This video was uploaded to YouTube in 2006, so yes, we know it's old. Make a snide "SLOW NEWS DAY? THIS IS OLD!" comment at your own risk. As for us, we saw it for the first time Tuesday night as a "related video" on the Turbine Porsche 928 clip. Chances are, this'll be a first viewing for a good number of you, too. You're in for a treat, because not only do you get the full 280ZX Turbine aural extravaganza, you get a nicely-edited video with desert road fly-bys and a sweet interior shot of the instrumentation while underway. We're starting to think that our lives are incomplete without a turbine car in the Autoblog permanent garage. We nominate Neff's Alero for a transplant. The video's embedded after the jump.
All you vintage Japanese automotive fans, we may have found your show. It's called "Top Sales" and is being broadcast in Japan by the government-funded NHK media giant. Apparently (we don't speak Japanese, so we are taking someone's word on this), the plot has to do with a young woman's journey through the male-dominated automotive sales industry at a fictional company called "Omiyake Motors." As success often happens so readily on television shows, she starts out on the car lot in sales and quickly works her way up to president of the company. We'll admit that doesn't sound overly exciting, but the show is set three decades ago - this means a lot of thinly-disguised 70's-era Toyotas, Nissans and Hondas zooming around. See if you can name some of the classics in the screen shots... Thanks for the tip, catgirlshyla!
With far more people wanting Ferraris than those who can actually afford one, replicas based on lesser donor cars are nothing new. Some are more convincing than others, and while we'd recommend a nice Corvette over a faux-rarri, once in a while there's an example that catches our attention, for better or worse.
If you're in love with the 250 GTO and don't have the millions it takes to buy one, this car might be the closest you can get. Follow the jump to find footage – nicely edited footage, actually – of a 250 GTO replica based on a Datsun 240Z that's set to the rather apt soundtrack of The Who's "Won't get Fooled Again", which you may recognize from CSI.
Awesome. Yeah, that's a good word to describe the Datsun 280ZX. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was busy in 1982 when he made this commercial for the Z car. Not only did he have time to organize the US Festival, he was shilling cars, too. Then there was that other thing he did, involving microprocessors, but that was in flux waiting on the flop of Steve Jobs' Lisa. That wasn't so awesome. The Datsun 280ZX, on the other hand, has gone on to earn vaunted status as a classic performance car from an era when it was still common to see Volaré wagons with the fake-wood vinyl applique everywhere you went.
YouTube strikes again, with these chestnuts from the past. Dig the Chyron text, total-cheese voiceover, and we'd totally forgotten about the "We Are Driven" tagline and text move. The other spot after the jump is the one we'd pick. Nevermind the achingly terrible pseudo-Shaft disco soundtrack and the risqué undertones that aren't very cleverly hinted at, that Z looks amazing in black and gold, kind of a spin on the "Bandit" Trans Ams without the screaming hood art.
If the title of this story has thrown you off a little, here's the lowdown:
A couple of guys in a modified Datsun S30Z/240Z running a 7MGTE lifted out of a Toyota Supra come across a black Ferrari F430 and decide to give it chase while filming the whole thing on camera. It's hard to say if the driver in the Ferrari was really pushing it but it was amazing to see the old Datto keep up. This is also the part where we say that racing like this on public roads is inconceivably stupid.
Vintage Skylines are just plain cool. But if you want to get a hold of an original GT-R, you'd be getting off light by just having to amputate a few extremities. The next best thing then is to build your own and that's exactly what one enterprising gearhead in Sammamish, WA did.
Based off a 1971 KGC10-series chassis, the owner began by swapping out the stock mill and replacing it with the venerable L28, 2.8-liter inline six, complete with a trio of Solex side draft carbs, a set of stainless steel headers and a Trust exhaust. 15x8 inch RS Watanabe wheels are fitted at all four corners and the front brakes have been swapped out with units pulled from an R32.
The owner admits that this particular clone isn't a concourse-ready ride, but aside from a few rust spots and some interior ailments, it's a suitable weekend car that easily proclaims your appreciation of the finer things from across the Pacific.
