025 | Nissan Z Cars, San Diego Car Cruise & Should You Daily Drive Your Dream Car?
Cool Cars with Chris: Car Talk, Driving Tips & Auto Life
025 | Nissan Z Cars, San Diego Car Cruise & Should You Daily Drive Your Dream Car?
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Car
Nissan 370Z
The Nissan 370Z is a sporty car made by Nissan. It's designed to be fun to drive and has a powerful engine that makes it fast and exciting.
Car
Nissan 350Z
The Nissan 350Z is an older sporty car from Nissan. It was made to be fun and fast, and many people liked it for driving on roads and tracks.
Concept
Nissan Z sports cars
Nissan Z sports cars are a group of fun and fast cars made by Nissan. They have been popular for many years because people enjoy driving them.
Concept
daily driver
A daily driver is the car you use every day to go to work, shop, or do other regular activities. It's the car you rely on most of the time.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that has been around for a long time. It looks similar across many years and is known for being fun to drive.
Term
sleeper build
A sleeper build is a car that looks normal but is actually really fast or powerful because of hidden changes.
Term
E85
E85 is a special kind of gas made mostly from plants. Some cars can use it to go faster, but not all cars can run on it.
Concept
dino (dynamometer) testing
Dino testing is when a car is tested on a special machine to see how powerful it is without actually driving on the road.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower is how we measure how strong a car's engine is. More horsepower means the car can go faster or pull harder.
Concept
weekend car
A weekend car is a special car that people only drive on weekends or for fun, not every day. They often take good care of it and enjoy it as a hobby.
Term
naturally aspirated
A naturally aspirated engine is one that breathes air on its own without help from devices like turbos. This means the power comes smoothly as you press the gas.
Term
linear power delivery
Linear power delivery means the car gets faster smoothly when you press the gas pedal, without any sudden jumps in power.
Part
exhaust
The exhaust is the part of the car that lets out the gases from the engine. Some people change it to make the car sound better or go faster.
Part
brakes
Brakes help your car stop when you press the pedal. Parts like pads and rotors can wear out and need to be changed.
Part
clutch
The clutch helps you change gears in a manual car by connecting or disconnecting the engine from the wheels.
Part
oil cooler
An oil cooler helps keep the engine oil from getting too hot so the engine works well and lasts longer.
Term
limp mode
Limp mode is when your car slows down by itself to stop damage if something is wrong, like if it gets too hot.
Concept
test drive
A test drive is when you try driving a car before buying it to see if you like how it feels and works.
Part
brake pedal
The brake pedal is the pedal you press to make the car slow down or stop. It helps you control the car's speed safely.
Part
throttle pedal
The throttle pedal is the pedal you press with your foot to make the car go faster. It controls how much fuel the engine gets to make the car move.
Term
e-brake
The e-brake is a special brake you use to keep the car from moving when parked. You usually pull a handle or press a pedal to turn it on.
Concept
ambient lighting
Ambient lighting means special lights inside the car that make it look nice and cozy, usually colored lights around the dashboard or doors.
Term
stick shift
A stick shift means you change the car's gears yourself using a lever and a pedal. It can make driving more fun because you control when the car changes speed.
Term
smog check
A smog check is a test to see if a car's exhaust smoke is clean enough to meet government rules. It helps keep the air clean by making sure cars don't pollute too much.
Concept
roadworthy
Roadworthy means the car is safe enough to drive on the street without breaking any rules or putting you in danger.
Term
intake
The intake is the part of the car that pulls air into the engine so it can run. Changing it can make the car work better or worse.
Concept
buying power
Buying power means how much you can ask the seller to lower the price if the car needs fixing or has problems.
Concept
cars and coffee
Cars and Coffee is a fun event where car lovers meet up, park their cars, and chat while drinking coffee.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a famous car from America that has a strong engine and back seats, so it can carry more people than small sports cars.
Car
Infiniti G37
The Infiniti G37 is a fancy car that is sporty but also has enough space for passengers and is more comfortable for everyday use.
Brand
Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi is a company that makes cars and other machines like trucks and airplanes.
LIVE
Hey, what's happening? How are you doing today? Thank you so much for being here. I am Chris
of the world, the famous cool cars with Chris, man. You clicked on the right show at the
right time. And on today's fabulous episode, courage went on a little cruise driving all
around San Diego. This was hosted by Avant the car club. And he took his car with a bunch
other cool cars where they went, what cars were available in the group and what he did
on that drive. You'll hear about that. And you might know that I had a Nissan 370Z sports car.
In fact, I originally wanted to buy a 350Z sports car. And before that, I wanted to get a 300ZX
sports car. So we are also talking about Nissan Z sports cars. Both of us have owned Z sports cars
in the past and possibly we might buy another one. Well, maybe we'll see, find out on this episode.
Plus, speaking of cool cars and having a cool car, what is the psychology involved when it comes to
daily driving your favorite car versus if you have like, say a fun weekend car that you only
take out on the weekends does taking your favorite car out every single day to work groceries,
wherever, all the time, does it lose its luster if you're always in it all day, every single day?
Well, find out all about that and more on this episode. Let's go.
All right. We are live with the video for the first time doing here on with the cool cars with
Chris. I got courage. How are you doing today? But I see you now. How are you doing? Good,
man. This is cool. First video podcast. This is a good situation. I like it.
Yeah, man. So truth be told, the courage was not flying down here on his private jet
or his hot little sports car, driving down here every single night. Truth be told, no,
we did this remotely. So when you do things remotely like this with video, you obviously
can see. That's why they like about audio is that like, nobody really knows, you know, the magic
of radio. Nobody knows that you're not here with us. So, but anyways, how are you doing today,
buddy? Yep, man. It's been a good Sunday. It was kind of a chore day. Was doing a lot of stuff
just around the house that has been gotten put off for a while. So it was doing a lot of that.
But it's been a good weekend. I had a cool little event on Saturday that I went out.
Oh, really? Where'd you go, man? Where'd you go?
We went. So I had an option of two different drives that were going on that I at the last
minute decided on the one that was more favorable, but the, the in club, so kind of in club shout
out to those guys. We're doing a drive up in Big Bear, actually. How far is that from your place?
That's an hour and about hour and 20. Oh, really? Yeah. And, and on top of that,
they were starting to drive at eight o'clock in the morning. So that meant I would have had to
like be gone by six 30 or so to make it there, which again, it's not like leave your house at
six 30 in the morning. And then two hours worth of drive. Like, you know, we're going to drive,
we're going to drive all through there. And then I had to drive another hour and a half back,
depending on driving traffic. So as much as I want to go, I mean, I saw pictures. It looked
like it was, it was actually a little bit of snow still on the peaks and everything.
