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Car Of The Day: May 10, 2017; Hot Wheels '73 Datsun 240Z (Fugu Z)
Topic Started: May 10 2017, 10:02 PM (350 Views)
Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
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Today's Car Of The Day is Hot Wheels' 1973 Datsun 240Z (Fugu Z).

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Autoblog
 
"If you pull the release lever and push the seat forward really hard, it should move a little bit," replied Sung Kang, one of the owners of the Z and the actor who played Han from the Fast and Furious films.

Unfortunately, I need more than a little travel from the driver's seat rails. Sung stands at 6 feet and I'm 5'9" according to my driver's license. Okay, I'm 5-foot 8.5 inches IRL, but who doesn't round up? Between how low the CarbonSignal seats were mounted to the floor and the amount of clearance between the soles of my Jordan 1s and the factory pedals, I felt like a kid sneaking into pa's car for the first time. I yanked the handle below my bum and heaved as hard as I could. Voila! I managed to eek an inch or so forward, just enough to reach the pedals.

My reward for being barely tall enough was the glorious vista of a rare, smog-free Los Angeles from the San Gabriel Mountains. I fired up the Z's ignition and any inferiority complexes I was struggling with quickly warbled away from the drone of the HyTech headers and GReddy exhaust. This ivory beast was loud.

Notched into first gear, I let out the OS Giken twin-plate clutch – a strenuous act that once again made me question my manliness – and the cabin grew louder as positive momentum began. Every pebble, particle, and loose piece of mountain road pinged the Datsun's undercarriage, amplified by a chassis that's been stripped and restored sans any sound deadening material. The Z was a road-going percussion instrument.


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For more information and pictures of the real car, please visit: Fugu Z

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The Z-Car is among the most popular Japanese cars in small scale. At this point it's hard to tell if there are more 1/64 Z-Cars or Skylines.

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Autoblog
 
The 240Z wasn't always this loud. In fact, up until February of last year, the Datsun lived its 40-plus years in an unmodified state. Sung Kang and his friends Michael Jen and Greg Hwang's search for a clean, stock first-generation Z lead them to a brown specimen owned found in the high desert, 70 miles north of Los Angeles. And that's when a modest Datsun 240Z began its transformation into the machine I was driving, the Fugu Z.

Sonny Chiba explained that if the poisonous fish wasn't properly prepared, it could kill you – a parallel I saw with a car built for the track.

"My friend Steve Strope is a car builder and he built some of my favorite cars, including the Anvil Mustang that appeared in Fast & Furious 6," said Kang. "I asked him why he named his cars and he said that so much goes into building one they become like his kids, and all family members should have a name."

"That stuck with me when we started thinking of a proper name for our Z," continued Kang. "I remembered having dinner with Sonny Chiba in Japan while filming Tokyo Drift. We were having fugu, Japanese for blowfish, and Chiba explained that if the poisonous fish wasn't properly prepared, it could kill you – a parallel I saw with a car built for the track."

Despite the exotic moniker, the original intent of the Fugu Z was a humble one. Kang and his friends set out to buy a car they could have fun restoring and drive on weekend track days or canyon runs. It was supposed to be an outlet for friends who shared a love for cars. But thanks to social media, things got a little out of hand.

Kang was looking for a body kit and stumbled across an image of one on the interwebs he liked. It was a widebody made by Rocket Bunny, a brand big in Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) circles. Sung published a feeler Instagram post asking where he could source one.

"I'm not an aftermarket aero kind of guy, I normally appreciate cars for their original form," said Kang. "But since we wanted to track the car, we needed bigger fenders to fit wider tires. I Googled for days, searching for 240Z fender flares and widebody kits, and when I stumbled across the image of the Rocket Bunny, I had an immediate visceral reaction to it. It was curvy, red, and looked incredibly sexy. We needed to get this kit."

Which is where aftermarket parts manufacturer GReddy got involved. A legend in the tuning game, GReddy's stateside presence dates back to 1994. The company has not only managed to weather a few economic downturns, it's managed to stay relevant in an industry that changed drastically in the last 22 years. Besides peddling hard parts and electronics, GReddy expanded into motorsports, managing a Scion drift racing program. In the most recent 2015 Formula D season they finished second overall with Ken Gushi piloting the GReddy-built-and-prepped FR-S. They also picked up the rights to distribute Rocket Bunny body kits in the US.

GReddy's marketing manager saw Kang's Instagram post and responded. Direct messages between the two led to meetings with the company president Kenji Sumino and eventually brought the build of the entire project to GReddy's headquarters in Irvine, CA. After constructing a competitive drift car, building a vintage Datsun was well within their abilities. But like any market-savvy company, GReddy also saw opportunity for promotion.


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94cadillacfleetwood
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Nothing good ever happens after midnight.
One of my favourite HW mainlines from this year. Simple yet lethal.
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pjedsel
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Muscle Car
It is a good question - the toy manufacturers certainly love the Skylines and the Z-cars. Pretty sharp looking Z-car from Hot Wheels. :woot:
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Hobie-wan
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SUV
More Zs are always welcome.
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funeralxempire
SUV
Bone-stock they look good, and even better dressed up in Rocket Bunny flares. :thumbup:
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