a cutaway by Shin Yoshikawa

I know, I know Mayday Garage have been covering and posting a lot of Z’s here in our blog and in our Facebook; what can we say? we love the Datsun Z long time! Nowadays, finding a clean factory Datsun 240z would be considered a rare collectible. What makes the hunt more exiting for Z hunters is finding an original 240ZG in mint condition. Today’s Nostalgic Wednesday, we reminisce the Z that was never imported to the US market; The 240ZG.

Introduced in 1971, the S30 chasis had 2 variants, the regular 240z (sold both in Japan and in the US) and the 240Z-G (only in Japan). What’s the difference? The ZG compared to the marketed Z has the wider riveted over-fenders, fender mounted side-view mirrors, rear spoiler,acrylic glass headlight covers, and of course, the signature fiberglass extended G-nose front.

More

Other than the Gulf Racing Livery, JPS would also be one of my favorite classic racing liveries.John Player’s sponsorship of Team Lotus began with the Lotus 49 in Gold Leaf colours at the 68 Monaco GP, they raced with the Lotus 72, and changed to the famous black and gold John Player Special colors in 1972. Meanwhile in Australia, BMW owned the JPS livery in touring car racing.

The BMW M3 that carried the colors brought in podium positions that In 1984, BMW released a limited-edition road version of its 323i touring car in JPS black and gold colors to the Australian market only. 

More

Driving something  that is lower than factory height, it’s helpless having questions pop in your head as you drive over a speed bump, enter a garage or a ramp. Questions like “is it easier attacking the ramp from the oposite lane?” , “If I scrape, will it hit my oil pan or just my subframe?”, “if the ramp angle is 37 degrees, what would my angle entering the ramp be?” and many more. Browsing the web, i found this interesting video of Bosozoku drivers doing math. It made me smile how these drivers show us how they strategically enter the ramp, well it’s actually a “baby ramp” compared to most ramps (LOL).

To some, this video may be boring. For ricers, this video may spark some nostalgia on when the days you had your car all the way down. For me, It brought me back to the good o’days when me and some friends cruise around the streets of Houston for some snacks on a hot day or coffee on a chilly night; good times.

-mark@maydaygarage

November 20th 2010, I got a text message from David asking me to meet up at a Starbucks by the Greenway Plaza. I asked him why, he said “just show up and I’ll tell you”. It was a cold and rainy Saturday, what a perfect weather to stay in and be lazy, but I hopped in my car and drove to see this dude. Got there and as soon as I parked, I saw JohnP pull up in his Lex, then Khiem, then Mikey, then David and Alana. It was a meeting, Laptops out, Option mags out, and discussion started about Mayday plans for 2011. I was like, “wait..why am I here?” Then David and John looked at me and said, “Mark, we’ve read your blogs and we want you to write Nostalgic Wednesdays” *gasp* I smiled and said, “lol, you read my stuff?! I thought I was my own follower.”

So one year later, here I am remembering that day I met these awesome and driven league of extraordinary gentlemen. You guys are awesome like briefs, Thanks for the support!! And as a tribute to a year of me writing about remembering, here’s a collage of classic car brochures/ads that I have covered so far, some pictures collected and saved.

-Mark@MaydayGarage