Oh, that's right. It's so hot down here. I keep forgetting it's snowing every supposed to winter
time. Do you know how hot it got up here yesterday? Did it crack 100? Did it crack 100?
No, it wasn't that. It was, I heard that it did. Did crack 100 in some parts of California,
which is not normal during the winter time, but it was about 90 here, like 90, 91 or so in Temecula.
And so it was a little weird, but you know, we still managed, but I ended up actually going
on a drive. I actually started out down in Spring Valley area. You drove all the way down here?
Down the Spring Valley, which was only an hour. It was actually only like 55 minutes or so. So,
you know, save myself 30, 40 minutes driving to the location. But the cool thing was that it was
back through. We went up through like sunrise highways up to Julian and then came back to
this cool little like garage, like bar kind of thing right off of the 79 highway. It's called
garage 79. Interesting. I've been through that route many, many times. I'm just trying to imagine
where it is. Yeah. It's literally just one bar out in the middle of nowhere. It's kind of almost
like, if you remember like that scene in Fast and the Furious, except, you know, not, not the same
setting where they're right on the beach, but just this little, you know, kind of cool little shack
style garage. And they sold food there too? Or is it just like? Food. Got some really great Mexican
food tacos. Oh, nice. Nice. I got to get out there and start doing that stuff, man. I got to get
out there and, you know, gosh, we're really on a car though. Anyways. Yeah. I know we're going to
talk about that for sure. But no, but it was cool. It was a good group of folks, very diverse car
group. So, you know, I kind of went out and drove with the in cars, but it was great, you know,
kind of doing that. And it was cool too, because the loop basically brought me back home. So,
Oh, that makes sense. So imagine if you went all the way around and you came back down to
San Diego, you like started here, stopped here, got your back home. Well, I'm sure that something
happens for other people that came out here. So how many like, were the all in cars or the other
cars too? No. So this one was like a whole diverse group. It was, you know, some Porsches. It was
a cool guy I met there with a pretty, uh, pretty new like 9 11 career four S or something. You see
the price on those? I was looking at those today. I don't how what I'm looking at cars, like the
Porsches keep coming into the feed and I'm like, 150,000. What's this thing? Oh yeah. Check that
out. They're calling you 9 11 or like, I see the cheapest one I saw was like just, just,
just about a hundred grand, be 101. You know, I forget what year it was, but it's not another 9
11. People love a man. They, they say once you, they, they say it's like it's not, it's not a
matter of when, but, or not a matter of if, but when you'll like make that, make that jump into one.
If you're like, you know, a car enthusiast, I don't, I don't fully agree. I think there's other
cars that scratch the itch that, you know, 9 11's made, but I, I think that, you know,
there is something special about that formula that they've been literally sticking to their
tire, like design since forever. We saw one today. It was a 69 9 11.
And I'm looking at it. It looks pretty old, you know, obviously, but then that whole like
design is the same. I mean, similar to today, you know, a newer one for the most part,
but that was pretty cool. You went out there, drove around now. When you guys go on a cruise
like that, you guys have to like stay in uniform, stay together in a group, almost like a funeral
procession is like that. I think I just like that.
You, yeah, you try. Like it is kind of like that where you do want to, you know,
initially we start out that way. You try your best, you know, especially if there's any freeway
or, or sit freeway or city driving. Like someone gets caught the light.
Yeah. Getting stuck at lights and things is like the easiest way to just get broken up.
And we definitely did. I actually missed our exit getting off when we got off onto the back
road to get to the 79, but luckily a lot of those exits still, they find their way back.
They gave us a good like GPS route to make sure we got back. And so I made my way back,
but there was really just like a group of maybe like three of us for a while.
And then we ended up, once we got to Julian, we all regrouped and then we ended up making it to the
spot. You knew exactly where you're going to be at though, right? So it was like,
it was like, Hey, we're going here, figure it out, you know, meet us there when you get there.
But everybody kind of knew. And you guys waited for everybody to get there though,
when you're all W guys, we hung out there. We, we, we stayed there for probably a good like
hour and a half or so, just kind of hanging out and meeting people, getting the chat and everything.
So once we made it to the destination, you know, we all pretty much rolled in within about like
15 to 20 ish minutes from each other. So, you know, that I'd say that was a pretty successful
drive for how long the drive was because they didn't have to get gas. So how does it work?
Well, that I was going to say that, yeah, because there was, there were two guys there that had
some absolutely insane builds. There were two 40 sx's, different generations.
My favorite. Oh, well, what are my favorites? But yeah, I mean, yeah, I think like 240c,
but yeah, the sx's, yeah, I've seen those in a while. But yeah, so those are like little
four bangers, right? But well, they, they, they had some things that one dude, one dude went
to full sleeper build where like on the outside you'd think like, Oh, just, it's just this guy's
little drift build or something. Like, you know, just slap some, you'll slap some paint here and
there. He was put, he told me that he dino pretty much about 600 horsepower on E 85. And so it, you
know, yeah, you know, going, and that was the thing they, so him and his buddy who came,
they both had, you know, highly two, two 40s, and they both had to stop off the 80 E 85. So
that was, there's places that have it now. A lot of stations have it now.
Yeah. A lot of them do. I mean, when I was getting the 85 for my truck a lot, I was,
I kind of knew the ones that had it. The Chevron seemed to have it. Something Arco's had it.
A lot of Chevrons knew had it. And so I would find the ones that did, and I would just go there,
you know, and stuff and find my spot. But, but if I had to like do a route and required E 85,
the entire route, like a destination drive, like you just did, like I would have to, I don't know,
how you, I don't think, I don't know if there's an app for that to figure out where the, where the
I'm sure that they, yeah, I know that there is. And I'm sure they knew they, because they,
they told us right on the drive there, like, yeah, we're probably going to have to take
a slightly different route to go fill up. And so yeah, when you get out to those areas, like
Pine Valley and, you know, Alpine. Yeah, I don't know if they have it out that way. Now,
how many cars in total we just say? I think it was probably about 20 ish. Yeah, probably about
20 cars. So it was a nice, it was when we were making that final like kind of drive up to the,
to the restaurant, to the place, it was, we, it was a long, you know, straight road. And we came
down this one hill and you could see all of the cars that were in our group. And then you really
kind of saw the scale of just the amount of cars with us. So that was a pretty cool little little
situation. What was the, what was the cost of joining us to do this? Was it free or how did
this was free? Yeah, it was a, an advent event, which advent is like a, they've done this in
different, you know, different markets throughout the U S, but they've just kind of opened up a
San Diego kind of division of a bond. Now they're detailing, right? No, so they, they had, they have
a elite finish is like one of the large, like detailing shops here in San Diego. But one of
the guys that used to work for elite finish is actually the one who spearhead in the Avant,
the Avant San Diego group. And so it is a membership to kind of be a part of this kind
of car club in a sense, but you know, their, their whole kind of marketing play is that,
you know, you actually do get like legitimate discounts from Michelin. You know, they give
packages for all the, like the auto detail, like griots and, you know, those kind of like auto,
you know, auto detail, you know, car care companies. And, and then on top of that, they let you know
of like, you know, kind of events that they're putting on, like these drives. And that was
actually how, you know, I went to the, the Doug, you know, Doug DeViro. That was your ticket in
there. That was your, that was your golden ticket. Yeah. And then Mr. Hollywood over here.
