Owned 5 Zs in the past, now a 370Z owner- DFW

Funkdoobiest

No stranger to Zs, owned 5 in the past 20 years. My dad bought a 79 280ZX when I was 10 yrs old in the 80s. Passed it to me after graduation 20 yrs ago. Learned to work on cars because of that one, did everything to it. Sold it in '98 and went back looking for it 2 yrs later from current owner. The guy told me he sold it to wrecking yard 6 mo before because it had an electrical problem. I almost completely restored that car when I sold it. Broke my heart. Since then owned 88 Z, 90TT, 91TT, and 93 vert. Been a member on 300ZX club and tt.net for the past 16 yrs.

Just got my 2012 Z yesterday 750 miles away from Des Moines, Iowa. Sport Touring Nav red 6spd, 14k miles. The production statistics site showed only 2 were produced in this combo in 2012 for the U.S., don't know if this is accurate as the site says 09-11. It was the only fully loaded red Z for sale in the country within my budget of $30k. Got it from Carmax and although they would ship it to my local store for $450, it was gonna take 3 weeks! So I had to take the road trip, 11 hr drive each way with no sleep. Got the extended 100k warranty, I hope this car is more reliable and easier to work on than my PITA Z32s. I avoided 09s due to the lack of Bluetooth streaming, lack of a rear camera, nav difference, and the risk of oil consumption. I'm really glad I got the nav, it's a good one. Way better than my GF's Acura MDX nav with so much more ****. I don't know why so many people wouldn't want it.

In the 2nd day of ownership today the car got dark tint, GTR start button, and the full LED treatment. Swift springs were ordered last week and should be here this week.

karotZ

Congrats on the purchase! And welcome btw! Love red Zs, I should've gotten that color when I was in the market.

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VERTEX | SUIVAX | AMUSE | SSR | SPARCO | STILLEN | FAST INTENTIONS x HKS | HANKOOK | NARDI | NRG | EVO-R | ROBISPEC | SPC

Initial Z

Welcome, what part of DFW are you in?

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2011 Gun Metallic 370Z Base w/ Sports Package 6MT
Mods - [K&N Drop in's] [AAM Short tails] [Swift Springs] [H&R Spacers 15mmF 20mmR]

Funkdoobiest

N. Ft Worth by Keller. You? I wanna check out the short tails sometime.

MacCool

I just bought my 8th Z car, a 2014 Touring Sport in PW. Since the 350 Z came back, I had been looking at the occasional Z's on the dearler's showroom floor every time my wife would pick up a new Murano, finally got one 3 years ago, a 2011. I started eary with a '70 240Z, a 260Z, a couple of 280's, and a couple of 280ZX's, the most recent of which was a 280ZX Turbo. Then...kids and our first house happened, and Nissan kind of lost me when the Z concept morphed into a bloated luxo-cruiser with the 300s. Now...kids are gone, house is paid for. This being Minnesota, the Z is a 6-months-of-the-year vehicle (if that), and my daily driver has to be a 4wd truck for the snow/ice and the horse/boat/snowmobile/etc trailers that are a mandatory part of living in northern Minnesota. The 370 Z is a great sports car, every bit as much fun as I remember my 240 Z was 45 years ago. Congratulations.

My 2011 didn't have the Nav package, but I did get one for this 2014. It finishes off the dash nicely and the info display is nice, even though the Nav itself sucks pretty bad. Map coverage here in rural America is ridiculous....FAR better performance from a $3 navigation app on my iPhone. I'm hoping to be able to upgrade to Apple's CarPlay when Nissan implements it later this year. Running my iPhone and Nav apps on my current navigation screen would be great.



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Funkdoobiest

Always wanted a 280ZX Turbo. I put the swaztika turbo wheels on my 79 back in the day. Nissan lost me with the 350Z which I still don't like.

Yeah I don't like the actual nav of the 370, I still like my iPhone which I used on my way back from Iowa. Is the CarPlay going to be an update to our cars or just come in with brand new cars?

MacCool

I wish I knew. I'm hoping that there's some way to enable CarPlay on the current model Nav systems. Right now Nissan is all over me to upgrade the map software in my wife's Murano for $129. I'd pay that in a heartbeat to upgrade to CarPlay capability, but not to upgrade from one lame map coverage to another.

I loved that 280ZX Turbo. My 370 Z would outhandle it in every way, I'm pretty sure, but when you stepped on the gas on that thing, it would fly...



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Funkdoobiest

The only thing about the 280ZX I didn't like was the notorious rear suspension squat under acceleration. Looked for a turbo numerous times over the years and again, always instead found odd combos such as 2+2, auto, or both. Where the hell are the 5 spd 2 seaters??? I also had something rare in my 79 apparently. My speedo had the 130mph gauge as opposed to the very common 85mph which even the turbos had. I made mine look like an 82-83 with upgraded hood, wheels, tail lights, bumpers, and B-pillars. The front bumper eventually got the Motorsport Auto one along with their cat-back. I also put 1988 300ZX seats which was a really sweet mod cause they were like Recaros. I hooked up all the wires for them to work, they were adjustable in every damn way and hugged your body good! Changed the brown interior to black using salvaged black interior pieces and new too. The only thing I didn't complete was the paint although I did get the bodywork and primer done.

I always refer to that car when talking about how long it took American cars to finally get with the program. I know somebody might bring up some instances from the past that I'm not familiar with. But that 79 had electronic fuel injection, independent rear suspension, and 4 wheel disc brakes. Damn mustangs still had rear drums for many more years and camaros into the 90s had carbs and throttle body injection. Oh and let's not forget both had live rear axles into the next century!

6MT

Hi

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Andrew

2009 370Z Sport/Touring 6MT sold
2013 Honda Civic Si coupe D/D

MacCool

The 280ZX Turbo was only available with an automatic transmission, at least in the first year 1981. Their manual couldn't stand up to the torque. Rear end squat was common...I remember installing springs and sway bars on both of mine.

Interestingly, that turbo made it one of the fastest imports in the US back then. They added the turbo because the thing was becoming fatter and emission-laden to the point where the normally-aspirated 280ZX was slower than the 240Z. As fast as I remember it being, 0-60 was like 7.1 seconds. My 370Z supposedly does that in 4.5 seconds according to my Dynolicious app, 4.8 seconds according to Car & Driver, and 5 seconds according to Edmunds.

Funkdoobiest

Yeah I remember them saying the turbo was faster than the Vette at the time which wasn't what it used to be either. Later also finding out the ZX was the red headed stepchild in Zs cause it had blown up in size and weight due to luxury and comfort.

The 82-83 looked really good, vs the 81 with the mesh wheels and chrome. 82-83 cleaned up nicely with the covered bumpers, strakes in the b-pillars, tails, and those nice swastika wheels. I scored me a set back then and they were the sportier size, a whopping 15". I installed some KYBs to help with the rear end squat after the Z kept busting up the hydraulic shocks I had prior. They knew me at Western Auto cause I had a lifetime warranty on the shocks and I kept bringing in dripping shocks to get warrantied. Did it probably 5-6 times until they finally asked to put it up on the lift to see what the problem was. They didn't find anything but they saw I even replaced the springs. Got tired of replacing them so I went with KYB. It helped but I realized it was just a flaw in the design.

370zseth

Congrats, now lets see

Funkdoobiest

Tried posting pics via iPhone. Won't work for some reason.

P's_Z

Congratulations and welcome nice story btw