1984 Nissan 300ZX 50th Anniversary Turbo 2dr Hatchback

1 OWNER JUST CAME FROM BARRETT JACKSON EXOTIC AUCTION From the February 1984 Issue of Car and Driver: The Nissan 300ZX Turbo seems to have it all: Collectibilit, speed! handling! braking! overhead cams, 50-th Anniversary edition, all the books records all original, A turbocharger! triple odometers! All the modern GT goodies are present and accounted for in one neat, f all: sex appeal. the ZX Turbo's pretty face. top speed: 240 km/, consider the bright side. Even when... saddled with an automatic transmission, the new ZX is one of the fast­est cars on the market. Our hot-off-the-boat test car cranked out 60 mph in 7.3 seconds (a bit slower than its 280ZX predecessor), 100 mph in 20.1 seconds (quicker than before), and a pedal-near-the-metal top end of 134 mph. And, rather remarkable for a Japanese car, the 300ZX handles! It scored a sticky 0.79 g on the skidpad, and it did not spin, fishtail, or show any crankiness at all when tossed well past the limit during our evaluations. Its braking performance is just as impressive. In stopping tests from 70, we found good stability, minimal fade, and 191-foot brak­ing distances. It was a given that a new 3.0-liter V-6 engine would replace the 2.8-liter in-line six, which was both long of tooth and long of length. The usual upgrades here and there would be built around the more compact engine, but no tampering with the basic formula would be permitted. Americans were buying 72,000 units per year (90 percent of the car's production), making the Z-car far and away the most successful two-seater in his­tory, and no one was willing to rock the boat with a radical departure from tradi­tion. If it's any consolation, the American-based engineers and product planners asked for a far bolder ZX than they got: ac­cording to our sources, they petitioned Ja­pan to knock off the Ferrari 308. Fortunately, the lack of beauty is only skin-deep. Mechanically and spiritually, the 300ZX is a joy, better in every way than any Z gone before. Let's start with the driver's seat. The bottom half is wide and easy to plug yourself into, and the upper half wraps satisfyingly around your ribs and shoulders with just the right amount of re­straint. There are adjustments galore. The headrest can be shifted in both up-and-down and fore-and-aft directions. The seat bottom moves the normal way, but you can also cant its rake angle to your heart's con­tent. The under-thigh bolster can be inflat­ed with a small pump handle discreetly built into the front surface of the seat. Dialing in the seat sounds complicated, but it is in fact quite easy to find a friendly relationship with the instruments and con­trols. Once you reach the sweet spot, the view ahead has a weighty importance. The crash padding is thick and softly curved. The steering wheel is big enough for a Mercedes. There's a clear view of the high, wide, and deeply recessed cluster, which is filled with our kind of instruments: huge, round dials with easy-to-read needles and labels. The speedo goes to 145 mph, the tach runs to 8000 rpm, and the lesser in­struments reveal water temperature, fuel level (on both coarse and fine scales), oil temperature and pressure, and, last, how much boost the turbocharger is generating within the intake manifold. (Unfortunately, the boost gauge is spotted in far right field, so it's impossible to grab a reading at a quick glance.) At night, the instrument panel is a joy to behold, as soft, red, direct illumination and a sprinkling of green, blue, orange, and red highlights keep you on top of the cruise control, the elaborate (but easy to manage) air-conditioning sys­tem, the fog driving lights, and warnings of impending doom. Key the indicators to life, and goodness turns to greatness. A throaty rumble under the hood of a nicely tuned intake system complements the instant throttle response that only fuel injection seems able to deliv­er these days. The automatic takes up the slack in the driveline with hardly a click and you