I owned an orange 1972 240Z from 1978 to 1986. At the bottom of this blog post is a Road and Track comparison of a 240Z like I used to have (except for the slightly wider tires on the 240Z) to a new Nissan 370Z.
It is a fun video and reminds me of the good ole days - except I prefer my two Corvettes that I have today. I have looked at buying a 240Z over the years, but I have a hard time paying $13,000 for a car that went for $3,500 brand new. The 240Z and specifically the orange 240Z like I had, is considered an all time classic. The 240Z was rated the second best sports car of the 1970s between a Ferrari Daytona and a Lamborghini Countach - not too shabby!
Funny story on buying the 240Z. I sold my 1970 Firebird Formula 400 that I bought in 1976 that was loaded with every option known to god. It came stock with 363hp, had a Holley 4 barrel carb, Isky cam, Hedman headers, traction bars, air suspension on the rear, Hurst shifter, 8-track player, chrome wheels and was the perfect shade of blue. Great car except it got 7mpg and burned a quart of oil every 200 miles. That was my bad for not being honest with my father when he asked if I saw any smoke coming out of the exhaust and I saw some smoke but I wanted that damn car so much that I skirted the truth in terms of what I saw. That cost me a lot of money and a life long lesson on not letting your emotions get in front of a decision. It also took me 37 years before I told my father I saw some smoke coming out of the exhaust of that Formula 400.
As the caption states, on the right is my 1970 Firebird Formula 400 and to the left was Perry Thompson's 1967 Firebird convertible.
Below is a rear view of my Formula 400.
Back to the paint story. I sell the 1970 Formula and looking for a fun replacement. My friend had a 280Z that was an absolute blast to drive so I started looking for a 240Z. My father found one nearby and we looked at it and it was great, except it was orange and I did not like orange. I told the guy that. My father looked at the guy and said, "let me talk to my son privately please." He pulled me aside and said, "listen dumb a$$, you can paint a f*#king car, this guy has changed the oil and filter EVERY 2,000 miles and has paperwork on EVERYTHING. Buy the damn car and paint it if you end up hating the color." I then looked walked over to the guy and said, "will you take $2,100 in cash?" He said yes and I pulled out my wallet gave him 21 $100 bills. It was a GREAT car until the frame rails rusted all the way through. I sold that 240Z 8 years later for $1,100 when I listed it in the paper and said it was not drivable because of the rusted out frame rails. A guy bought who came with a trailer and ended racing it at Summit Point in West VA. He had a friend who was a welder, so fixing the frame rails was not the $1,000 per frame rail expense that I was looking at. Rust killed most of the Zs because of the distance between welds and back then the frames could not deal with all the salt they were putting on the roads.
Enjoy this video.
