80's Goodness: Z-Cars

Hi again everyone.

I am contemplating picking up an 80's era Z-car for fun and profit... Well, actually cheap autox, canyon carving, and track days. Here is what I am looking at, specifically:

81-83 280zx 84-89 300zx

There are a couple of non-negotiable conditions, however. All cars must be manual, and NO T-TOPs!!! I mean it! None! Zero! Since I have an (some say) irrational hatred of t-tops, that limits my crop of z-cars to choose from. Anyway, I am rather partial to the 280zx, as my mother had two of them, but I am thinking that the z31 would be a better car for my purposes. I am also thinking that finding a turbo in my price range without the dreaded t-tops will not be possible, so let's stick to n.a. for now.

Thoughts, comments, concerns? GO!

digital dashboard? so futuristic.

My father had one with the digidash.. it was fun for about half an hour.. then annoyed me to no end.

Having driven the 260, 280, and 300 (original) the 300zx had the much nicer interior and was a more finished car than the earlier Zs

Geekspeed wrote: All cars must be manual, and NO T-TOPs!!! I mean it! None! Zero! Since I have an (some say) irrational hatred of t-tops, that limits my crop of z-cars to choose from.

I am not a fan of the 300ZX at all. They aren't that great to drive and they aren't fun to work on.

I'd go with a 280. The first 300s don't have the power or handling of the later cars and don't have the styling or the iconic straight six of the early cars.

300ZX's are really pigs unless you modify them tremendously. They aren't bad cars, but were mostly a porky cruiser for middle age women. I should know, my Mom bought one back in the day to replace the 280ZX (which I ended up with). It floated and bobbed and didn't do anything particularly well.

The 280ZX on the other had was still mostly 240Z underneath. It was a slick top and with a set of koni's and stiffer springs, it came to life pretty well. On track it was faster than a 240 mostly due to a more raked windshield.

I still prefer a 240 due to lower weight, but the ZX is definitely better than the 300. Now the early '90's 300 is a different story entirely.

Oh, and the digital dash was an option, not all of them had it. There are plenty of analog ZX's out there, and you can swap them, I did.

Both are fairly unloved by the Z car guys so price should be lower than an S30. I'd go with the 280ZX just because of the 2.8 straight six and the wealth of easy upgrades (triple carbs to turbo swaps). Rust shouldn't be a problem where you are so the selection should be better than us rust belt people.

Try to find the money to buy a factory turbo car. You get the rack and pinion steering set up along with more power to start with.

If you were closer I'd offer to sell you all the suspension goodies that are on a 280ZX turbo that I'm parting out.

These are the two most unloved Z-cars, but I still have an irrational lust for a 280ZX. It was one of the hot cars of the moment when I came of age in the early 80s, and sooner or later I will have one, if nothing else, to get it out of my system. It may or may not get get an LT1 with a JagsThatRun kit, as well.....

The Z31 I'm largely indifferent to. It's a little bland and a PITA to work on, a friend of mine had an 87 turbo a few years back. Super nice and clean, but there is ZERO room under that hood.

Thanks for the replys gang. I am more parital to the 280 myself. I think they have more of a classic look than the z31. However, I have found that decent examples of the turbo cars fetch pretty good money, so the long term plan for one would be to get an n.a. and then drop in a 5.0.

I was checking out zparts and was surprised at how inexpensive a lot of the performance parts are for these things. First order of buisness would be to go with new urethane bushings throughout the suspension. That should help in the handling department tremendously.

I also thought that the 82-83 n.a. 280s came with rack and pinion steering?

Now that I have figured out what I want, what are some good (cheap) power mods for the L28? I don't want to go too crazy, as, like I said, I will eventually go 5.0, but that will be a couple years down the road.

Thanks for the help guys!

Does someone make a kit for the 5.0 like the JTR kit for the SBC? Or are you planning on doing it yourself?

JTR parts I'm talking about: http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Datsun-ZX_Order.html

The Z31 is a reliable, dirt cheap car that can be maintained for dirt cheap. Beware though, lots of people with no Z car knowledge like to talk unfounded E36 M3 about them. Nissan won many, many championships in many different forms of racing back in the day, and they pretty much put Paul Newman's racing career on the map.

