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Hi everyone, Sorry to see this thread a little after the fact (like 3 years after!), but in answer to the question posed by the title of the thread, I'm the guy who owns the 280Z that was on Griot's Garage catalog cover back in 2012. First off, thank you to everyone for your kind compliments about the car. It's always gratifying to me when people really understand what I was trying to do with this build, and from your comments, you guys totally get that I wanted to strike a delicate balance between modern update and clean efficient design without loosing the essence of the classic Z. Obviously I'm a perfectionist nut case who I'm sure many believe has more money than brains for pouring that much into a not-particularly-collectible 280Z. But before writing me completely off to the looney farm, perhaps understanding the fact that this is the first car I ever bought (right out of college in 1979) and have owned it ever since, will give you some level of sympathy for my psychosis. The car was my daily driver for 20 years, has over 230,000 miles on the chassis, was stolen from me once and recovered two weeks later back in the 80's, I left home in this car, I got married in this car, etc. Also, for reasons I won't bore you with here, the car actually went through a series of restorations/modifications from 1999 through 2011 which accounts for some of the unusually high price tag people may have heard. As for the seats (since a couple of people specifically asked) I had them specially made for me by Lotus in England. Turns out the 280Z has a particularly narrow floor pan on the drivers side due to a bulge in the transmission tunnel to accommodate the catalytic converter (even on non-cat models like mine), so you need a very narrow seat to fit. After trying a couple of aftermarket seats, I was looking at my Lotus Elise and said "now there's a narrow seat". So I contacted my Lotus dealer and through them ordered the seats, black stitched in silver, with a blank headrest which I had embroidered with the "Z" logo here at a local shop. Although a modern update, I felt like the basic shape of the back of the seat was somewhat reminiscent of the original Datsun buckets. Unfortunately, Lotus will no longer build custom seats for you (unless you order them in a new Lotus!), but here's a link to a Lotus aftermarket web site called British Racing Group that carries something very similar:​ http://shop.britishracinggroup.com/Exige-S-V6-OEM-Sport-Seats-BRG-LOTEXV6SS.htm Happy to answer any other questions anyone has about the car. Thanks again for not making too much fun of me on the forum! Robin

Wishing all an exceptional New Year....🎄📯 🎁 🎉 Jai 😇 🚘

i'm thinking of the scene in Charlie Brown's Christmas when he and Linus bring home the little tree... tears to my eyes every time

Guy, This is the only link that I could find for Bruce's restoration: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/21963-phoenix-240z-update/?hl=desert#entry186237 Thanks, CDL1452! I have attached some pictures of what the car looked like when it arrived at my body & paint guy's place from Phoenix. I also attached some pics of the restoration process and a couple more after it was finished. In the fall of 2013, I sold the car and it was transported to the East Coast and then shipped to its new owner in Italy. Later on, it was sent to the Z Shop in Hungary where they took a few pictures of the car with the model, as shown in my original post on this thread before they started modifying the car. Once they were finished, the video was uploaded to Youtube as also shown on my original post.

SchiZophrenia?

Some updates... The updates will be slower now since I'm current. So everything I post will be as I complete the work. I have been working on the hood. Stripped it inside and out then sprayed Eastwood internal frame coating everywhere that I could not reach. I am doing the blocking and filling now...

Yeah, I had considered that too. I'm looking forward to learning a new technique. The next car is already on the list. My sons' daily driver 81 RX7. Hopefully the 260 will be on the road by late spring and then we can start on his. The subject has not come up yet but I can see the wheels turning in his head. I'm sure he's planning to drive the Z while the RX7 is down. Fortunately, he can be trusted but he's going to earn the privilege. The sooner we finish the Z, the sooner we can start on the RX7. It will be interesting to see if he still loves his RX7 as much after driving a Z.

Well he just bought the car and is very excited about it. I doubt he would sell it. Here are few pics of the Blue Z.

I thought about adding Jelly to my "garage" but never did. Now I've got another one so maybe I will put both in there. I don't think Mike would mind. Who knows, the way the home page rotates through our pictures I might see my dogs on there one day.