SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
I've just been over on a parts/friends visit and something struck me this time (no, not a pollution crazed seagull) that hadn't before :
There is a level of finishing apparent in peoples' Zeds that, although present 10 - 15 years ago was rarer and mostly exclusive to very expensive cars or those specifically for different forms of off/closed road competetion !
Now, it's not like the value of Zs has leapt up to the point where the investment can be recovered in the event of... but as if owners' personal values of their cars has increased !
10-15 years ago, people were content to have a Z that drove, went well, caught some admiring looks and perhaps won a best Z trophy at an outing.
Now, the emphasis seems to be about personal pleasure in going that bit further and knowing that the car, albeit it not perfect is bloody close !
Time and money is being spent on cars whose level is way above that that I knew when I left the UK in '93.
I met people making their own alluminium front grilles, carbon accessories, efficient and good looking strut braces. The paint work is of a better standard, bumpers and rubbers are almost spotless and then again there is the engineering on the cars themselves.
Internet has certainly a lot to do with it - the large prolification of ideas, comparisons and options (I will say my dear Count that the language barrier - written word, has probably accounted for the reduced direct influence from Japan - a great shame !).
But it is members that have acted upon those ideas and made some of the best Zs in Europe (I'm cinvinced) whereas before, several cars I looked at in the early '90s were pretty but superficially and not much evolved from the 2.8 and twin SUs/triple Webers !
Bravo to a country of gifted Z amateurs who are leading Europe !
There is a level of finishing apparent in peoples' Zeds that, although present 10 - 15 years ago was rarer and mostly exclusive to very expensive cars or those specifically for different forms of off/closed road competetion !
Now, it's not like the value of Zs has leapt up to the point where the investment can be recovered in the event of... but as if owners' personal values of their cars has increased !
10-15 years ago, people were content to have a Z that drove, went well, caught some admiring looks and perhaps won a best Z trophy at an outing.
Now, the emphasis seems to be about personal pleasure in going that bit further and knowing that the car, albeit it not perfect is bloody close !
Time and money is being spent on cars whose level is way above that that I knew when I left the UK in '93.
I met people making their own alluminium front grilles, carbon accessories, efficient and good looking strut braces. The paint work is of a better standard, bumpers and rubbers are almost spotless and then again there is the engineering on the cars themselves.
Internet has certainly a lot to do with it - the large prolification of ideas, comparisons and options (I will say my dear Count that the language barrier - written word, has probably accounted for the reduced direct influence from Japan - a great shame !).
But it is members that have acted upon those ideas and made some of the best Zs in Europe (I'm cinvinced) whereas before, several cars I looked at in the early '90s were pretty but superficially and not much evolved from the 2.8 and twin SUs/triple Webers !
Bravo to a country of gifted Z amateurs who are leading Europe !
