa-Romeo, Merc sport coupes of the same era. If a 1972 original 240Z had a Merc badge and only 10,000 existed, they'd be worth a small fortune. Me, I want one very badly. I've been offered a few 260's and a gold 280 but really I'm searching for a decent 240. Due to the tax rule, if I could pick up a decent 2+2 260 I'd be very happy, but it's a long term plan at the moment. Sorry for putting you to ZZZZZZZ

Hi all, First of all, I'd like to say well done on the site. It's well laid out and there can never be enough Z sites. With the 350z on the way, it should be up and running smoothly for a new generation of Z owners. Why this thread? Well, I want to buy a Z. I'm tucked away in Ireland at the moment, and have been searching for different types for awhile, almost importing a blue 260z last year. But anyway, I have a few stupid questions about the car in general, if anyone could answer them for me: 1: In your opinion in terms of looks/speed/cred which Z is best among the 240/260/280? Were all the versions just 2 seaters or were there 2+2's aswell? 2: Perspex lens covers, I've seen them about quite a bit and I think they do lots for the car (E-Type jag look, infact the designer of the Z designed the E-Type too I think?) Are these covers hard to fit? Where can they be bought? 3: The cars achilles heel? What is it? Is it rust or are there other parts that need to be upgraded? Brakes for example? Is there a simple brake conversion where you can swop bigger brakes across from another similar car? 4: Engine options? What are they? 5: Cars in the UK or Eire? Where can I get one and which would you buy? Thanks in advance.

Basically what's going on is the image which your browser is looking for is housed within the php portal site in wajones account, which is password protected. Every time you/your browser tries to access a page it's trying to take an image out of a password protected account and the server is asking for the account and password before access is granted. By changing the actuall URL to a php string instead, it bypasses this problem.