Nissan 300ZX Z31 // Drive and review of an 80's icon
Nissan 300ZX Z31 // Drive and review of an 80's icon
A drive and talk about an icon of the 1980’s - the Nissan 300ZX. What’s it like on modern roads?
The first generation 300ZX or third generation Nissan Z car, known as the Z31 was Released in 1983 and sold until 1989. The 300ZX was a replacement for the slightly ungainly Datsun 280ZX. With a 3.0 engine, rear wheel drive and most importantly, pop-up headlights, how does this attainable 80’s pinup drive in the modern day?
The car on review is a right hand drive 1988 manual, naturally aspirated 3.0 2+2 with targa top.
Known as the Fairlady Z in some parts of the world, including Japan. This review covers the 300ZX sold in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989.
Follow the car on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/f888_300zx
#300zx #z31
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Content
43.28 -> this car is the third generation of the
nissan Z car - starting out with the 240
49.2 -> 260 and 280 in the first generation which
were beautiful E-Type inspired sports cars
56.16 -> then the 280zx in in the late 70s and early 80s
which was a much bigger and more grand tourer
65.6 -> type car. They added the X on to the
Z so it was the 280ZX because X signifies
71.76 -> luxury and slightly heavier more grand tourer
type car, and then along came the third generation
79.6 -> in 1983 which is this - the Z31 Nissan 300ZX and
it's a car that having been born in the 80's myself
88.96 -> and as a kid seeing 80's cars everywhere on the
roads, this is a bit of a dream car for me
97.36 -> I've always wanted to drive one - my
first car was a 1990 Nissan Bluebird
102.96 -> and I inevitably became a bit of a Nissan
fanboy so i was always looking at these 300ZX
112.48 -> with the envious eyes - it was the logical halo
car to go for if you're an 80's Nissan fan
120.927 -> so what was it about Nissans that that really got
me got me going back in the day? and the reality
127.92 -> of it was that the car was cheap to buy
for me at the time and it was utterly reliable
134.96 -> it was 15 years old this Bluebird and everything on
it worked, everything was just super high quality
140.8 -> and all that is true about this car. The
build quality is immense, everything just feels
146.96 -> completely solid and well screwed together, the
car just starts on the turn of the key
154.4 -> so they actually made over 300,000 of the 300ZX across the whole world - in Japan it was known
160.4 -> as the Fairlady Z, partially because the
the guy at Nissan liked the film My Fair Lady, but
167.28 -> also because the the engines they used wasn't just
the 300 the three litre. But over in Europe and
174.96 -> the US the only engine available was was the three
litre, although you could get it in turbocharged form
181.248 -> Now this is the naturally aspirated three
litre, the NA had 170 brake horsepower and the
189.52 -> turbo had 225 which for its day - 1983 when
this car came out, it was the most powerful
196.4 -> Japanese production car ever to have been built
so 225 horsepower was a big old number back then
203.2 -> and although this car is the more lowly 170
horsepower it actually feels fairly nippy!
210.16 -> so the 0-60 mph is probably around about eight
seconds, it's rear-wheel drive and it's got
215.12 -> the manual gearbox which is actually very
easy to use and feels incredibly modern
231.68 -> so this is the long wheelbase version which
actually was the only version they sold in the UK
238.32 -> there was a short wheelbase
one sold elsewhere and in Japan
242.08 -> but in the UK we got the long wheelbase which
was the 2+2, which meant there's actually
246.8 -> some seats in the back, they're not seats
that you would wish upon any adult human being
253.2 -> but but nevertheless they're there and you
could probably fit children in the back
259.44 -> the ride quality is actually pretty good
you may be able to notice this car's got a
267.76 -> couple of modifications but one of them is the
coilovers made by a bloke called "Gaz" apparently
276.64 -> now I don't really know much about mods as you
can tell, but the quality actually is not too
285.12 -> bad at all, and I imagine in standard form it
was pretty nice and cushy, and the seats are
291.76 -> pretty comfortable. So what's this thing like to
drive? Now for the uninitiated it might be a bit
298.48 -> of a scary prospect getting beyond the wheel of
a car originally designed in 1983 but don't
305.28 -> forget that the 80's was still quite a civilized
and relatively recent time and cars were not
315.28 -> not all that different from today really. If you
really think about what's changed it's safety
320.64 -> features and economy but in terms of what cars
are like to drive this car feels like anything
328.64 -> from today, it's super easy to to get the
get the hang of, the the clutch is really light
337.84 -> the biting point's quite high, I don't know if
that's standard or just the clutch on this car but
345.52 -> ...a bit of a rattle coming from somewhere there... it's
just a joy to drive. Yes it's an old car and yes
353.52 -> it's only got 170 horsepower, but don't forget
that it does displace three litres of
361.04 -> air and fuel so it's definitely got a fair bit of
torque, so from any revs you can you can have fun
369.44 -> if I get down now to a thousand revs
and second gear and then... yeah the power's instant
380.64 -> it's the wondrous way of naturally
aspirated motors with big displacement and then
388.56 -> it just goes from any revs and it's just
a very easy car to use. Now normally in my
394.8 -> videos I mention fuel economy because you know people care about that kind of thing but
402 -> if you're wondering about fuel
economy about a three litre car built in
406 -> the 1980's then it's a bit like if
you have to ask you you can't afford it!
