The Datsun 240Z... the car that started it all!

I got tired of the Lotus very quickly. Perhaps, if it wasn't so damned temperamental and unreliable I might have kept it longer, but it seemed like every week something else would go wrong. After a while I decided that "enuf waz enuf" and sold it.

Ahhh... what to buy?? Well, that was easy! Datsun (now called Nissan of course) had introduced their famous Z Car, the 240Z. For about $5000 bucks the "Z" was blowing everything off the road... it came fully equipped, with AM-FM Stereo radio, Black Leather Seats, automatic antenna (don't laugh, this was 1971!!), Air Conditioning (YEAH!!!!), power steering and power brakes! What a car...

She hummed down the road. As soon as I saw my first Z on the road I knew that this was the car I had to have. I ran over to the local Datsun dealer in Philadelphia, and selected a silver, 1971 240Z with 5 speed, and black leather interior. I put down my deposit... and waited for the call to let me know the car had arrived.

Three weeks later... RINGGGGG!!! "Your car is here... come on in!" Well, I couldn't get there quick enough, but when I pulled into the dealer's lot, there she was... beautifully waxed, polished, scrubbed and dubbed.. GORGEOUS hunk of metal... and an hour later I was cruising down the highway.

I remember that first drive. She was incredibly stable, smooth as silk, and the air conditioning worked perfectly in the Philadelphia summer heat. I had to keep the car under 2000 RPM for the first 500 miles, then 4000 for the next 1000 miles to properly break in the engine so I wasn't setting any land speed records with her, but it was one sweet ride!

I drove all the way down to Atlantic City and back that first weekend, just to enjoy the ride. I was so comfortable in those leather bucket seats. I can still recall how wonderful that new car smell was... the leather, the new air-con smell.. the roar of the engine as I accelerated, and the pure enjoyment of driving that car.

Thinking back, it was one of my very favorite cars... Datsun really produced a beautiful machine, and I was in car heaven! I loved just looking at it. The "Z" had such beautiful, pure lines. Almost like a sculpture.

And the scooped out head lite detail, the hood that popped up to expose the engine (very easy to work on... very smart design). the rear hatch that swung straight up so you could put all sorts of stuff back there...and the color... I remember the silver paint. It had lottsa metal flakes in it so it really sparkled when the sun hit it, and at night is had a lovely silver sheen to it.

But, the best was just the pure enjoyment of driving it. Shifting gears so smoothly, the throttle response, the quick braking, and the very precise steering.. all that combined made for an incredibly pleasurable ride.

A Wet Road...Going too fast.. WHACK! My first car.. a 1969 Lotus Europa S2

Why is it, that you almost ALWAYS have an accident with your first car???

Well, I was enjoying that Lotus immensely... drove it everywhere for the first few weeks. Then, early one evening, I was cruising... well all right... speeding around a turn on the East River Drive in Philadelphia, when I hit a patch of road where there was some water runoff from an underground creek.

The road was wet, it was a beautiful curve and I was enjoying how the Lotus was taking the curve when suddenly the rear end broke loose and I spun out at about 50MPH. The rear of the car did a 360 and WHACK!!! right into a Corvette coming in the opposite direction.

The impact tore a piece out of the rear of my Lots which was the size of a football, and badly damaged the rear quarter panel of the Corvette. Luckily, both cars were fiberglass, and the actual destruction of the fiberglass panels absorbed the impact so neither of us were hurt. (Except for my ego!)

Well, it was my fault... going too fast for conditions, and probably thinking I knew how to control that car..plus.. damn Dunlop Tires... they're design back then was more suitable for dry than wet pavement... but I should have known that.

Anyway, the other driver was quite cool about it all. Our insurance companies settled matters quite amicably, no body was injured, and both our cars were repaired within a week.

My first ever accident!! It was cheap "tuition" though.. I took competition driving lessons afterwards to learn how to control that car, and changed the tires to Pirelli's which were better suited for the multi-surfaced roads I was encountering.

Next... my next car... a Datsun 240Z....

My grandfather Frank, my FIRST car...1969 Lotus Europa S2 and the KOZAK cloth!

I've been dreaming about my first car (well, the first one I actually paid for)... it was a 1969 Lotus Europa S2. Fiberglass body, Lotus Red in color, a Renault Engine (transversely mounted if I remember correctly) Dunlop Tires (more about those shit tires later!) and a US$4995.00 price tag! The car weighed only about 1000 pounds, so it had quite a good weight to horsepower ratio.

The car handled beautifully. I remember the day I bought it... I was living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the dealer was in Wilmington Delaware which was about a 1 hour drive away. My friend Otto.. the guy with the 1964 Red GTO convertible drove me there to pick it up.

When I walked into the dealer's showroom, there it was... all dirty and covered with something black and tarry looking!!! I was so disappointed! The dealer came over and said "Hey, Paul... we thought you were coming tomorrow!" My heart sank.. but he smiled and told us to go down for a MacDonald’s and come back in 2 hours.

Well, I never ate a cheeseburger and fries that slowly before! Otto was good enough to stay with me, and finally ZERO HOUR arrived! We motored back to the dealer and there she was... right in front of the dealership... all waxed, shiny and waiting for me... I can still remember the feeling of excitement even now as I am typing this!

It was beautiful... I signed the papers, and hopped in for the inaugural ride, with the salesman in the passenger seat. He gave me the 50 cent tour, and I kicked him out.. I couldn't wait to take her out on my own!

Well, it was also my first stick shift (manual shift for those of you younger than 30!) and it took a while to get used to the clutch. The mechanism back then was very primitive... just a clutch cable run along the floor and fastened to the fiberglass shell with rivets. And YUP... on the way home to Philadelphia, on my FIRST hill... the freekin' clutch cable broke loose! With no tension in it, I could not shift gears! We didn't have hand phones then... not invented yet... so.. I was STUCK! And, on a hill also, with other cars behind me!

Fortunately, for some reason the engine stalled out... I was able to put it into first gear, and limped back to the dealer. I was heartbroken.

The repair took about an hour, and I was on my way again! Made it home this time, parked the car in front of my house and went inside for a cold iced tea!

My grandfather, my Uncle Joe, my grandmother... after tea we all went out to have a look at the car. they said... not very practical, no trunk (boot) for groceries, no back seat, no room... UGH... I was really upset... BUT I LOVED THAT CAR.. My grandfather Frank, he knew how much I wanted that car. He took me aside and said softly..."let's take her out".

He climbed in, and off we went for a good 1 hour ride. When we came back, he went over to the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant and pulled out the KozaK Auto DryWash cloth and passed it to me "Son, here's what I have used to keep my car clean... try it.. It’s yours if you like it".

I wiped down the car, and the Red color just popped out... the car glistened in the afternoon sun.

I still remember the smile on his face as he watched me polishing my first car... I really miss him...

So... that's how I first started to use KozaK... more about the Lotus and those awful Dunlop tires later.

If you have a car you love, try the KozaK Auto DryWash cloth! My wife distributes KozaK in Asia. Go to her website

www.kozakasia.com and read about it.
It really does work!