Get all the, get all the press passes for all the cool, cool events, man.
Well, that's super cool, man. Did the kiddos go? Did the wife go? Just you by yourself?
No, this was just me. Yeah. Just, just so little drive. I needed, we definitely want to
have us a fun little drive. And so Ben, the little ones didn't wake up in time anyway. So
no, it was lone wolfing at this time around. I say whenever I did my videos, when it's like
not the kids in there, it's like it's the driven dad solo series for a little bit, but
you know, blessed that the wife let me get out for a little bit and have some fun and
no, it was a cool little day for sure. That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Take your car out
and drive it and have some fun with it. I know that you do these events. You do take your car on
drives like this and events like this to drive a car around a lot. How often do you ever take
it's like work, like drive for like normal, like normal drive, not like fun driving, but like
regular gotta go somewhere kind of jobs to like commute. Yeah. Right. Well, really, to be honest,
like, I mean, I do drive to where I'll get to that, but like really honestly, I drive it
literally everywhere. Like it's, it's the grocery getter. It's the, you know, it's the just, you
know, go to the beach car. Like it's, we have one of a car, but I, this car does like so much that
I tend to use it all the time. Okay. You still enjoy it though, right? And yeah, it's pretty
weird that like, yeah, you, a lot of times when you, when you drive something all the time, you
get a little jaded. Like you don't really enjoy getting in as much as you do all the time, but
it just has, you know, such dual personality where, you know, you can be, you know, you can be chill
and just commute in it, which I do commute down the San Diego a couple of times out of the week.
So I'll do that. But I also every once in a while, I have to go out to like job sites. Like I,
you take that car, you don't take that. Yep. Yep. I take that car out.
They don't give you a company car for that. They don't give you something like that.
No, I get mileage, you know, I'm a company car and then I get mileage reimbursement. I used to get
mileage reimbursement, but now because it's like sort of ingrained in like the whole payment structure,
they don't do that anymore. But oh, they're just like, it's part of your income now. So it's like
part of my salary. That's how companies do. Oh, that's how they do it these days.
That's what they call it a mileage, a mileage allowance or something like that.
But you did keep track of that still or how's that work?
No, so they, they'll just determine it kind of based on like, if you were, if I was having to
travel, say like every week or something like that, they would just increase the mileage allowance. So
because I only, you know, I only travel out periodically say once or twice, like,
you know, a quarter or something like that, you know, that's, they, they set that as like,
okay, this is how much you would be spending, you know, if you're commuting out and using your
own car or if you were renting a car or something like that. Okay. You rent cars last year. I know
you told me that you, you love that. I used to do that a lot. Yeah. Uh-huh. I used to do that a lot,
especially for work trips. I used to use Turo. I haven't done that in a while. I've been kind of
itching to have an excuse to, to do that. But it just, you know, I just haven't had bad reason to
as of late. But did they give you a cap on that for work? Like how much you can spend on Turo
per car? You can't get like a new vet or poor show or something like that. You can't.
Unless I'm going out to these like work sites that like,
it's all dirt and dust. It's all dirt and dust that everything,
the last thing you want to do. Well, I want to take my own car out there either. I don't think I
wanted to, you know, um, I mean, I mean, my truck, you know, it's four wheel drive, but even still,
I don't think it all filthy and, and, and, you know, I mean, it's got some battle scars and stuff too,
but it's, but, um, but yeah, I mean, I like to keep it clean, you know, I mean. Yeah. That's the one
thing is that it's usually not that bad with like the dust as long as it's not like raining and
everything. But I did have one, one trip that I came back from, from Arizona where I came back and
it was right after they had like a bunch of rainstorms out there. And so I drove through like
these areas where it was like super muddy and you know, the, the, even like the job site itself,
they had just kind of regraded everything because the rain was so bad. But when I got back, like
the inside of my wheel well was just coated with just all of this like thick mud and everything.
Your tires, are they summer tires? Are they like regular tires?
They are. Yeah. The, the pilot sport four S tires are pretty kind of dual used. Like you can use them
and, and some, you know, kind of wet weather and still get some decent performance out of them,
but they are a summer tire at the end of the day. So like, if it's a really like heavy, you know,
weather situation, you probably don't want to be driving autumn.
Right. Where I was thinking like dirt and stuff and getting kind of traction because some of
those tires are pretty slick and they're designed for like the track and street rate use.
Like I want me to take a job sites really. Well, they do a lot. Like they, they're really like a
large budget. Actually, like a lot of these projects is like really great in these sites. So
that like they can be used as like me, you know, major roadways for like deliveries and all that
stuff. Like it's not ideal. Like at the end of the day, but yeah, it's like a really packed
like dirt. It was like a clay super compacted. Yeah. Like clay, but then you don't get a lot
of loose mud patches and things like that. Yeah. I remember I used to deliver out there to a lot
of sites and if it ran, we couldn't get out there because the trucks get stuck. We couldn't get
close to the, you touch, your front axle touches the job site. It just like sinks in that clay.
It looks solid. You look at it and then you, and then you go into it. Nope. Nope.
Back out of there. But it's like we ain't getting this delivery or whatever today.
But the thing is with your car though, like if you use your car for everything, you know,
you don't think you're going to be getting sick of it? Like driving for fun things too.
Yeah. I mean, it's, that's a valid question. I mean, I've been going on actually three years.
I think three years of owning the car now. Yeah. Cause 22. Yeah. So about three years old in the car
and you know, I, I don't daily commute it. Like if I was like in, you know,
Temecula, the San Diego traffic every single day, you know, five days a week, like, you know,
that, that would be a different story. But, you know, the fact that, yeah, it's usually like
once, maybe twice. I do go down to San Diego for other reasons, but it's usually not commuting to
work. You know, I think that lowers that, you know, that, that, that whole mentality of like,
yeah, I'm getting tired of sitting in this car too much, but yeah, I think it also kind of
sucks away some of the specialness out of it. You know, I remember when I had my car, it was
like that too. I started driving a lot for work, but for a while it's just driving on the weekends
and driving the truck, but then I switched back to switch back to driving the car and then
driving the truck on the weekends. So the truck became special to me, you know? So, yeah, which
kind of, it's kind of, it's kind of cool to have you have multiple cars. We can kind of pull it off.
