Japanese Z Cars

T

tch911

Well-Known Forum User
Forgive me if this has already been covered before but Japanese Z Cars.....

I saw this website with several cars I would love to own:

http://www.carry-back.com/carryback stock car list.htm

A lot of them seem to have 3.0 or 3.1l engines. are they just very into tuning or were these options offered in period?

What's it like buying a car from Japan, major hassle filled with problems or really not that bad at all?

Thanks,

Tom

PS - Not loving the position of the Fairlady mirrors but hey-ho!
 
They're just into tuning/overboring/stroking :)

Lovely set of cars, I want to visit that guys forecourt!
 
tch911 said:
What's it like buying a car from Japan, major hassle filled with problems or really not that bad at all?!
Click to expand...

Importing the car is not a problem. The 'problem' - if there is one - is that people tend to underestimate the cost of good old cars in Japan. They see lots of them online, and assume that they will get a good one for a bargain price - so they aim at the lower-priced end of the market or the dregs at the big auctions, and of course they tend to end up with something that is not as good as they assumed it would be...........

Good condition S30/S31-series Z cars in Japan are not cheap. There are still quite a lot of them on the roads, but the better ones ( the type that would be most worthwhile to import to a country halfway around the world ) do not change hands for four or five thousand pounds Sterling. Almost every single one of them will have been modified at some time in their life, and have often had make-do-and-mend repairs carried out by their ( predominantly ) young owners back in the days when they were cheap and plentiful.

'Garage Carry Back' are not what I would call one of the top line specialists in Japan, and even then their S30/S31-series Z stock are predominantly in the 2 million JPY plus price range. I don't see anybody talking about all-in costs in this thread so far, and considering that a great proportion of potential early Z owners in the UK seem to be hoping to spend less than £5,000 on a car ( LOL ) one has to wonder about the gap between expectation and real world costs........

I remember a thread on this forum a couple years ago now, where an 'Importer' ( or more accurately just somebody with a used car lot, buying cars at auction through a third party in Japan ) was giving it large about 'cheap' S30/S31-series Z cars in Japan, and offering to source them for interested parties. He was calling them "rust free", but then posted scans of the auction sheets ( which he obviously could not read ) which described in good fairly good detail the repaired crash damage, rusty areas and suspect parts. One of them even had a rusty roof. This really was the bottom of the barrel being scraped...... but even so, I seem to remember a few people seemed to get a little bit excited by the prospect. Needless to say, I don't think he ended up actually importing any ( unless you know better? ).

There are some absolutely excellent early Z cars in Japan - the equal of the best anywhere else in the world - and arguably some of the 'best' standard factory spec cars were sold there in-period. There was also a large list of showroom options, and sports option parts both in-period and forever after. The plain fact is that they are not cheap, and that is why you will not yet have seen boatloads of them coming to the UK yet.
 
Precise, articulate & correct.

Well put Alan.
I tend to agree that undervaluation,taking the whole
thing for granted,& not accepting that these cars are worth way above
the market value,kind of hacks away at the reputation of very fine cars
& the people who created them. Knock them,& you knock your own self
inevitably self depreciating the worth of your own vehicle.
sing their praises & I foresee a great leap in the value,&
status & also the true recognition they deserve.
If I got a chance? I would pay a great deal,to get a fine example
& of course,a lot of research,advise & pre-purchase homework would result
insaving a lot of regret further down the road.
DJZ 60.:cool:
 
The Count is as usual bang on. If you think about it, Japan isn't far off the UK weatherwise and so to find a near perfect one there (although there were more to begin with) is just as much a treasure hunt as it is here. Their economy is also a thing of beauty (I recently bought a watch straight from Tokyo and it was fine and dandy cost wise until it got to these shores and then as soon as customs got involved it became a real bummer). Getting one of the sunshine-y state US models is the best way to get a decent example that won't break the bank, but then again, like anything that's any good, it's a buyers market and as these cars become fewer and fewer, the cost goes up.
 
Why this obsession with the american shells? Surely a better starting point for a project would be an Australian Z. Dry climate, allready right hand drive and, 2.5 ausy dollers to the pound.
If you want a car allready done to a high standard then I would have thought a japanese import would be ideal. Lets say £20.000 for a quality car, another £6.000 to get it home. Sounds alot but not when you consider the cost of restoring a uk car!
 
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