Faults:

Some minor rust under the badge on the boot lid, and some under one of the sills and one of the rear side windows.

Mechanically, the synchros have a short life if you like to play in speed events, but are fine for road use.

General Comments:

I was fortunate to find a car that had low mileage for the year, and had been recently repainted with a really good quality job, including rust proofing, when I bought it in 1993. Still got that paint job, still looking good. It has been garaged for all of its 20 years with me.

I used it as a daily driver for about 5 years. During this time I replaced the shocks and springs with more sporty items, and had the gearbox reco'ed - bearings and synchros. Despite frequent club circuit racing, the thing proved bulletproof.

The interior was in good nick when I got it, and had none of the usual splits in the dash from sun damage.

It has always been a joy to drive. Great handling and plenty of power, plus a genuine sports car feel about it.

Another thing is they are really easy to work on, having plenty of space under the bonnet if you enjoy doing your own maintenance.

This car has given me more motoring pleasure than any other I have owned, and I've owned 22 over the years. Partly because of the racing I guess, but the bang for your buck is unparalleled!

In 1999 I replaced the engine with an L28 (2.8L version of the original motor). The original was still running perfectly, but I wanted to go faster, and the bigger motor made sense as a basis for this. The new motor was mildly modified as a road/club car package, and the car has continued to give excellent high performance, reliable, fun motoring since.

Faults:

Engine head warped at 160,000km; probable cause was frequent high speeds in Australia's high summer temp's.

The anti-pollution gear was causing performance and tuning problems. It was disabled, problem solved.

General Comments:

I have a very high self-preservation instinct, and it is that reason why I bought the Z new from the importer in Auburn, Sydney, mid 1975. There was a 3 month wait at that time due to a high demand and low supply.

The Z was ideal for my daily road travel between cities, averaging 20% urban, and 80% country dual carriage-way. A section of which was 20km of new freeway where I drove the Z at speed (200-230kph).

The Z covered on average 1,000kms week, and working near the importer who had a dyno, the Z was tuned and major serviced there every 12,000km.

I fitted the highest performance tyres to the Z I could afford, for the regular high speed driving I did between the shift-work and overtime I often worked.

The Z has saved driver's lives because of the design of better handling and braking in emergency incidents. Though all those drivers are professionals.

Faults:

Recently, after I bought the car, the engine started to show huge signs of wear. After discovering that it was nearly impossible to tune the twin su’s to run together well, I then stuck in a dual throat carburettor off a Datsun 260c, which didn’t help very much.

I then worked out that it needed a complete rebuild, and that it would cost in excess of $6,000.00. I decided that it would be a better and a more reliable car if I put a different motor in, which was a Holden VP Commodore motor and gearbox. This has improved the power of the car dramatically.

The differential in the car was a bit funny, if you could call it that, so I have a rebuilt one ready to put in when this one gets over the hill.

General Comments:

The car is a really good car to drive and really fun. You can drive it like a real sports car, which takes a bit of work, or like a standard car with less work.

I have rebuilt the car so that it is rust free, after I removed all the rust and put a cover of body filler on the whole car to remove the rivets. I haven’t had a lot of rust for the 5 years that I have owned it.