Nineties cruiser
Those of you who were around when the Z32 generation Nissan 300ZX was launched may recall the cheeky billboard ad campaign: It showed a side view of the car with the caption, “Sell the kids!”
For whatever reason (the tail end of an economic recession would have been a big part of it), sales in Australia were sluggish.
However the styling ethos of the Nissan Zeds had also changed. As Cliff Chambers points out in our buyer guide: “Americans had been in love with Nissan ‘Z Cars’ ever since the first 2.4-litre model appeared in 1970. Almost 20 years later when the Z32 series showed up it had completely changed. Then again, so had American perceptions of what constituted a ‘sports car’.”
A stylish 2 or 2+2 coupe, the big Zed was based around a 3.0lt V6 powerplant in normally-aspirated form producing 166kW or a twin-turbo claiming 208kW. You could get it in auto or manual.
The normally-aspirated car had good performance and proved to be more reliable than the turbo over the long term.
This 1992 example is just such a car, with a five-speed manual, and claims to be in near-original condition with around 217,000km on the odo. Based in WA, it’s on the market for $27,000.
Unique Cars auction results listing