My appreciation of the Datsun 240Z started early - around 1976 my dad bought a 1972 Datsun 240Z; it was dark green with a light green stripe painted across the hood. It seemed that he was always tinkering with that car - not because something was broken but because he enjoyed working on the car. Dad taught himself to work on the car (he wasn't a mechanic by trade) - he'd think nothing of pulling the engine out of the car on a Friday night, work on it, and reinstall it by Sunday evening to drive Monday morning. The car was always dependable - he installed an oversized radiator in it but prettty much left the car stock. I think the only time it broke down on him was due to the water pump dying during a cross country trip - he replaced the pump in the parking lot and was back on the road shortly thereafter.

Dad did the vast majority of the work on the car himself except for the engine rebuild (car wasn't fast enough for him) and the paint job (repainted a midnight blue with no stripes this time).  He added a Pioneer cassette deck, Pioneer 6x9's in the rear and Pioneer tweeters on top of the dash. The car had Fenton mags - in fact, the car still does! Dad has lost count of the number of cars he's owned - that 240Z is the only car he has kept and vowed to never part with.

In 1987 I bought a 1974 260Z; the car was orange with wire rims (not true wire rims - they were chrome dish with removable wire baskets). That car consumed every spare dime that I owned.. vapor lock problems were severe! The previous owner had installed headers on the car, which proceeded to boil the gas in the original factory flat top carbs in no time flat. The car, overall, was in good shape.. however, I had to move to Las Vegas and I knew the car wasn't dependable enough to drive me there - the car was getting MAYBE six miles to a gallon of gas, so I traded it in for a Honda CRX.. which loved to overheat all of the time, but that is a different story <g>.

My hankering for another Z-car would wait for nearly 20 years...