Then the body was sprayed, the paint made like glass, and the car reassembled with ALL new-old-stock, OEM parts, or fully restored parts. Every part, down to each and every bolt.
I'm going to simply welcome you to see the hundreds of pictures of the restoration on my website. You can click here to go straight to the image gallery.
Then it came time to get the drivetrain built and in the car. Everything was fully custom done by National Speed, Inc (Click HERE to go to their website - they are amazing). Here's a full list of all that was done.
The undercarriage of the car is simply ridiculous. It's perfect. Notice all the custom fully adjustable pieces. Notice how the exhaust was custom made to snug up against the bottom of the car as far as possible, which required countless bends and welds, all of which are perfect, by the way. Not only is the suspension totally adjustable and top-shelf, so are the brakes. They are all now FIVE lug hubs with Wilwood disc brakes, which include monoblock calipers that clamp down on the huge front rotors with SIX pistons. Inside the interior, the only hint of the performance capabilities of the car is the well-integrated Wilwood brake proportioning valve in the center console.
Everything on the car is perfect. Of course, the title is clean and in-hand. The car has around 1000 miles on it since the build, and not one scratch or chip that I'm aware of. Currently, the car is in Knoxville, TN. However, I expect to deliver the car to the buyer in Wilmington, NC where National Speed is. I moved to Knoxville after it was tuned, and the cold mountain weather isn't at all like the hot humid weather that it was tuned in. So once it is sold, National Speed can take the barometric pressure of the buyer's hometown and tune the car accordingly. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 910.619.6545 or email me at [email protected]. You also can be free to contact National Speed or Miller Brothers Hot Rod Barn for their references.
Now, with that all out of the way, here are more pictures.
Also, it's important to know that my claims of this car's greatness are not only my own. Here are some screenshots from international forums online that have talked about the car. Click on the image to go to the actual site.
Austrailian Z Car Forum
Dutch Car Forum
American Car Forum for Lusting Over Cars
Teamspeed - International HIgh-End Car ForumThere are many, many more forums and such that the car has been talked about on. Just Google "Jared Cullop 240Z". You can also find me and the car on many online forums by searching for "Blakt Out" which is my screen name in almost all the car forums that I frequent.Before I stop typing, I want to address a common question: "Why did I choose to go with an SR20DET? Why not a V8? Why not an RB26DETT?"
Well, that's a good question. Obviously, it had nothing to do with cost. As I stated at the beginning, the build theory was to bring the car to modern performance levels IN CHARACTER and IN HONOR of the original 240Z. I never once considered an American V8. I've done that before and it felt as cohesive as Angelina Jolie would with Louie Armstrong's voice. It just didn't work for me. Plus, it's obvious.
Now, the RB26DETT DID make me think. I would not have considered a lesser Nissan 6 cylinder (RB25, for example) because they are obvious compromises. There is no compromise in this car. But the Z is already nose heavy. Just look at it! I am a driver (actually test drive Porsches for a major magazine and write 10 page articles about them as a side job... you can actually go to a bookstore NOW and buy one in which I wrote the cover story). Having unneeded weight in the nose would only be cool when it was sitting still with the hood up. That's not something that I respect either. I saved some 200-300 pounds (which is more than 10% of the overall weight!) by going with a lighter engine. Don't get me wrong, the RB is a great engine and sounds amazing and looks cool. But it makes no sense to me to have a car drive horribly just to have those other benefits. Whenever I considered that the car couldn't really take more than 500HP without having major chassis work (full cage, for example... which was 100% out of the question), I decided to see what could be done with the lightest engine I could find that met all the other criteria: The Japan-only Nissan Sylvia's SR20DET. When the geniuses at National Speed said that they could easily hit my goals with pump gas, little turbo lag and wonderful torque (see above dyno chart) with the SR20DET, I was sold. Granted, it took a ton of money to do it, but what we have now is a car that has a switch on the side of the center console. With it flipped backward, it puts down roughly 320rwhp and almost that much torque, all while getting over 30mpg on the interstate. Flip it forward and you unleash the full 434rwhp. This switch can be flipped at any time while driving. It's amazing and VERY noticable. Simply wonderful.
And the last question that I always get: "Why are you selling?" Because I built this car while I had my Porsche track car (you can see a writeup and many images of that on my website, www.jaredcullop.com). But the Z build got so expensive (and I refused to cut corners) that I had to sell my Porsche to complete it. Now, I have it for sale so that I can get a real track car. Yes, the Z would be AMAZING on the track, but if I ever hurt it, it would kill me. I want something that I have no attachment to that I can flog on my quest to perfect laps.
Please don't write me asking for my reserve. If you click on any of the forum links that I posted above, you'll see that I had it for sale for $125,000. The reserve is nowhere near that. Somebody's going to steal this thing. I'll consider trades too. I check my eBay messages and emails often. If you can't tell by this long item description, I love to talk about the car too. Feel free to contact me if you are interested. Lastly, you can expect a very forthright transaction with me. I have a perfect rating on here, and much of that is from selling cars. You can read anything and everything about me on my website. I know that WHO you are dealing with is nearly as important as WHAT it is that you're actually dealing over.
Take care, and thanks for reading all this.
Jared Cullop
On Mar-26-11 at 10:39:48 PDT, seller added the following information:Car is also for sale locally. Seller reserves the right to end the auction early. If you don't want that to happen without you knowing, contact me at [email protected]. Thanks!
On Mar-28-11 at 12:40:42 PDT, seller added the following information: This car is currently featured on the home page of one of the world's largest auto websites - AUTOBLOG. I honestly have no idea how this happened, but WELCOME to all those visiting this auction from Autoblog! It's such an honor!
On Mar-29-11 at 06:23:45 PDT, seller added the following information: And, another really great writeup about the car being here on ebay! Thank you carguideblog.com! http://carguideblog.com/13576/1972-datsun-zseries-240z-sr20det-fully-restored/
On Mar-29-11 at 07:52:25 PDT, seller added the following information:
On Mar-30-11 at 13:49:10 PDT, seller added the following information:Hey ladies and gentlemen, I just got a COMMITMENT IN WRITING from Modified Magazine for it to be shot for a photo set , likely being on the cover, while it is in Wilmington, NC. This is HUGE, and would be wonderful for the new owner (as my description states, the car will be delivered from National Speed, Inc in Wilmington, NC. So the new owner will own the car when the magazine hits the shelves! I also welcome the new owner to be present at the shoot.
Datsun : Z-Series - eBay (item 290549073822 end time Mar-31-11 14:41:20 PDT)