If it's your only car, like sometimes your only car and they're doing events like you just did
and they're commuting to make it to the San Diego and they're taking the groceries and the kids and
soccer and what else are they going to do? It's just like, I don't know, man. I don't know if you
kind of lose that luster, you know? I think it's why a lot of people have, when they have their
cool car, it's like their weekend car or whatever, whatever. They're pride and joy, you know? Not
something they drive every day, but there's, there are situations where it is a car you drive every
day. I don't know. It's, there's a psychological thing about that, you know, that. So I'm definitely
excited to eventually have something where it, yeah, it is kind of more dedicated to like the
special drives and things like that. I mean, I, you know, weirdly enough, when I had my 300ZX,
I, you know, I actually daily that car. I literally daily that car. I was, I was doing college,
so I was like driving back and forth from like Mission Valley area to San Diego State and,
you know, I drove that car home multiple times from here to the Bay Area, packed deep with all
of my stuff. And I, I probably in, in the time I owned that car over six years, probably put
like a hundred thousand-ish miles, if not more. You put a hundred thousand miles on it?
I think so. Yeah. You did by yourself? Holy crap. Yeah. I, I did a lot of driving in that car for
sure. What year was that one? 90. It was a first year, second year. First year. I thought 99 was
the first year, but it was 90. Okay. So first year, and it wasn't the twin turbo, was it? No,
no. It was the NA. If it was a twin turbo, that I would not have, that car would last as long as it
did, you know, because I did a lot of work on my own, but it was mainly just because the NA is
a little bit more conducive to that kind of stuff. Oh really? But how powerful was it? I mean, I mean,
it's been a while since you've had it, but how does it feel like? I mean, I don't have to burn
your car, different car, totally different car, but, but when you drove it, how did it feel to
you? I mean, I mean, I feel, I mean, I know it's not the turbo, but did it feel like it had power?
I mean, because I've driven the Z31s before. Yeah. And so I just kind of imagine it feels a
little better than that. Compared to the Z31s, especially like an NA, like the Z32 definitely,
even that felt like, you know, peppier than the Z31. The thing about the the NA's of the Z32s though,
is that they, they, they were linear power because they were, you know, V6 is an NA, but, you know,
you're, you're really not really getting into a lot of the torque until like, you know, 3000 RPM
and above. It did get kind of shouty, which I did kind of like, I did have an exhaust on it,
which was nice when they were kind of, when you rev it out. But comparatively, like, you know,
knowing what I know now and like the power level I'm at with this car, it's like, it,
it was a different world. Like it was, you know, I would have loved to have a twin turbo because
those are more comparable power. Can you, can you like take a naturally aspirated 300ZX and
add turbos to it? Oh yeah. You can do that. Yeah. I've seen a lot of people though. I've seen people
both switch, you know, they'll swap a twin turbo in because it's the same front,
front end clip. So you can literally just swap in. Is it the same block? Is it motor itself?
I think so. I think there's some slight differences in there because it's like the V,
I forgot the whole like code name or whatever, but there's some slight, slight differences and like
some internals and different things like that to really make like a twin turbo what it is. Yeah.
But overall, they're the same size though. They're the same three liter or whatever. Yeah.
That sort of thing. I think, I think I've realized something that I'm actually, I think I'm a Z guy,
a Z guy. I'm officially going to pick a shirt says the Z guy or whatever because I love the Z
brand. I've driven many Z's and I've driven the three Z 31's a lot of my sister had one and
friends had them and stuff. I never driven, never driven a Z 32. I was asking you about that,
but I've driven a Z 33, which was the Z 33, which is the 35. Yeah. I've driven those around.
And of course I've driven, I've owned a 370. I've driven that a lot, ran a lot.
And I've got Z at a Z 34. Did they call it Z 35? I don't know if they do or not with a new one.
I'm not even sure. Maybe I don't know. I haven't, I haven't, I haven't gotten that deep into it.
You know, and those Z, the new ones, the new Z's are kind of sitting on lots. They are selling,
but they are seeming to be like a high turnover rate because I've seen them
use like a 2025 model, use 2024 model, use. We just got the thing, you know,
a lot of them use and things like that. Even with the use when you're still want like
40, 50 grand, you know, 60 grand or whatever for those things and stuff. So, you know, but
when they started offering them with manuals and they did have like a big kind of price discount,
but a lot of people were talking about it last year. They started to move a lot better than they
did initially, but it is hard to find a manual because even on, yeah,
every dealership is like automatic, automatic, automatic, automatic.
Or the Nismo automatic, whatever, you know, like why? Like the Nismo shouldn't be the one.
Well, yeah. So, so, yeah, I've been, I've been kind of like browsing, you know,
I got this bug. I'm thinking like, I miss, I miss my Z so much. I missed it. You know,
I know it had a lot of problems towards the end and I spent a ton of money fixing it.
I know I spent a ton of money fixing it. I needed, before I sold the car, I had to put on
new brakes. Well, that was the first thing I did because it squeaked a lot. I put new brakes on
the thing, super expensive, brand-bos, rotors, rotors, all that. It was like three grand or
some ridiculous amount of money. And then it needed tires, the tires were getting old,
new tires, tires weren't that much, I think, but they weren't that much,
but still had to pay for tires. And then it needed, oh, clutch, the clutch went out.
That was the big job. It was like 3,000 for the clutch. The clutch went out, I mean,
slave cylinder, you know, it was a 2011 370Z and somewhere between the 2009, it first came out
to like 2015 or whatever. They had issues with all that kind of stuff. It's, mine also didn't
have an oil cooler on it either. So the oil temperatures did get hot quickly. I knew, I knew
that too. And it got hot. And I was kind of like, well, it took in the canyons and it got to like
240 degrees oil or whatever, or 220, whatever it is. I also do,
well that is already at a rep and I was going to say that was, that was one thing that happened
on this drive on Saturday that was a little bit different. It got up to, yeah, I think,
because climbing up those heels going up towards like Kuyumaka.
You're doing pike's peak. You're doing buddy.
Yeah. I haven't done that for a while and it got up to about like 89 and 90 degrees outside.
And so yeah, I got, there were a couple of points where I was at like about 235 to 240.
Do you know the cutoff point on your car or like it was lit mode?
About like a 260 is really like the top end.
Your car will go limp mode. Do you know that?
It'll, yeah. Like the gauge actually turns red. Like it'll show, like it'll turn the,
it'll change the like the numbering for your like, both your, if your engine temp and your
oil temp are up high, like it'll go red and it'll, yeah, it'll warn you at that point. Like
235 to 40 isn't like bad for like, say, if you were on track and you were going to,
you had two 40 oil temp, like that's not terrible.
