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My first comment since joining last April. I would like to share some of my experiences owning my Z if I may. I have owned Christine (her nickname) since 1978 and she currently has 176,898 miles under her hood. She is in better health than I am, however I'm pushing 85 1/2 years so she does have an advantage. During the 38 years I have owned her the only mechanical failure has been a water pump which I replaced about 25 years ago. In the process of removing the old pump one of the bolts snapped off inside the head. I installed the new pump minus that one bolt and the pump has never leaked. Within the last two years I had the brake system rebuilt as well as the A/C which still uses R=12 and works great. She still wears her original white paint job and red interior. I replaced the orighinal radio for a stereo/CD unit and recovered the seats. Everything else is original including the dashcover. She has never slept outside except on a trip to Canada. I have owned many automobiles in my lifetime, but never an automobile as reliable, beautiful and fun to drive as Christine. How she got her name? About 15 years ago (yeah its been that long) I took her in for a tuneup and valve adjustment. I was so impressed how she was running I couldn;t wait to get home so I could have my late wife drive her. I backed her in the garage and asked Shirley to come out for a test drive. She was never enamored of the car because she felt the Z was pretty fragile in the event of an accident. I finally got her to come out and the last thing she said before she got in the car was "i really don't want to drive your stupid car!" I half kiddingly told her to be careful with her language because car's have feelings too. Well, she proceeds to turn on the ignition and the car gives off the loudest backfire which just reverberated throughout the garage. Shirley had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel. She finally let go and bolted out of the car. I got into no small amount of hot water laughing at what had just occurred. She never drove the car after that day and we never spoke of the incident after that day. Christine had never backfired before that day nor has she since. God's truth. From that day on we referred to her as Christine after Stephen King's novel of the same name. Like i am sure all of you, I love my Z. Not only for the precious memories but also because I think they are special automobiles from both a design and well as a mechanical aspect. Thanks for listening. John Petkovich
