Our Florida members Jim Frederick and Carl Beck recently took on a restoration project together. A friend's 1973 240Z had some issues and needed a total resto.

For those of you newbies who haven't met them yet, Jimbo owns "Z Mecca" and Carl authors "ZHome.com". They are the two foremost American authorities in early Z cars. Jim owns 22 very early (as in, double digit VIN number) 1969 and 1970 240Zs. Carl is the best Z historian known to English-speaking man, and owns or has owned many thrilling early Zs himself.

Together, they have more Z stories than a library could hold. They sent me this today:

http://becksystems.com/KellyW/KellyW.htm

AND ~

For those unexposed to Jimbo and Carl, here are some links of introduction:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN-Z6Zt8F1U

http://zhome.com/


Frank

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1970 240Z

OHHH BABBBYYY LOOK AT THAT GARAGE!!!!!!!

Yea... i saw that 2 years ago and i havent sleep since. Drooled buckets full dozens of time watching these videos.. He's the grandmaster of Z, the chosen one.

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240zgoldie.blogspot.com

Stunning...

Kids, please ignore that last comment in the video

I'm very interested in hearing the story behind how we got these Z gurus to join our awesome Z club.

Well, we're the best Z Club on the planet!

And, we found 1969 240Z #00013 (Lucky 13), which had been "lost" for more than 30 years. It was the first 240Z released from the factory for sale in the USA, back in October 1969. Z aficionados had been searching junkyards around the country for #13 for over 3 decades, wondering what had happened to it.

It was hiding here in a CT barn, and one day, at a Cruise In, this quiet couple walked up to our member Chris Colgan's 280Z and told him they were hiding 'the first Z'.

And the Z world exploded. More than 225 new members joined the CTZCC within the next few months, including Jimbo and Carl. They even flew up here from Florida to zee if the car was real.

You can read all about it here:

http://forums.ctzcc.com/viewtopic.php?t=4114?

I'm tellin' ya ~ we're the Chosen!

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1970 240Z

That's crazy!

Why Chris Colgan though???

By first Z do you mean first publicly released Z? Good ole CT holding her own!

Chris and I took our Zs to a hot rod cruise-in, just to zee if anyone would pay attention to them. The younger kids went nuts over them because they'd heard about the early Zs but never seen one up close. All the older hot rodders knew about the carz and each had a Z story of his own.

This older couple walked up to Chris and started talking about his 280Z. I guess the conversation went on for quite awhile, until Kathy poked Rick and said, "Tell him what you've got. Never mind ~ I'll tell him" and she told Chris they owned the first 240Z. Chris dragged Rick across the parking lot to my Z, where he whispered to me, "THIS GUY SAYS HE OWNS A REALLY OLD Z!".


And the race was on.

Yes ~ HLS30-00013 was the first 240Z ever released from the factory intended to be sold in the USA. It came over on the first boatload of 22 "1969" 240Zs.

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1970 240Z

hahhaah! that is great!


I tried to read some of the forum to see if Rick bought Lucky 13 after you and Chris found it, but 15 pages is a lot of skimming to do, so thanks for explaining!

Glad to find out that he kept it. Cheers to him (& Kathy of course!).

great story

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- Seth
Current:1972 240z 5.3L
Former 73 240z LT1 owner

Hi Felipe, Rick here.
Long story short, we have owned Lucky 13 since 8/31/76. She was our
3rd Z: #06289 was bought in Oct 70 and #00171 was bought on 8/24/73.
We still have all 3. All of our Datsuns have fascinating stories which I
have promised to share whenever asked to by the Club Officers.

All Z Best,................................Kathy & Rick

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All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

I'm fascinated Rick, really. Not sure how you were able to keep it a secret for so long. I wonder if the PO knew what he was selling...