Still my favorite car of the era, I think they look as good today as they did back then.
Photography Credit: David S. Wallens
We lived through the ’80s and ’90s and spent a lot of time with the era’s greatest hits–drove them, raced them, even knew them when they still had that new car smell. We fondly remember shopping for Kamei air dams, Hella lamps and 14-inch tires.
But were the cars of those times really that rad?
We wondered that ourselves, so we ditched the rose-colored glasses for a few to take a look back. Were they all winners, or did a few duds get released? Let’s slip on some Vans, break out the vinyl and take a trip back in time.
This week, we're looking back at the potent Nissan 300ZX.
“If you can race here, you can race anywhere.”
That was the tagline, at least as I remember it, for Road Atlanta’s old in-house driving school. This was back when the track still had the dip just before the bridge. The experience was akin to being shot out of a cannon, except you had to brake hard and hit your mark for that right-hander that took you down to the start/finish line.
I did my second racing school there in a non-turbo 300ZX–the car was likely new at the time–and found it to feel more or less like a plus-sized Miata: perfect balance, enough power and, even with the cage, a relatively airy cockpit.
I mismatched a downshift at the bottom of the esses and quickly found myself pointing the wrong way. “No,” I said, “we’re going this way and up that hill.” And the car immediately responded. No drama, no hesitation.
Know how they say you can never go home again? Well, they didn’t go back to a 300ZX.
A couple of years ago, I spent some time in a totally original 1996 Twin Turbo Commemorative Edition pulled from Nissan’s own collection–just 790 miles from new–and again fell in love. Here was a supercar, I thought, that you could still easily live with.
Verdict: Supra what?
Still my favorite car of the era, I think they look as good today as they did back then.
The transmission, FS5R30A, is absolutely fantastic in these.
Always loved them. But by the time I got of college (dec 2005) you had two choices.
Ratted out, high mileage headaches or pristine low mileage examples that were $$$$$$.
Also, IIRC, looking under the hood of a TT model was enough to cause a panic attack due to the lack of room and massive amount of vacuum hoses everywhere.
z31maniac said:Always loved them. But by the time I got of college (dec 2005) you had two choices.
Ratted out, high mileage headaches or pristine low mileage examples that were $$$$$$.
Also, IIRC, looking under the hood of a TT model was enough to cause a panic attack due to the lack of room and massive amount of vacuum hoses everywhere.
Same here, it falls into the same trap as the 3000 GT in my book, I'd love to own the TT version of both cars in my collection of misguided nostalgia but keeping them running and in good order is work I know I don't want to tackle.
Seems like an LS swap would solve all the vacuum line problems and get you all the power a breathed on TT VQ gets you. I remember all the work Mike Kojima put into a 300 at his days at Sport Compact Car magazine and it got him about 600hp.
Perhaps erroneously, I always thought of the Z32 as the Japanese Camaro... In much the same way that the NA Miata was the Japanese MGB.
In reply to dclafleur :
"Misguided nostalgia" pretty much sums up how I shop for cars.
buzzboy said:The transmission, FS5R30A, is absolutely fantastic in these.
I had forgotten how good the transmission is until I again drove one a few years back. Miata who?
If you ever had to look up the roof seals for the T-Tops on these, you would try to forget these also.
Been there, done that. No Nissan t-shirt to show for it.
Had a slicktop NA. It looked great, got many thumbs ups, neck breaks, and the attention of every cop in a 500 mile radius.
E36 M3 MPG for an NA, E36 M3 power, E36 M3 handling, E36 M3 engine bay.
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