412.8 -> it drinks fuel at a prodigious rate. This
this loud exhaust wouldn't be my
419.12 -> choice I'd have kept it standard, but it certainly
makes the car seem a little more special
430.32 -> so i've pulled over for a little break from the
433.36 -> noise of that cannon exhaust. You've got
these gauges in the middle angled towards
438.96 -> you, the battery vault status on the left and
then you've got oil pressure and temperature
443.68 -> on the right - these are sort of a throwback to
the the earlier Z cars which had those gauges
449.36 -> but they are just about in eye-line so
you can look down and see them, they're not quite
453.68 -> like the Hyundai Coupe that I road tested where
the they're a little bit lower and smaller and
458.72 -> you just found that you'd never actually
look at them but
464.8 -> they're not that helpful really, they're just
they're there to tell you that the car is broken
471.52 -> but then you've got this incredibly 80's
orange set of instruments in front of you
476.16 -> fuel and temperature, two trip meters which
is a a funny little thing that Nissan liked
482.24 -> to do in the 80's, and then the way that all
these instruments are around you like the
486.96 -> the fog lights the rear windscreen de-mister
and wash wipe, cruise control, the hazards
495.04 -> the pop-up headlights - everything is all to
hand around around the driver in this
501.04 -> cockpit style dashboard. The intermittent
wipers, you twist this little thing at the end here
511.04 -> and it just feels so nice, the
action on it just... smooth and damped
521.76 -> the stalks themselves feel okay - very dainty, little dainty ones and then the the cool
530.8 -> thing about the targa top - you can take
the targa top off, these panels here above my head
535.76 -> remove them and then you've got top-down open-top motoring but even with them in place
544.145 -> it's just adds to the airiness
of the cabin and the other thing of course
548.88 -> about the shape of this car is that
it's got a very practical boot, very big hatchback
555.84 -> and now the load lip is high it doesn't take the
rear part of the light cluster and stuff up with
562.16 -> the tailgate so you do have to like pick things up
and put them in over the top but there's a lot of
567.52 -> space back there so it's actually a pretty
practical car for the style. There's just
575.04 -> something incredibly brilliant about the fact
that there's a three litre engine in this car
581.36 -> and it's all the way back there and
then you've got all this in front of it
588.88 -> and if you're pretty handy with the fixing cars
then everything is to hand there. So let's see
595.28 -> if it'll do what I said it would do and
start on the turn of the key... look at that!
603.36 -> starts quicker than a lot of new cars. There's a button here to pop up the headlights
610.64 -> and you can just see them at the end of the
bonnet which is superb,
615.52 -> you can just see the other one as well and that
is just a great 80's view to have in front of you
624.08 -> so by modern standards it's not a very heavy
car it's about 1300 KG - something like that
629.28 -> but for 80's standards it was quite heavy, I mean by the end of its life in 1989 they'd
635.52 -> filled it with a lot of kit and tech and it was
getting quite heavy but to put it into to contrast
643.84 -> it's about the same weight as a modern day
Vauxhall Astra so although it is quite heavy
652 -> it's not really - not in this day and age.
This car, it's the most 80's looking car
659.6 -> that I can think of really, maybe
the Delorean is about the only more 80's thing
666.96 -> going just everything about it including
the pop-up headlights and just the general
674.88 -> blocky but beautiful styling of the car I really
love it and it's face
682.16 -> it's got this like sleepy look when the
pop-ups are closed. If you're a fan of quirky
688.72 -> Japanese cars designed in the 80's then be sure
to check out the Toyota Sera review that I did
696 -> because that that is a very strange car, the thing will be up here somewhere
701.6 -> I accidentally just set off in third gear and
basically could could barely tell that I'd done it
708.64 -> it was almost as
happy as if it was in first
713.68 -> so I wasn't slipping the clutch or
anything just pretty much set off as normal
720.08 -> so the the Z31 I don't know if it's quite achieved
the sort of cult status of some of the other
727.12 -> Z cars - it's not as famous or popular as
the Z32 which replaced it
732.56 -> the much more rounded 90's looking car which
was beautiful in its own way, but it's also
740.88 -> not quite as maligned as the 280zx that came
before it because that was quite an ungainly
746.72 -> looking car. It'd be interesting to know
whether in the future these things will command
752.32 -> a lot more money or not, I suspect that they
will because how can a car that looks like
756.64 -> this, is built in a way that like this - built
so well, how can it not end up being worth
763.12 -> a lot of money so that's my guess if
you can find one it might be a good
768.56 -> investment but don't come
crying to me if it turns out it's not!
774.8 -> I'd just like to take this opportunity
to thank Dom the owner for for letting me
779.2 -> have a go in this fantastic car. So this is
the point of the video where I usually ask
785.6 -> do you have one of these cars? or
are you thinking of buying one?
789.76 -> I suspect that there won't be too many of those
people around and you're probably be watching this
794.32 -> just purely out of interest but of course if
you do have a 300ZX Z31 please do comment
800.96 -> below and let me know what you think about
the car, the story behind it
808.16 -> when did you get hold of it and where
from and you know mileage and and its back story
813.28 -> because there really aren't many of these
left now and it's such an interesting
819.36 -> looking car. Just thank you so much for
watching as always it's massively appreciated and
827.44 -> as you've seen on this channel the cars
that are coming are just anything really
834.08 -> crazy quirky cars like this but also modern stuff, so stay tuned
839.52 -> and be surprised by whatever comes
next! and I'll see you in the next video
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q5eoWUlspo