What a wild story:
The original owner of this 1976 Datsun 280Z drove the car 350 miles before partial disassembling and storing the vehicle for over 40 years. He sold it last year, and has since been “refreshed.” The new owner added five miles, displaying an essentially brand new car at ZCON 2020 festival in Nashville, Tennessee.
Considered one of the most successful sports car lines ever produced, it was designed by a team led by Yoshihiko Matsuo, the head of Nissan’s Sports Car Styling Studio, with the bodywork styled by Albrecht Goertz, the designer of the BMW 507.
The 2.8 liter straight six engine made 170HP, and was mated to a 4 or 5 speed manual transmission. The original dashboard design — large Tachometer and Speedometer directly in front of the driver, with 3 round gauges in the center of the dash became an iconic design language.
This was not a drag racer — 0-60 mph was 7.8, with a top speed of 126 mph, but they were successful in SCCA racing in the 1970s.
The MSRP of these cars in 1976 was $6,669. Depending upon the condition, they sell from $20-40k or more. Adjusted for CPI inflation since 1976, that $6,669 in 2020 would be $30,518.94 today. Hence, after the cost of storage, this essentially brand new version below sold for $140,000 yesterday, netting a real profit of $100,000+.
Me? I’d rather have enjoyed driving this machine for 40 years than earning a 6 figure payday in my dotage.
Source: Bring A Trailer
