The official: "I had one of those once..." thread

[cygnusx1]

   Bump...a young woman in her 50's approached me at a gas station today and said....well you know.  She had a Z until she wrecked it in a head on collision a long, long, time ago.  She said she was thankful that the Z had that long nose.  She said it always had an electrical short and it took two people to start it, one inside, and one under the hood with a screwdriver.  

 

 

Edited October 13, 2010 by cygnusx1

[Kevin.pk]

As I'm walking in to the local dunkin donuts a middle aged man approaches as I get out of the car..... "I had one of those back in the 70's when I lived out in california. It had a split sunroof that we would take off and cruise down along the beach with it. I got so much pus sy in that car."

 

 

Edited October 13, 2010 by 280zcar

[Evan Purple240zt]

I had some clown tell me his stock 240z would do 160mph.

[datsun723]

As I'm walking in to the local dunkin donuts a middle aged man approaches as I get out of the car..... "I had one of those back in the 70's when I lived out in california. It had a split sunroof that we would take off and cruise down along the beach with it. I got so much pus sy in that car."

 

 

I've gotten similar remarks

[19762802+2]

When I lived in some apartments one of the guys that lived their told me how big they were when he was in highschool and how his friend had one in college and the would go cruising around.

[JMortensen]

My 80 year old next door neighbor at my last house told me that one of her friends got a 240Z when they first came out and she used to love taking it around town. Go to a Porsche Owner's Club event and about 1/3 of the people there will tell you that a Z was their first sports car.

[blue72]

I've had more than my fair share of these encounters. It seems like there's a certain age range where people either A: owned one B: had a friend or relative that owned one or C: always wanted one. I used to drive an airport shuttle and if the topic of conversation with my passengers ever turned to cars I'd of course mention my Z and plenty of people would light up and say "oh yeah! I had..." There was a lady in her late sixties once who told me stories about top speed runs down a desert highway. Another was an airline pilot who told me that he distinctly remembered looking out over the parking lot at a Pop Warner ball game and seeing "at least three of those little cars".

I did get a semi-unique one once though. I was pulled off the side of a somewhat busy road where I'd run out of fuel when an older gentleman slowed down, backed up to where I was and got out. "I almost thought you were my son! He's got one of these old cars too!" Apparently the guy's kid had a Z car that looked passingly enough like mine. He took off after chatting for a few minutes and I bummed some gas from a construction crew nearby.

[mxgsfmdpx]

I swear people used to drive so much faster then we do now...

 

I have had several people tell me about how much they miss their "old z" Probably about 10-15 people in the month that I've owned it.

 

2 guys from my work who used to have S30's told me about how they used to drive 140 MPH down the highways in them?!?!?!? Ridiculous.

[goodoldjam]

I had a gas station attendant swing his head into the car and he seen the speedo. That's when I got the dumbest question, "Does it go that fast?". Most of the time it's either someone who doesn't know what it is or It's a older guy who wants to talk about the old days. Unless it's someone who owns a Z, then we talk about our next big project or what needs fixed.

Edited October 13, 2010 by goodoldjam

[capt_furious]

I've heard plenty of tall tales about buried speedos and a '71 260ZX turbo stock from the factory. Seems as if people either have bad memories or time has warped them a bit. My stock answer that seems to make people happy and move on is 'Yeah, they're fun cars, aren't they?'

[mark]

I stopped at the local chevy dealership to buy a few parts. I was in the LT-1 Z. One of the service guys came out and said I used to own one just like that. I said not like this one. He said yeah like that one, mine had a V-8 also. It was funny. He knew the cars well and he knew the sound of a chevy V-8.

[BLOZ UP]

I just went to get doughnuts this morning. Some lady followed me from the last light in to the parking lot and parked next to me, saying: "my brother used to have one of those, looks like his, smells like his, and sounds like his."

 

"okay."

 

She was still in her car when I came back out with my doughnuts. I didn't stick around...

[mxgsfmdpx]

I've heard plenty of tall tales about buried speedos and a '71 260ZX turbo stock from the factory. Seems as if people either have bad memories or time has warped them a bit. My stock answer that seems to make people happy and move on is 'Yeah, they're fun cars, aren't they?'

 

lol. I've learned to just roll with a nice "stock" phrase as well. Something along the lines of "Yeah these cars are a lot of fun, okay ttyl!" haha.

[Gollum]

Gawd, the worst thing about driving a 280ZX is that inevitably, every time I drive through a ghetto area some people who seems to have just woken up from a drug induced coma honks their horn and upon me looking says "I love your car" or "my ----- had one of those" etc.

 

Now, when I drive my S30 around, I get looks from all sorts of other types. That's usually the fun stuff. I think my favorite was when a guy at a gas station was like "hey I had one of those when I was a kid" then upon looking inside said "are you gonna put the dash back on?"

 

But yea, SO many people talk about how "when they owned one" it would bury the speedo right out of the factory, completely stock!...

[cygnusx1]

I had a guy come up to me yesterday and say: "How much are those worth?  I have a 240Z like new on jack stands with 60k miles on it in one of my garages. I think its a 77 or 78 and has twin carbs, and I want to sell it."  I gave him the NYZCC club card and told him to post pics for me. 

[nops]

Long time lurker, but I just bought a '78 and drove four hours to get it home last weekend. On the way through a college town (Penn State), a middle-aged lady yelled "I used to have one just like that! She had one too!" as she pointed to her 80-ish year old mother. I thought it was funny to hear that, but also good to see interest in these cars.

[Daphur280]

Some vet who help give me a push the other day (accidental disconnect of the 12v ign-coil wire) said he owned 240z, drove it off the showroom floor...

[CruiZZZin 78]

I love the reactions I get from the Japanese crowd. They have the best reactions! Cracks my **** up.

[MoNkEyT88]

RB ZETTO!!

[AkumaNoZeta]

As soon as I got my 74' running I got pulled over every week for the first 4 weeks for careless/reckless driving (burnouts, 20-30MPH over the limit, etc) and I never got a single ticket. All the cops stopped me (one even followed me home and didn't turn his blue lights on until I got on my street) and just talked about how much they liked my car. Which is good because I had the Mustang before and was told if I got one more ticket I'll lose my license, lol.