But I would, I think now I probably, not to derail for what you're talking about,
but they've said that going like a higher weight oil is probably,
is probably beneficial. You know, you'll probably get, you know,
a little bit better management, getting it down or whatever and stuff.
So, but mine, mine, I didn't have any issues with oil, but it did get hot,
but I never, I didn't track the car. I didn't encourage you like that, you know,
but, but I have driven it, you know, in the hills and stuff a few times and things like
that. Things like you just did nothing, nothing too crazy, you know, and, um,
did get hot or whatever and stuff like that. But, uh, but what else did I fix in the car?
I would need a new plugs and you got that fix. It's how I need a lot of work.
And at the time I was married to my ex-wife and, um, you know, I thought, well,
why don't, I know this newsy just came out and I figured newsy was being super overpriced.
They were like marking those things up like crazy, the newsy. And I'm like, well,
maybe I can sell mine and make some, make, you know, make some of my money back.
I spent on fixing it, you know, whatever kind of thing. And even though I loved the car,
I loved it. I was like, man, you know, if, if I can, if I can just sell it at top of the
market right now, cause everyone's looking for Z's cause the newsy came out, then maybe
they had a, I saw the hard time sell it. I thought it would sell right away.
I saw a hard time selling it. It wasn't like I got a ton of, I got some low balls come through
there on what year, what year was this? 23 ish or my Z was 2011.
No, but what, what year were you trying to sell it? It was whenever the newsy like
officially hit dealerships and they were like marking it up to like,
I saw one on Instagram square. I think it was like $150,000 or some ridiculous amount of money.
Somebody posted like the window sticker or the dealer sticker from some dealership.
It was like 150. It was like some ridiculous amount of money. And that's what I thought.
Like, well, if they're asking 150 for newsy, I wouldn't mind to get a condition.
I don't know if I can sell mine, you know? And so, and besides not say I was getting bored
with the car, but I think it was kind of like, I'd have time to really do the fun drives like
I used to. I was doing fun drives a lot. I didn't have time to do that a lot.
It just, it's, if you're traveling a lot for other stuff and the cars just became,
to me at that point, just kind of became like a commuter car. I could literally do the work.
And it was like drive back with the work car. That's all it really became, you know, and the
truck on the weekends or whatever, either or, but, but it wasn't really like,
like a fun spirited drive. I mean, once in a while would take it out, but it wasn't like,
like what you're doing kind of a thing, you know, and stuff like that. I kind of missed that.
And what, how did I know about cars and coffee events back then? I would have been taking those
things. I was actually looking to go joining a Z club when I first got the car and looked at
the standing with Z club. And the thing was they were meeting on, on like, I think it was like
Thursday nights or some night that I had to work or something or whatever. And so I'm like,
well, I can't even do that anyways, but that I know on, you know, Sundays, it would have been
all over, you know? But yeah, I was part of the, the sub, the CSD for a long time. And, and I
was, I'd still talk with a couple of those guys kind of here and there. And yeah, they, they
would use, I don't know if they still do, but they would meet over at this Denny's over in like
Claremont Mesa area.
We're going to go over, I throw somewhere in there. I saw something on their website about
that. And I was like, oh, it's super cool to do that. You know, I just never pulled the trigger
on that stuff. And then what happened? I think Christina and I, well, I started doing pot,
well I had pot, that's the quality, but I think I started doing pot, that's the quality was a
business. And I think I had a lot of other things kind of going on at the same time.
So when I had a lot of different things happening at the same time, I kind of like was,
well, if I can sell it, make some money on it, you know, I mean, do I need, it's not like my
daily car. I don't, I don't, a lot of people have a car and they, and they have that one car and
they have to trade it in for the next car they drive for it. Because they need a car.
I had two cars at that point. I had this truck, which is new, and I had the Z. And I didn't need
like two cars at that time. So I'm like, you know what, I think I can sell it. And that's what I did.
And, and this car was totally paid for, paid off and everything, you know, although I got
ripped off of that stupid deal and I bought the car and never do that again. But, you know,
they sold me everything. When I bought the car, I had to throw everything at it, every warranty,
every gap, every warranty, all the crap in the world they threw on it. And it racked that total
price tag up like way, way high. And I'm like, holy crap, I didn't think about it. He's focusing
at the payment or like whatever, you know, but it got really, really high. But eventually I paid
it off. I got some cash and I picked the car off early. And then I, so I had the car, totally
paid off, you know, it was great, you know, and then, and I just sold the car. Now I kind of like,
I kind of regretting not having a cool car. I go to these cool cars and coffee and talk to you
and you guys do your fun stuff. Dude, I want to be part of the cool kid club, you know, I want to
be able to do these fun things, you know, you know, all that kind of stuff. So I mean, my son has
the Mustang. It's not really mine. It's his, you know, I mean, and so it's fine. That's definitely
some cool bonding that you guys, I feel like that you guys have been able to do. Oh, definitely.
I saw you post from today. Actually, I think you might have made it over to one of the,
yeah, the power way. It's very long though, but we were there for like maybe the first hour that we
left. But yeah, we're there. Yeah, he was getting kind of boy, I think it was kind of boy. We saw
some cool cars. There wasn't a lot of cars there. And he took some pictures. I think for him, it's
more about like just go and see what else other cars are there, take pictures, check them out,
and then bounce, you know, or whatever. So that's kind of what we did today. But, but we've been
doing that. It's kind of fun to take his car over there because it's kind of a cool car, you know,
versus the truck. The truck's cool too, but I just don't, I just don't feel like it's the same
as a car or cool car, you know? Yeah, well, I mean, you got some hardcore truck guys out there,
man. I'm like, you know, I remember when we went out to, to the Scripps Ranch one a couple weeks
ago when you were eyeing that, that Bronco. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That classic Bronco. And,
you know, obviously like those are, you know, a different realm too in terms of like what,
what you, what you can pay for those on top of like what it costs to like really like modify one
of those too. Oh, keep it going too. And all that stuff too. So I mean, it's a new car really. So,
but, but lately, yeah, lately, so lately I've been kind of getting the itch to get back behind the
wheel of a Z. Now when my son bought his way, bought my son's Mustang, the same day we were
looking at a Z at the lot, they had a couple of 350s. I told the store before, but I test drove
one, it was an, it was an 03, which is like first generation 350. And I test drove it.
It was fun. It was great. It took me back to amazing times enjoying the Z again. Now I felt
like Mike's 370 was faster than 350 and it should be. It's newer car. The 370 is an evolution of
350 power. There was a, there was a, there was a first generation 350. So it had that, that
the de motor and it had, it had less power, less torque. And it just seemed like, I mean,
it was fun though. It was very fun to drive. It was blast. I got really comfortable. I loved it.
