imagerockone

A number of years ago, my brother had a Nissan 3Z and I repeatedly asked him if I could take his car out for a night and he always said no. One day, he tells me that he is going to sell the 3Z to purchase an engagement ring and he gives me the green light to have my fun with it. He sternly told me 'no racing' though. I'm in Chicago on Lincoln Ave. taking a left onto Peterson and I have a pickup truck tailgating. He pulls next to me at the light, gives me the thumbs up, and starts to rev his engine. I thought to myself, now I get to see what this Nissan can do. Right before the light turns green, some car behind starts to honk his horn. Me and the other driver look back and when we turned back around, the light was already green, so I thought maybe we'll go at it at the next light, but he takes off. I go through the gears and I catch up to about 1/2 a car's length away and it stayed that way. I couldn't pull side by side or ahead of him. We pull off into a residential street and I asked what he had, because he was chirping in between gears. It was a Silverado truck with straight pipes, an ECU upgrade, and some type of shifter. The Z was a non-turbo with a GReddy exhaust and K&N air filter.

That same night on my way home, I'm on I94 heading up north towards Gurnee when this blue Grand Prix blows past me right before the tollway. He gets to the tollway, pays for the toll, and sat there with the gate up just waiting for me. I thought nothing of it. I paid the toll and drove off, but then I heard tires screeching behind me and he blows right past me again but then he slowed down for me. By the time I got close to him (going speed limit), he punches it again. I downshifted into 3rd and let it rip. We were side by side and I upshift into 5th and I very slowly pull ahead going about 115 mph. I heard his car and it sounded as if he was trying to accelerate but it got cut off - like his limiter kicked in. It was a blue colored Grand Prix (royal blue) that I've never seen before and it had some type of checkered flag on the side, so maybe it was a different version from stock. Anyways, when I pulled about a car length ahead of him, I let go of the gas and he continues at the same speed. Later on, he slows down until a 240SX went heads up with him a few minutes later. I didn't pursue them.

The next morning, my brother asked me how I liked it. I never told him that I raced with it twice that night until about a year after he sold the car.

AcuraKidd

iTrader: (1)

great story

what was your brothers reaction btw?

BustedJack

Very interesting story. Those old 3Z are awesome.... my buddy Mike had one before he traded in for a 2002 Cobra.

imagerockone

My brother called me an idiot and I didn't say anything more. A few minutes later, he asked me if I at least won the races. I told him what happened and then he started telling me his race stories that he had with the Z.

When I first decided to sell my Civic (not to long ago), I really wanted to replace it with a white 3Z, just like my brother's. But this time, it had to be a twin turbo. I searched around for a while, but couldn't find a clean, unmodified one with decent mileage. I never knew that so many Z's were automatics! Anyways, I thought it through and decided against it for 2 reasons: (1) insurance would be sky high (2) Chicago winters can be brutal so I knew that with rear wheel drive, I would be slipping and sliding everywhere. I couldn't afford another beater for the side. When I came to that conclusion, I picked up the TL-S.