I am a new member here but not new to owning a Z-Car, my name is Karl W. and I live in Somers CT. I bought my first Z back in 1974 at the age of 21 with almost all of the hard earned money of my youth. I loved that 260Z more than I ever realized and for the next 6 years I pretty much drove it non-stop. It was a great car that gave me few problems for the entire time I owned it. In early 1980 I had it totally gone through and restored which included 2 new front quarters, struts, brakes, and anything else that needed attention. At that time I also had it completely repainted in its original color. Unfortunately on Memorial Day weekend in 1980 I totaled it by hitting a metal guardrail head on at around 50 MPH. I was driving home after meeting my fiancé’s collage friends at a get together up in the Marlborough Mass area. I wish I could say I was drunk or otherwise impaired but I wasn’t. Got married later that year and couldn’t afford to get another one as then it was time to buy a house and settle down. I always told myself that someday I would get another one when I could afford to and let it be at that. At the time it was wrecked it had 172,000 on the odometer and was 6 years old. When the insurance company totaled it they figured 6 years old, 72,000 miles worked for average use. Since it had just been gone through it worked for them appearance wise as well and they gave me around $150.00 less than I had paid for it back in 74’ when it was new as a total loss. I got $5480.00 after sales tax for it. For the past 2 years I have been searching for a replacement, finally around Christmas time I found one on e-bay that looked like a good car. Original owner, complete service record, had been Ziebart treated for rust and all looked good and it was already in CT. It does have some issues and needs some TLC (and a total paint restoration) but is as solid as I think I might find if I looked for 2 more years.
Driving it home after picking it up on 1/24 was the first time it had ever been driven in the winter. The owner told me it had only been out in the rain a few times in the 39 years he owned it. One thing for sure, after I had driven it down the road for the first 10 miles, it felt like I had never stopped driving my old one.
Anyway I am looking forward to meeting up with fellow Z owners and I know I will have many questions as I go forward and make this Z as good as I can afford to make it.
The 74 260
The 75 280