It was great. Very notchy on the stick ship, very, very easy to drive. I mean, very, it felt tight.
I guess the shifter felt tight and all that stuff. So it was fine. You know, that's cool.
And, but I didn't pick that up. So, so now I'm kind of regretting it. Cause I went back to look at it
and there was, it was sold. I couldn't find it. It was gone. So I'm like, all right, whatever, you
know, and that's how I'm looking at what I had three seventies. I went back and find a three
seventies. Look at three seventies. Same thing. Look at three seventies again. And they,
they surprisingly, the three seventies, you think you see them everywhere.
You think they're everywhere for sale. And they kind of are. Unfortunately, they're like, like,
ones with like salvage title or automatics or convertibles and automatics.
Yeah. I don't need that crap. What I want is, is that like the worst combo is like a convertible
and automatic. Okay. Convertible, automatic Z like,
your ranking of what it's okay. A convertible, automatic Z just screams that I want a cool
looking car, but that's it. It could have, it could have a four cylinder in there. It
can have two cylinder in there. They wouldn't care. The guy who buys that does not care what
that engine, nothing has or anything like that. They just want to just cruise and especially
the automatic ones, you know, um, you know, like, like a Miata, for example, but Miata's are cool
too. You know, whatever, you know, it's kind of the same deal. Don't get an automatic Miata though.
Do they even sell automatic Miata's? I think they do. Cause they, they sell automatic
was a Miata's and then like BRZ, like those two cars are like ones where it's like they,
they just need to be a manual. So we'll go back to the Z. I'm trying to find one that's not a
automatic and there are a few in town. There are a few. And so there was one, there was two, actually
one that was close by the first one. I didn't look at it in person, but the first one,
it was an O nine, which is first gen. I'm like, I don't know what a first generation one,
that's all the issues, you know, they got to deal with. And so I'm like, I don't know,
it's a stick ship. I don't know, whatever. It's not that far. Okay. It's price low.
Miles are kind of high, like the other one. And this other one I looked at, it was newer,
it was 2016, which is newer. And by 2016, they've already put an oil cooler on the car,
Nissan by Nissan oil cooler. They've addressed whatever issues they had by 2015.
So some of the issues that the, that plagued the earlier ones got fixed by time it got to 2016.
And so I was like, you don't want my head over there and check it out.
I had some time on Saturday, dropped myself a practice or something. And then my other son,
I went over there the Mustang. So I had to find the place, found the dealership,
and we would use car lot, whatever we go in there, pull them to the driveway, see the place,
pull in there. And the Z happened to be like right out front, which is usually,
sometimes you go to look at a car and they have them like buried in the back,
become like a bunch of other cars. They got to move cars to get to the car you want to look at.
Cause it happened to me about my Z. Funny thing, but about my, my Z,
it was in front, but they had it buried by cars behind it. So you couldn't even like,
they'd like dig it out to like, yeah, that tip. I want to test drive this.
100%. Exactly what they did. But this one,
the car was literally parked right in front of like their front window of their little
office building or they had there kind of backed in. I was like, sweet.
Was it a Nissan dealership? No, no, use car a lot, use car a lot. And so I, I, I,
the guys total like blood in the water sharks, the guys come out, hang out, you want to buy
they total blood in the water. I'm the only one, the only one there, you know,
people open the Mustang, you know, and say, but he's got this like a couple weeks ago,
a month ago, or whatever. And I'm looking at the Z. I see the Z. Is this the Z I saw online
right here? Oh yeah. This is it right here. I say, you have the keys. Can you check it out?
And they say, oh yeah, we'll get it. So the guy goes inside talks to somebody else. I forget who
gets the keys and immediately I wanted to like, well, we're doing walking around the vehicle.
Jacob and I were like looking around like kind of like I in the vehicle from the outside without
going inside or whatever. We finally gets the car keys. He puts the car, I think he fires,
he fired up, you know, he unlocked the car. I said, can you pop the, because the guy went
on behind the wheel. I said, can you pop the hood for me? So the guy that worked there,
whoever was, he pops the hood and I pulled the hood open. And the first thing I noticed about
the hood is that it had aftermarket, like what do you call those like little hydraulic struts
on the hood? Oh yeah. So yeah, right. But I remember my car had the actual stick, right?
And the stick was still there. You can actually use a stick with it. But the thing that I like
pushed the hood up and it just like took up. I'm like, well, that's weird. I don't remind me of
doing that. Well, one thing though, I, because my, my 08 M 35 has, has auto struts as well.
And I wouldn't be surprised if, are you for sure that they were aftermarket? Cause I, I think the,
it was why I say that's because it had the stick still there. Oh, cause they, oh, so yeah. So
that's, you know, and mine had the stick. I remember, I mean, how, how, they wouldn't change
the, the hood struts. I don't think that'd be something they would change going from 11 to 16.
I doubt it. I know they didn't change much on the car, but I doubt that'd be something they changed.
So it did this, the actual hood stick was there and I'm checking out the car and I see the intake
because it is a modified intake on the car. I noticed that from looking online, I want to see
it. And the first thing I want to look at, I'm looking at the intake. I'm looking at the hoses
and you can see where it's a colder intake. It comes off both throttle bodies on both sides
and it goes down into the bumper and disappears. I can't see the filter. I don't know where it is.
And so I'm like, that's weird. And then I'm, so now I'm looking for, because on the, on the actual,
on the actual car itself, on the front of the car, they have like a smog check, okay,
sticker that they put on the dealer put on there and I'm thinking, okay, well, if it's smog
checked, okay, that don't see this. I'm looking for a sticker for the intake, for the carb legal
intake. And I did find it was on the hood under the hood looked up and under the hood, I could see
the name of the brand, the intake, the carb number and the carb legal and all that stuff
sticker like mounted on there. So it is carb legal and that's, that's a big plus because
if you have anything modified to the intake, anything at all in California, good luck getting
a smog. I mean, I had, I had, I didn't have an intake of my ethnicity. I just had modified like
Mishimoto tubes that ran from the air box to the throttle body and they threw a fit about that.
So the guys like, well, I don't think it's smog or whatever, but this one says it has a whole
smog, pass, great, whatever. So then the guy fires the car up, you know, and I say,
I take it for a drive. So sure, why not? I get to give my license, take a picture,
cop my license, they do that. If you take a test drive, do you want a copy of your ID? Probably
you steal it or something or who knows what. So I, I immediately get Jacob, get in the car,
let's go. I get in the car and I'm tracking from up familiar with it, get my seatbelt on,
get every kind of like situation, you know, I mean, I've driven this car before. So it felt
like right at home. I know where the seatbelt was, where everything collect, you know, adjusting,
adjusting the steering wheel, because the steering wheel was kind of out of adjustment,
I adjust the steering wheel, figure out all that. Great, let's go. And I reach down for the clutch
pedal, push the clutch in, and then I put the thing in gear. Oh, nice and easy. I start letting
it out. So I give it some little bit of gas and I realize, what, my foot's stuck on something.
