My Z story.
It was 1992. I was in High School, a 16 year old 11th grader. I was driving what had been my first car - a 1978 Buick Century 4 door. My mom drove a 1979 El Camino. I was a regular reader of the big 3 car magazines, C&D, R&T and Motor Trend. All spoke highly of the new class of performance Japanese cars, but the one that really spoke to us was the 300ZX. I had never even seen one driving in my town. My mom said as much as she wanted one, she probably wouldn’t ever see one in real life either. A relatively poor town of 50,000 people, there were few people who drove nice cars, especially imports.
December 1993 - I was heading home one day when my eye caught something. A 300ZX sitting in the gravel lot behind the local Toyota dealership! I stopped in to inquire about it. I was told it was a trade-in and was being sent to auction soon, but was otherwise available to sell. I went home and told my mom that if she ever wanted to drive one, now’s the time. She agreed and we went to go have a look.
It turned out to be a 1991 Twin Turbo 5 speed in Platinum Mist. We took it for a test drive (just me and her on the snowy December roads) and after some price negotiation she took that car home that day, keeping her El Camino as a backup.
I had a lot of fun borrowing it occasionally for the next several years. I went on dates with it, and later went for long drives through the Black Hills with my girlfriend.
Eventually, i moved out, got married to the above-mentioned girlfriend, finished college, had kids, and moved across the country.
The Z got driven less and less by my mom, until it was only being driven once a year or so at most. It fell into a state of deferred maintenance.
This summer my 87-year-old mom finally decided that the Z (and the El Camino) belonged with me. So I flew to her, and got them loaded onto a semi.
The Z is under my care now, and after being sort of an honorary member, I have officially joined the ranks here. My Z has 67000 miles on it, a Stillen wing and fascia (installed in 2005), a Wolf stage 1 turbo/ECU upgrade, and is currently at the shop (go figure). The deferred maintenance bill is about $12k. I’ll be chipping that off bit by bit starting with the main seal, valve cover gaskets, timing service and probably upgrading to a Z1 clutch and lightweight flywheel.
As a kid, I knew how lucky I was to have this car in my life, and to have a mom who would share it with me. She let me drive it to school as a Senior. She let me go out cruising with it on the weekends.
We certainly weren’t rich, my parents were divorced, She worked as a phone rep and didn’t make much. We lived in a nice but older mobile home, and lived frugally. My mom was obsessively saving for retirement at the time and forewent every luxury with this one exception. That makes it even more amazing that she was so generous with it.
I turn 50 on Thursday, and it’s strange how my life has been profoundly affected by this hunk of metal. I have so many memories tied up with it. It has been the car I have judged all others by for 30 years now, and it’s finally home with me.