We have one that loves to collect rallcross trophys, and has bested a few Porsche 911s and Lotuses at the autocrosses.

BTW, the best Z31 to get is the 1988-89 Turbo, they have the LSD, heavier springs and sway bars, etc..

I love my 280zx - even if other people don't. As said above, the S130 and Z31's are the most unloved Z-cars. In fact, good luck finding a 280zx-T - many of them are being used as engine donors and then scrapped.

My 280zx was NA, but I converted it to "T"... I still have the "high compression" NA block and am running a locked VR distributor with Megasquirt for fuel and ignition.

I'm working on a suspension upgrade myself at the moment - Tokico struts and lowering springs, poly bushings, etc. When you do the T/C rod bushings, use rubber - they tend to snap if you use poly there. Also - for the rear subframe - nobody makes bushings but the Z31 subframe bushings fit with minimal modifications.

Link to my pics - http://z.modeltrainguide.com

Aeromoto wrote: BTW, the best Z31 to get is the 1988-89 Turbo, they have the LSD, heavier springs and sway bars, etc..

Having driven both a Z31 Turbo and a MKIII Supra Turbo, there is no comparison between the two. The Supra is soooo much better and about the same money.

93EXCivic wrote:

Aeromoto wrote: BTW, the best Z31 to get is the 1988-89 Turbo, they have the LSD, heavier springs and sway bars, etc..

Having driven both a Z31 Turbo and a MKIII Supra Turbo, there is no comparison between the two. The Supra is soooo much better and about the same money.

You can buy a decent Z31 turbo for under $2k, and maintain it for a fraction of the Supra prices. Also, the Supra is about 500 lbs heavier.

Aeromoto wrote:

93EXCivic wrote:

Aeromoto wrote: BTW, the best Z31 to get is the 1988-89 Turbo, they have the LSD, heavier springs and sway bars, etc..

Having driven both a Z31 Turbo and a MKIII Supra Turbo, there is no comparison between the two. The Supra is soooo much better and about the same money.

You can buy a decent Z31 turbo for under $2k, and maintain it for a fraction of the Supra prices. Also, the Supra is about 500 lbs heavier.

You can buy a Supra Turbo for under $2k too. We ran a daily driver at the Challenge last year.

Here in Fl, you rarely see a Supra turbo, much less under $2k.

Had a '79 280zx, not very fast, but fun. Piece of crap only lasted to 315,000 miles when my wife t-boned a truck with it. Sniff. I still rag on her about that.

You can easily buy a Supra Turbo for <2K, because they are giant rolling crap-mobiles.

Ok, actually they can be somewhat nice, but for performance (stock or modified), I'll take the Z31 over the MKIII anyday. The Z is like 500lbs lighter minimum.

I've always thought someone could make a home-brew 300ZR using a VG30DE motor for very little money. Should be pretty quick too (makes slightly more power than the Z31 Turbo. I'd do it just for the fun of it.

Then I would take my now engineless slicktop Z32 and drop in an SR20 and shoot for 2750lbs.

OK, I'm done fantasizing.

I did not know that Z31s were that light.... now i really want one again.

My slicktop, low optioned Z31 weighed 2850 from the factory. Now gutted, I suspect it weighs somewhere in the 2350-2400 lb range. The lightest MkIII Supra is 3400lbs.

My Z has 236k miles on it. The engine smokes a bit due to worn valve guides (hence the "Mosquito Control" name), but it just keeps going and going and going, as it bounces off the rev limiter.

My main gripe with the Supra is that they are HUGE and HEAVY. I would just go with an F-Body if I wanted a car that big. I am not dissing them, mind you, they are just not my cup of tea.

I drove a friend's 89 300ZX na, and it wasn't bad. It had the t-tops (grrrrr), but other than that it was decent.

Aeromoto, I REALLY like yours. Do you have a build thread or something for it?

Look under the hood of any of them, you will see a hole that will swallow just about any engine you might want. I had a 240z with a stock 350 SBC. I could change the plugs without any problems. A 5.0 will look lost in there.

Yeah Supras are heavy but they carry their weight really well. I am sure they handle better then the Z31. If I remember right there was a Z31 Turbo at the Challenge this year and it finished behind the Supra.