What's, what's down here? Why is my foot, why is, why is it, okay, I'm pressing the,
I'm pressing the brake pedal, but why is the throttle potty? Like I hear the throttle going,
but the brakes, I'm not, I'm, when I think I'm pressing the brake, I hear the throttle going
and I'm like, what is going on? So then I quickly grab, like I pull it into a neutral,
yank the e-brake, step out of the car, really, we've gone like five feet from the parking spot.
And so, and I get down, I look in the pedals, down by the pedals, and I see
is some kind of like wire cable dangling right above where the pedal, like right across where
the pedals would be, like right in the way of the pedals. What the hell is this?
There's like ambient lighting or something like that.
Right. The guy had some kind of like lighting system that's supposed to be like right above
the pedals, super dangerous kids, don't do this at home. Because when this thing breaks loose,
because it did, it will go right in front of your feet and you want nothing in front of your pedals,
behind your pedals or in front of your pedals when you're driving a car, any car. You don't want
a water bottle rolling around, getting caught behind the behind the brake pedal or a soda can
or a can of peas or whatever you got. You want nothing in front of the pedals around the pedals
at all. So I immediately took that wire and I yanked it and kind of pulled it back. I couldn't
yank it out of the car. So what I did was I pulled it back towards the front of the seat to get it
furthest away. I could from, from the pedals. So it's back towards me now, but my feet aren't by it.
So I pulled it away and I'm like, okay, well, okay, well, that's stupid. But so I actually,
that's dumb. I get in the car, I put it in drive. I mean, put it in first gear and I kind of leave
there a little parking lot there. And it's like a dead, the parking has like a little bit downhill
to the main street. It's like a little, it's like a little bit of a hill. So you go, I went down the
slight, slight, you know, dip down to the street, waited for cars to clear. And then I got in, you
know, drove, started driving way on the right side there. I got to the first light and I kind
of get familiar with the thing. And the shifter, I'm thinking about the shifter felt loose. I
mean, you know, but so it's just a felt loose, but then I put it in first drop, first gear,
and then I kind of like, am I the green light I had on Oklahoma Boulevard there? I, you know,
gave it some juice, you know, and I think it was too crazy to go into like a $35 zone. I could
be too fast, but instantly the car woke up and it like, it felt so incredibly fast, like so much
faster than my other Z I had. And so much way was faster than that 350 I drove. And the way that,
I guess the shifter was a weighted shifter. So I don't know if the car has ever had a clutch
job. I'm assuming it has, but the car facts report didn't, didn't show that. And so that's
why I'm thinking that the car facts didn't show any of the modifications they did.
And so I don't, I don't know if they normally would in any, well, any, yeah,
I'd be self done. My clutch did. If you get clutch done at like a shop, it'll be at a shop.
It'll be on the car facts. And so like any, anything, a radiator, whatever, you know,
it'll be on there. And the car facts pretty much didn't say much of nothing, but a few oil changes
or whatever, you know, you know, and so I'm driving the thing that the clutch felt very
easy to drive, very smooth, very light. It was a very light clutch. It was like boom, boom,
shifting felt so easy. It almost felt too easy because mine felt a little notch where you kind
of like, it feels a little tight where, where, where we've done saying where it's not like,
like this is, you know, like you, you, you're in it, like you're, cause my Z was like that too.
But, but this one, I don't know if it was a shifter or the combination of the shifter,
maybe new clutch or what he did, but it was very, very, very light. Very light to use.
And I, it was like, I mean, it was like so easy. I could almost shift the thing with my finger.
That's how easy it was. Yeah. No, I mean, I, that's, it's interesting because it's like,
you know, you get used to, you get used to either one or the other, I feel like. And
like when you're used to something that's like a little more, a bit more notchy and like you kind
of, I don't want to say you have to force it, but you really like feel like you're, you know,
you're doing something. And the 350 was very notchy. The 350 is very, very notchy. I remember
it was like, he's like, to get it in there in each spot. This there was none of that. It was
like just going right in back and forth. And like even at neutral, it felt, it felt, it felt like
incredibly loose, but it felt looser than, than, than I'm like, that's weird. So, but
this car has been modified and I don't know what they, I don't know what they did to the car.
But once I got it, go down, down straight away where I can get going with the thing and get a
couple of, roll a couple of gears out of getting a third or fourth gear, whatever I had in the
thing, getting on the freeway. I was like, holy crap, this thing feels so crazy fast.
But also I haven't driven one of these in a while too, but I remember what the other one felt like
and this feels way faster than the other one did. And so I knew it had pipes on the back,
like an exhaust, but I didn't know if it had a full cap back or just it had replacement mufflers.
Like, I don't know about that. I couldn't, the car's still a little to the ground. You can't
really look underneath there to see, you know, it seemed like it was lowered at all. Like,
no, I think mine was low too. Mine was, mine was stock too, but it was pretty low. Like,
you couldn't really see under the car unless the car was like on a hill, like a slight incline
and you kind of get underneath and look underneath on the hill, maybe, but other than that, like,
like if it's flat surface, it's like, I mean, you look, I look, I was looking back underneath there
and it looks like the mufflers were bolted on to some piping, but I don't know if that was
piping with stock piping or if it was aftermarket all the way back, that I do not know. And so,
I thought, oh, so much fun. It was so much fun driving that car, no check engine lights, no,
I mean, the only thing, okay, the one thing I would say, it was a downside, the first thing I
noticed when I got in the car was the first bummer. I was like, oh man, it doesn't have that.
It doesn't have sync rev. And, oh, okay. And my other car did, right? And I was like,
oh, that kind of sucks. But, but I mean, it's not a total deal breaker, but it was something
of fun to have on the Z. Yeah, it's a convenience for sure. And like, you know, even, even car now
that I've gotten used to a car that has that, like not having it would be one of those where it's
like, oh man, like that would be great to like still have that feature. But I suspect like you'll,
if you got it, you'd be, you'd be getting that heel toe and getting those crisp down chips.
My feet are too big. I don't know if I can pull it off. But, but the, I used to drive the Z around
and I got, I put it in that mode a lot when I was in the canyons or spirited driving and things like
that. But there was a lot of times I just cruised it in regular because I noticed that it would,
if you kick to the neutral, come into a light, the sync rev thought you're putting into like
first or second. It was like sort of revving like crazy. And so I had to turn it off for
those kinds of things and stuff like that. But it didn't have that. But, but the shifter was very,
very easy to use and very easy to shift. And it's so like incredible. Like this is so easy to drive.
