This was a really fun night! It was absolutely great to get out of hibernation and mingle with the 'family' again. We got to meet some new faces and introduce some new officers and eat FAR too much piZZa and cake and listen to a really interesting presentation from someone who was actually boots-on-the-ground in the 1992 Datsun/Nissan "12/12" restoration plan.
For those who might not have been paying attention back then, Nissan bought up a whole bunch of privately-owned 20-year-old 240Z Datsuns beginning in 1992, paying owners about $10,000 each for them if they agreed to sell them (depending on condition). The idea was to factory rehab them into 'like new' First Generation 240Zs which would sell for about $26,000 each.
The program, as you might imagine, had a lot of snags and hurdles to overcome. Stories and rumors abound about this program, and there are speculations about why it was shut down, how many cars actually got rehabbed and released to the public, where they are today, and what happened to the cars which never got restored. Dicky was a service technician during that program, assigned to monitor the installation of air-conditioning in each of the rehabbed cars. Personally, I could have sat there and eaten piZZa and listened to him all night. I hope to get Dicky and Carl Beck hooked up via email so they can discuss this program. Dicky thinks he has some personal photos of the project, which he will look for and share with us if he finds any.
Thanks to the CTZCC Officers, especially Keith, for setting up such a successful and enjoyable first meeting of 2013. It was good to zee you all again, and to meet new members!!! I had fun, and Linda keeps looking younger each time we hold a meeting there.
Frank T
PS and we got to zee two new black 370Zs tonight, which we've never seen before!
