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240Z Around Europe (Le Mans Classic & Beyond!)..
- Thread starter Aceman
- Start date
Aceman
Well-Known Forum User
Aceman
Well-Known Forum User
I've hundreds more pics, but shall stop now.
So to conclude, in the words of Nike, just do it. Fantastic run.
Le Mans Classic was well organised and ran smoothly (well done to Sean on that one!) but the camping facilities did leave much to be admired. 8 showers for the whole field (split into 2 blocks) which were out of hot water come 8:30am, and 2 toilet blocks which were permanently queued and, well, not well looked after. There were staff cleaning up, but some of the excuses of so called civilised users, left much to be admired..
Here's the route anyhow:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...9O57SDEnDSUntXK43Q&oq=Oakworth&t=h&mra=ls&z=6
Now to give the car a tender looking after in prep for making Zed Fest in her!
So to conclude, in the words of Nike, just do it. Fantastic run.
Le Mans Classic was well organised and ran smoothly (well done to Sean on that one!) but the camping facilities did leave much to be admired. 8 showers for the whole field (split into 2 blocks) which were out of hot water come 8:30am, and 2 toilet blocks which were permanently queued and, well, not well looked after. There were staff cleaning up, but some of the excuses of so called civilised users, left much to be admired..
Here's the route anyhow:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...9O57SDEnDSUntXK43Q&oq=Oakworth&t=h&mra=ls&z=6
Now to give the car a tender looking after in prep for making Zed Fest in her!
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
Fantastic Robert....and if any of you DO want photos of his wife, I have a reasonably full set soon to be going up on ebay.
I never fanced the neighbours dog anyway!
I LOVE the sunset photo on the beach road - superd - do tell me that you got plenty of looks in the Z whilst in Monaco ?
LMClassic 2014 will be in a local pro. campsite in the village of Spay - I felt the same way as you and also it's too expensive !
Flares are in then................?
I never fanced the neighbours dog anyway!
I LOVE the sunset photo on the beach road - superd - do tell me that you got plenty of looks in the Z whilst in Monaco ?
LMClassic 2014 will be in a local pro. campsite in the village of Spay - I felt the same way as you and also it's too expensive !
Flares are in then................?
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The pics look fantastic. I definitely need to drive the car in my country more than I do 
If you do not remember me, I was the latest Frenchy to leave the camp site with my red Z on Sunday. It was really nice to meet you and the rest of the UK crew.
People from UK are definitely crazier than French people when it comes to cars, it's great to experience also the culture differences
If you do not remember me, I was the latest Frenchy to leave the camp site with my red Z on Sunday. It was really nice to meet you and the rest of the UK crew.
People from UK are definitely crazier than French people when it comes to cars, it's great to experience also the culture differences
A fantastic write up of what appears to have been a wonderful trip, thanks for that I really enjoyed it. 
You and your wife will remember the trip forever and these cars are pretty reliable aren't they? I have so many great memories of trips in my 'old' 240Z, that's what ownership of 'classics' is all about.
Blocked fuel filter is to be expected, but I'd like to know what went wrong with the dizzy.
Thanks again for sharing the trip with us!
You and your wife will remember the trip forever and these cars are pretty reliable aren't they? I have so many great memories of trips in my 'old' 240Z, that's what ownership of 'classics' is all about.
Blocked fuel filter is to be expected, but I'd like to know what went wrong with the dizzy.
Thanks again for sharing the trip with us!
andrew muir
Club Member
Nice trip
Many thanks for sharing it with us.
If you plan visiting the Alps again head further east, cheaper and nicer scenery, the South Tirol and Corinthia in Southern Austria/Italy (Dolomites) are my favourites. Might be biased being half Austrian
Spent 15 years "pass bashing on fast motorbikes", you need great brakes and engine cooling!!!!
Many thanks for sharing it with us.
If you plan visiting the Alps again head further east, cheaper and nicer scenery, the South Tirol and Corinthia in Southern Austria/Italy (Dolomites) are my favourites. Might be biased being half Austrian
Spent 15 years "pass bashing on fast motorbikes", you need great brakes and engine cooling!!!!
M
madmarco
Great photos and a great story Rob!
Aceman
Well-Known Forum User
Yep - undriven for many years, quick service, and then 3100 miles with only simple faults. I'm smitten with Japanese reliability!
Sell them. You'll make next to no money I promise!!
Shame about the dog though - they've a yappy Chiwawa which needs certainly at least a kick up the **** to attempt to shut it up!
Monaco was wonderful. Most people thought the car was a ferrari (it's debadged so no Datsun anywhere!) and random people were photographing it. At one point, in a queue, someone asked the ferrari infront of us to move out the way so they could see/photo our car, and then they ignored the bentley behind! I guess the supercars are a common sight out there!
LMC 2014 I was gonna reply to you on - I like the look of the cabins.. Would they be available?
And yes, flares never went out of fashion. You should try wearing them out in public more often!
The pics look fantastic. I definitely need to drive the car in my country more than I do
If you do not remember me, I was the latest Frenchy to leave the camp site with my red Z on Sunday. It was really nice to meet you and the rest of the UK crew.
People from UK are definitely crazier than French people when it comes to cars, it's great to experience also the culture differences
Yes - I remember you! Your Z had the electric fuel pump upgrade yes? Was nice to meet you (made easier by your excellent English meaning communicating was easier as my French is shocking!!) and have a chat come the end. Just a shame everyone left on the Sunday for work on Monday leaving us numpties to hang around and giggle at the guys who took our dumped BBQ and knackered chairs!!
A fantastic write up of what appears to have been a wonderful trip, thanks for that I really enjoyed it.
