Ever since the Z came out there have been modifying body kits for it as well as companies who simply pulled the old Z apart and replaced fenders, panels, interior etc with look-alikes of other cars. Remember the old Ferrari GTO 240-Z and Austin Healey 240-Z body kits? And the Scarab was just the reverse; they kept the body and replaced the driveline with a 300hp Chevy V8; the first professional company to do so.
This car has modified a 280Z in the same fashion, by cutting off the top and building a rear panel for it. I see it has a dash cap, custom gauges (which makes me skeptical about that mileage) and a more posh interior than the standard 280 had, but I'm not at all impressed by the "corvette" rear lamps, by the lack of a trunk, or by the ill-fitting convertible top. It looks as if you could put your hand btwn the top and the body along the back of it. And those pedals show a lot more than 30,000 miles of wear on them. Not sure why the guy doesn't spend $15 and put new pedal rubber on those, or for that matter buy two $15 door handle escutcheons and make the car look 'finished'. He also dodges customers' questions; the guy specifically asked if the "convertible top motors" worked and obviously there aren't any. This is manually raised/lowered Like the old Healey tops were, which means it has stopped raining by the time you pulled it out of the storage bay behind the seats and erected it.
And the engine needs some dressing up for that price. I like John Durand's V8 convertible much better than this and I'll bet he didn't spend that much building his.
BUT, this is still a Z and would be welcome at any of our events and for $10,000 it might be fun for awhile.
Frank
