Mike

Paris, March 8: Mr Carlos Ghosn, president of Japanese carmaker Nissan was named the automobile industry’s "Man of the Year" on Thursday by a jury of 31 journalists assembled by the French publication Journal de L’Automobile. Mr Ghosn, who was to receive his prize here later in the day, managed to rescue Nissan from near bankruptcy when it formed an alliance with Renault of France in 1999. The company’s recovery came one year ahead of the target Mr Ghosn had set for himself. The Japanese carmaker has since returned to profitabilty due to a drastic restructuring masterminded by Mr Ghosn that cost 21,000 jobs over three years and the closure of five plants in Japan. In 2001, it was largely thanks to the contribution from Nissan that Renault, suffering from unprofitable aging models and economic crises in Turkey and Argentina, was able to report that profits had been held at the same level as the previous year. Mr Ghosn has said he intended to remain behind the steering wheel at Nissan until the end of a new three year plan starting April 1 and which ends in 2005. At that time, the mandate of Renault chairman Louis Schweitzer runs out. Mr Schweitzer has already described Mr Ghosn as his "natural successor." The 2000 prize was given to Ferrari’s head of Sports management, in 1999 to Peugeot’s products and markets director, Bruno de Guibert, and in 1998 to Mr Louis Schweitzer. — PTI

Alfa, I didn't see this post earlier. Awesome stuff. I'm going to take a closer look at this.

Yap, ok... I think that's their version of an actual 'check' instead of a credit card. Did they ask you for the information from one of your checks and a check number? Just curious.. I haven't used the Paypal Echeck feature.

Hey axrph, I noticed that you paid via eCheck. How was that experience? Easy, hard, confusing, or just right on the money? I'm curious because I'd like to promote that option in case people don't have a credit card. I'm also planning to provide options like the mailing address for those who want to send a check. Again, a Saturday morning jobbie.

Not sure about the card, but, if anyone needs to come to Oregon... I'm not opposed to playing host. But, there isn't much in Albany anyway. So, I'm sure I won't be fighting people out of my house.

You're exactly right.. donations are purely voluntary. This site will ALWAYS remain free to anyone. There is also an identifier inside the username box of those who have donated. It says "Supporting Member"... take a look at my entry.. and, I also modified 2MZ's.. I'm working on the others.. Sorry, I've been busy. Catch up day is Saturday.

About the donations... thanks to those who are considering or have done it! At this time I'm trying to figure out why Paypal is charging shipping on a donation. But, I"ll have that sorted out tonight....

Okay, to 'strike while the iron is hot'... here's a link to our donate page through Paypal. <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick"> <input type="hidden" name="business" value="sales@240z.org"> <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="$20 Donation"> <input type="hidden" name="item_number" value="Donate_20"> <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="20.00"> <input type="image" src="http://images.paypal.com/images/x-click-but21.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"> </form> Click the button above to donate $20. I was going to wait until the weekend so I have time to create a proper HTML document, but, I'm going to create a donation block to the front page with various amounts right now...

Try this site: http://www.calculator.com [m]

Oh, one more item. I am seriously considering the 'donation' idea. It has been proven to be a reliable source of support in a community. Members who donate to the club will get stars next to their name and a "Supporting Member" status... Not much, but, its a way for others to know who is supporting the site in some way or another. Look at my name in this post to see the example.

Oh man, not sure why I missed this discussion. I've been pretty involved in other things lately and decided to take a small break from the site for awhile. As far as revenue generating agents... believe me, I've been looking around for possible ideas. I've looked everywhere from banner ads, company sponsorship, stickers, CDROMs (uhem), Tshirts, hats, and you name it..... Our best revenue agent, and the only revenue agent so far, has been the Microfiche CD. Without that, we wouldn't be here today. Luckily, I was able to obtain a copyright release from Nissan because they are pulling other Zcar CD's off the shelves! Anyway, I have been shying away from banner ads because it seems like such a pain to administer. While I'm not against showing cool ads for businesses that support our site, I don't want to turn into a bill-collector. My preference is to find some kind of sponsor to help keep the site running on an annual basis. I also have a firm belief in the "collective whole." I want to keep the freedom of shared information. If we decided to isolate ourselves to a single vendor, I would do so only with the condition that others could also keep links and free exchange of information. We have also seen active participation from various vendors in both our email list and web site. I am hoping that I'll see a few donations come our way from sales or contacts that stem from our site. But, that comes from good relationships. Anyway, our next best option is probably club merchandise like Tshirts, hats, and other miscellaneous related materials. I am up for any kind of help I can get with this site. If any of you are willing to either donate time, money, or resources.. we could definitely use it. For instance, a Tshirt venture would cost money to buy the shirts, pay for the printing, and then ship the product. If any of you have contacts to get printing done at a reasonable price, or the money to buy the shirts.... or the resources to design a logo... I am up for anything you can throw at us! Speaking of that, our main page logo is just something I threw together in Fireworks 3. I can send you the Fireworks file or any other format. Just let me know the best formatting. We also have a formal logo for the club. It's the oval logo with the large Z in the middle. At one time, we were going to have cling-on stickers made. But, I saw how badly that failed with the IZCC and decided not to persue that venture. Oh well... there are some options on the table. Tell me what you guys think. And, THANK YOU for all of the good words you have said about the site. I've been working hard on it. Luckily, I like to do this kind of nerdy stuff.

Yep, pictures are good!! Please post picts!

Your work is awesome!! Pictures of early Zcars either racing or on display would work out great. In fact, I wouldn't mind doing something as a combination of our logo mixed with a Z image of some kind. What do you think?

Hey 240znut, When you get the new 350, can you do a comparison of that against your S2000 and post your findings to this site? I'd love to see what you think. [m]

Well, didn't you know that you can create your OWN title?