You and your wife will remember the trip forever and these cars are pretty reliable aren't they? I have so many great memories of trips in my 'old' 240Z, that's what ownership of 'classics' is all about.
Blocked fuel filter is to be expected, but I'd like to know what went wrong with the dizzy.
Thanks again for sharing the trip with us!
I've stripped the dizzy down, and simply the points are screwed. There's like a little material in the "hammer" part, and that had split and half had fallen away, meaning next to no contact could be made. I guess then not enough electricity, leading to not enough spark caused the failing. At the time, I just swapped the dizzy - wasn't in a position to spend time working out what had gone wrong!!
Nice trip
Many thanks for sharing it with us.
If you plan visiting the Alps again head further east, cheaper and nicer scenery, the South Tirol and Corinthia in Southern Austria/Italy (Dolomites) are my favourites. Might be biased being half Austrian
Spent 15 years "pass bashing on fast motorbikes", you need great brakes and engine cooling!!!!
We've done North East Italy before, and agree a lot of the roads are fantastic. Shame we did it in a Rover back then, so may have to think about going again... It's not like a need much of an excuse to drive the car if I'm honest!! Definitely wanting some new suspension before I go on any long drive though - it's all ok, but due to the setup without all the gubbings in the boot the suspension setup is all wrong (too short springs etc) and yet with all the gubbings in the boot the handling isn't so great. Once done though, we'll be off somewhere again in the new year (need to reset my work holidays!!)
Cheers marco! Next time it may be in some yank tank too, so will have to try to persuade you along in the Mustang to keep the Corvette happy!
So basically you set off around Europe and had a bit of muck in the fuel filter and dodgy points! I think that's a fantastic advert for you and the car.
My experiences have been the same - these are amazing cars, thank goodness they rusted otherwise there would be lots around!
Yep, we've seen folks search through the camp-site leftovers too!
It's very smug to have a car that looks like a Ferrari but costs Datsun prices
My experiences have been the same - these are amazing cars, thank goodness they rusted otherwise there would be lots around!
Yep, we've seen folks search through the camp-site leftovers too!
It's very smug to have a car that looks like a Ferrari but costs Datsun prices
Alphabettispaghetti
Club Member
Well done. I admire the spirit of just going without fully testing the car first, makes it more of an adventure!
Exactly! I have more updates than just a pump though but it is a nice addition that makes the Z easier to start (and to support my other mods). I keep however the mech unit in the boot just in case - we never know...
It's great to see datsun reliability. Mine is nowhere near (yet!!!) I did not even make the trip home to Paris suburb - car stalled 50 meters away from my home. My ignition (Mallory 6AL CDI box) has fried. car went into its garage with its inertia instead of power.
Since then I removed the box, car runs great again!
Aceman
Well-Known Forum User
So basically you set off around Europe and had a bit of muck in the fuel filter and dodgy points! I think that's a fantastic advert for you and the car.
My experiences have been the same - these are amazing cars, thank goodness they rusted otherwise there would be lots around!
Yep, we've seen folks search through the camp-site leftovers too!
It's very smug to have a car that looks like a Ferrari but costs Datsun prices
Yeah, we've been giggling all journey over the number of people who thought it was an old Ferrari. Idiots. Still, I enjoy the attention
Fuel costs came somewhere between £700 and £800 all in (nearer the 8 I think as the pound improved over the holiday so working out exchange rates on latest figures is a little unreliable). Fuel in Italy is expensive - we brits have no right to moan! France equated about the same as UK thanks to exchange rate, and Switzerland and Luxembourg a little less than UK.
We did do a run up the M1 (250 miles) and a run to the LakeZ where we found problems (albeit none were engine related bar the initial power failure one starting out ages back). We cut it fine too - the brakes were done on the Monday, and we picked the car up Weds at 5pm, having to leave at 7pm from the bodyshop! But yeah, few spare parts and off we went!
Exactly! I have more updates than just a pump though but it is a nice addition that makes the Z easier to start (and to support my other mods). I keep however the mech unit in the boot just in case - we never know...
It's great to see datsun reliability. Mine is nowhere near (yet!!!) I did not even make the trip home to Paris suburb - car stalled 50 meters away from my home. My ignition (Mallory 6AL CDI box) has fried. car went into its garage with its inertia instead of power.
I've learnt so far that often you should just leave cars alone. For every sports car I've ever had, I get the bug to uprate something, or try to modify something to make it better/faster/more powerful, and every time the car has become more unreliable. As such we've decided to leave the 240 as is (although the bug has hit a little and I'm going to at least fit the Petronix which came with it after having the points fail on me now.. I'm at the top of the cliff looking down a slippery slope to modification and unreliability!!!)
Aceman
Well-Known Forum User
Err... This was a few years ago now, but we spent just over 2 weeks doing the run! 5 days Le Mans, and then the rest doing the drive. We did though try to ensure we enjoyed it as a break too, so spent a few days in numerous places to allow relaxation.
Nah, it was imported from California by Will Galliers (so Shrewsbury way). We're the only UK owners (and hopefully it'll stay that way!!).
The run down to Le Mans though was definitely one of the highlights as you say. Fantastic fun in literally a continual procession of classic cars. And it was lovely to see no snobbery in it all - DB5/Bentley/E-Type owners helping out overheating Cortinas/MGs and TR7s.
This year was a little less fun (towing a caravan...) but still great to see the large collection of vehicles. Only sad thing being the number of TVRs and Triumph Stags that we seemed to encounter. Hundreds of them! Still, made the odd Aston look a bit more special when it passed
Very much missed the Z though, and likely will be a while before we can Z it again with the little 'un on the way, and the giant dog...