Unfortunately, the owner wasn't able to unload his creation when it went up for sale early last month. $15,000 doesn't seem like a bad deal for a 1971 Skyline GT-R – even if it is a clone – so we hope that it's found a loving home in the meantime.
We figured that we had a good thing going, so why mess with success? Following up yesterday's lightly modified '76 Z-car is reader JWeller710's 1977 280Z. This one, however, is different in that it is "99.9% original." Our man JW, you see, is the car's one and only owner, and from the looks of things, he's been a very good parent to the Datsun. Other than replacing normal wear-and-tear items, he's had the car repainted once, which accounts for the .01% self-imposed originality deduction.
It's white with tan seats, and the single-speaker (driver's side) factory radio still works fine. The passenger-side speaker was an option back then, for those of you who were wondering. The car is completely rust-free, and it's been driven 110,000 miles so far. JW has no plans whatsoever to change or modify anything on the car. He says that with it's classic lines and excellent inline six, there's nothing worth changing. He thinks it's just perfect, and we're inclined to agree with him. it's today's Reader Ride of the Day.
More pics, plus info on how to enter your own car after the jump.
A couple of years ago, Flickr user "devnulled" grew tired of the project he was working on, a race conversion of a 1994 Eagle Talon. Like many of us do, he was online browsing eBay Motors one day when he stumbled across a car that caught his eye: a blue '76 Datsun 280 Z. He wound up bidding on the car, which did not meet reserve and never wound up being sold. He stayed in touch with the owner, however, and eventually convinced him to sell the car to him.
The Talon project car was quickly parted out for funds, and "Devnulled" hopped a plane from his home state of Colorado to Sacramento, where the Z car lived, so he could bring it home. The seller, incidentally, was the second owner of the car, but it had not left the same family for over 23 years. It had 82,000 miles on the odometer and been maintained by a local Z mechanic. Apparently, said mechanic did a good job through the years, as the Z made the 800-mile trip across the desert and through the mountains back to Colorado without incident. In fact, "devnull" made enough money playing cards in Nevada to cover the tax on it. Perhaps the car brought him good luck.
Going forward, he plans to improve the car's performance without molesting its classic good looks. Good idea, we say. As it stands now, it's a very worthy Reader Ride of the Day.
Follow the jump for a list of current and planned modifications, as well as two more photographs and instructions on how to submit your own car for consideration.
Sometimes we look at the Flickr pool and our choice for RR of the day is blatantly obvious. This is one of those times. Flickr user "ZQPM1056" acquired this '72 Datsun 510 2-door four years ago and it's been a project car for him ever since. Sporting its original butterscotch brown paint, it channels Peter Brock with an aggressive, vintage BRE air dam, and features nifty bits like headlights from an E30 BMW M3. We'll assume that nighttime visibility is better now than at any other time in the car's 34-year lifespan.
Sixteen-inch Falken-shod Enkeis hide Wilwood brakes, and the car rides on a custom suspension featuring custom swaybars. The 510 also sports a limited-slip differential and is outfitted with very supportive Sparco racing seats inside, the need for which becomes obvious when you lift the hood. Nestled in the Datsun's engine bay is an immaculate Nissan SR20DET whose T28 turbo pushes 17 lbs. of boost. When you factor in the other mods, which include an AEM engine management system, new injectors, and aftermarket valve springs, and much more, according to the owner, you wind up with a vintage Datsun dishing out roughly 300 rear-wheel horsepower. That sounds like a lot of fun to us.
With his trusted dog Chino riding 'gun, ZQ rolls with the personal sense of satisfaction derived from knowing that he's done all the work himself since acquiring the car. A nice, clean and stock 510 would have likely gotten the call to be RR of the Day, but this car, with its fantastic turbo mill and tasteful appearance updatesPM1056, is a complete no-brainer.
Terriffic car, ZQ -- it is today's Reader Ride of the Day. Congratulations.
Follow the jump for more pics and instructions on how to submit your ride for RRotD consideration.
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