Nissan 240Z Street Racer

[Danny Lectro]

Tetsuo, a wannabe street racer with more money than sense, bought a nice 240Z, just to start cutting it up to add fiberglass aero.  He never thought about upgrading, or even repairing, the stock L24 straight-six under the hood.  After losing a large sum of money on races, he decided to sell the car.  He set the price to try to recoup the money he spent on the car, plus the money he lost racing.  Between the exorbitant asking price, the damage he did to the body, and the poor reputation the car gained during the owner's failed street-racing career, the car languished on the market for a long time.  Eventually, he found a buyer named Kaneda, but had to accept less than half of his asking price.

Kaneda knew repairing the bodywork would be an expensive and arduous task, so he decided to leave the bodywork, bad paint and vinyl stickers as is and concentrate on mechanical upgrades.  He upgraded the brakes, suspension, and had the engine swapped for a small block Ford V-8.

When the work was completed, Kaneda started going to street-racing events. The other racers remembered the car, and it's miserable performance, from Tetsuo's time driving it, and thought Kaneda would be an easy mark.  Kaneda made quite a bit of money in those first few months, before the car's reputation caught up with its performance.

This is Fujimi's Nissan Fairlady 240Z Full Works Version, finished as a curbside model.  This was my first time cutting up body work to fit add-on aero parts, so things didn't go as well as I would have liked.  Instead of putting the kit to the side, I decided to go with it, and make a distressed and abused street-racer.

The body color is Tamiya Bronze acrylic.  Chassis, interior and hood are painted with Tamiya Semi-Gloss black.  Trim was masked and painted with Tamiya Gloss Black.  Decals are Revell Pinewood Derby dry transfers.  I used various Ammo of Mig Jimenez products to add weathering and distressing.  Black thread was used to replicate zip-ties holding cracked aero together.  Header ends were made from K&S aluminum tube, I used a Dremel with a ball-shaped grinding bit to thin out the inside bore of the tubes to make them look more scale-correct.

Here is the WIP:  http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/100787-nissan-240zg-track-toy/

Here are the finshed photos:

Here is a shot of the finished model in its display box, next to my '25 Model T rat rod:

Edited July 25, 2016 by Danny Lectro
Added details of the build.

[afx]

Good save with the body.  Are those wheels & tires included in the kit?

[Danny Lectro]

Good save with the body.  Are those wheels & tires included in the kit?

Thanks!  Yes, they were included.

[Mike C]

That looks really cool!

[Rider]

FNtastic build and mods.

[Hubert Rollins]

Cool model.

[Danny Lectro]

Thank you all for the kind words.

[da_ashman]

Love the story behind it! Great job, it looks awesome!

[JJ Deuce]

Nice job!  Always liked the g-nose on those early Zs

[slusher]

Very nice Danny...

[aurfalien]

Wow LOVE the story and the finished product is simply bitchin!

Oddly enough my buddy had a small block V8 in his 240, OMG what an insane car.  Stock V8 even.

It transformed into a BEAST, was able to chirp at will, in 5th etc...

[Danny Lectro]

Thank you, everyone!

[Yahshu]

Nice Datto 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Cool backstory. She has a very convincing rode-hard-&-put-up-wet street-race look, too. Nice ! (I'm sure you know...in real life, a smallblock Ford is just about the perfect engine to swap into an old Z-car. Better swap than a Chebby, by far. )

[Danny Lectro]

Nice Datto 

Thanks, Phil!

Cool backstory. She has a very convincing rode-hard-&-put-up-wet street-race look, too. Nice ! (I'm sure you know...in real life, a smallblock Ford is just about the perfect engine to swap into an old Z-car. Better swap than a Chebby, by far. )

Thank you, Bill. I decided against saying it had a Chevy, since it seems like everybody and their grandmother does an LS swap these days. I actually toyed with the idea of claiming it had a Toyota/Lexus 1UZ, but thought that might be going a tad to far.