Like I'm driving the thing and I'm like, Oh, this is fast. This is dangerous.
This is so easy to drive. Like I can see myself driving this thing and it is the best part.
It's the exact same color. It's my Z. That's your LZ. How nice.
The exact same color and everything was the total trip, you know, and oh,
it did have a duck tail wing on the back. Okay. So you had just like the, you know,
sort of flush with the body, but extends out a little bit. But it flips up like a duck tail,
which kind of threw me off because I'm looking at the rear of your mirror,
kind of blocks the mirror a little bit. And I'm looking back there and I can't really see very
well. And the car's totally tinted like dark from like bumper to bumper, you know, not the windshield,
but everything else too, which I'm like, ah, and like the thing about me with cars,
I told Jacob this the other day, I was like yesterday, talking about their car is that
I don't want to get pulled over, you know, and I don't want to be like seen. I don't want like
I don't want to track the cops. I know like if your car, if your car has no front license plate,
which does not go for license plate, no for license plate, tinted windows, loud car,
you know, if it's lowered and it's got like the window tint like all around, dude, I mean,
come on, you're probably going to pull it over, but it's safe.
Let alone if it's a bright color, if it's, you know, that's a good thing.
Yeah. That's the one day I go over, but yeah, if you got like a bright red car with all of those
other things on top of it, like, you know, that's your, you're a magnet for sure.
Right. And so, so, um, so I decided to, I told the guys, so what inside talk numbers,
the guy wouldn't budge on the price. And I'm like, come on, dude, I mean,
the car's been sitting in this lot for a long time. I know that because I can see the data,
you know, and they've lowered the price. According to the data, you can look on the,
on some websites, you can see what the price was listed at and like when it got dropped and
they've already dropped it a few, a few rounds already, like twice that I could tell.
And so I'm thinking maybe they want to play ball. Maybe they'll, maybe I'll, you know,
come by, come, you know, not like low ball, but maybe I'll give them like a, you know,
like maybe I'll get, you know, not pay full for it or whatever. And so the guy didn't want to
budge on it. He's like trying to say, well, it's a, you know, it's a rare, you know, car, because
it's a three, three, three 70 with a stick shift. They're hard to find and blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah stuff. I'm like, okay, well, okay. Oh, here's what I told the guy.
The mods, man. I'm like, you know, that's where it was. So we wanted a car, it works me. And so
I'm like, okay, I told the guy, here's what I'll do. How about this? I would feel more comfortable
if I took it to a mechanic that I picked, because they already said, oh, our mechanic looked at it.
Our mechanic said it's fine. Yeah, your mechanic said it's fine because you want to sell the car.
You know, I mean, your mechanic probably is like, whatever, we changed the oil, it's great, whatever.
Maybe, maybe lights work, okay, great, whatever. But not that I'll trust you, but dude,
I don't really don't trust you. You know, I mean, you're a sleazy, you're a sleazy,
use car sales. You know what I'm saying? You know, so I don't really trust you, but
so I'm thinking like you. So on Tuesday, but to record this, I'm going to take it, have them,
have them. I told them the place, I went over to the place, check with them first.
I told them, listen, I'm thinking about buying a modified three 70Z. I need you guys to do a
pre-purchase inspection, check everything over. You can, you know, what's the cost to do that?
Wouldn't you free to do it? And he said, uh, Tuesday sales, okay, fine.
I texted the owner of the car dealership guy said the Tuesday, this address meets you there.
He said, okay, so we'll see if he shows up on Tuesday at the place I suggested. I think
if they want to sell the car, they will. Um, and I told the guy, the mechanic guy said the car is
modified and I'm mostly concerned with like, like the clutch, of course, any modifications,
making sure it'll pass small because it does have an intake. And I wasn't sure about a tune.
You said about a tune because the car could feel crazy fast. I didn't hear any popping sounds on
the exhaust or anything like that, you know? Yeah. Cause that was, like I said, that was the only
thing that would, would kind of do like a little bit of us. Like when it comes to small, like,
you know, yes, your, your intake might be carb legal and, you know, to an extent like
if they run the ECU on the thing and they find out, you know, anything with the ECU or anything,
you know, that, that could be a problem. That's why I would take it to a place that can run a
lot of stuff and have them check that. Cause they, they find the place I went over to, um, says
they do smog checks and all stuff around the building. So I'm assuming they have the tools
to do a lot of crap anyways and see whether or not, if they can tell me to pass the smog or not,
before I buy the thing, then I'll know. It almost was like, yeah, like a viewer, like
real estate is like, yeah, like can like smog test this thing now and like, yeah, yeah. Well,
I just want to, yeah, maybe we'll see. We'll see what we'll do, what we'll do for the inspection,
but they're probably going to do like a visual inspection, but I gotta make sure the car is
roadworthy. If there's any issues that you worry about, like, oh, the brakes are must out or, or
I don't know. You know what I mean? I mean, just some, you know, it's smart. Like I, I, when,
when you told me that I was like, yeah, that's like, especially giving them that specific,
like, you know, I want to know if this thing is going to have any issues with smog and like,
what would it be? Like, is it something easily reversible? Like say, just get a new intake
or whatever, or is it something that really would like take a lot of money to now reverse
and get that. And also it gives me, it gives me a buying power. If it needs a bunch of work and
they say, well, you know, if I got to spend another like two grand on whatever needs to be fixed,
why don't you lower the price by two grand, you know, and it'll take you to fixed or whatever
kind of a thing. Maybe I can do that. So that's kind of the thought process I have with that.
It wouldn't be your only car too. So that's like a big benefit. No, no. The fact that this would,
you know, as we talked about, like, you know, having a, having a weekend car, like a more fun car,
like, you know, having something that is like, you know, maybe more modified, even though it
sounds pretty drivable as it is, like, you know, some of the things that you might have to compromise
on, or maybe there's something you do have to do that, you know, it's not like you have to do it
right away, but it's also not your daily driver and something that you might have to get done.
It might be my daily, well, if I do, if I do buy this car, I don't know if I've decided yet.
A big yeah. Yeah. If I do buy this car, I think that it would be the car that I would take to
cars and coffee, maybe drive to work, anything that's kid related or, or on these cool grout,
these, these cool drives, right? Right. Right. That goes kind of things and things like that.
So I think, I think that because it's so impractical for a family car or, or moving anything and
stuff like that. It's so impractical that it's really only purpose of a 370Z is just like one
person driving back and forth to work on dates or, you know, these drives and things like that.
It's not something you'd want to like road trip in, but people do, but I don't, I wouldn't want to,
I wouldn't imagine leaving the city with it. You know, I can't imagine leaving me,
maybe go to your place showing you the car or something like that, but other than that,
like I wouldn't, I wouldn't like, you know, take it to Vegas or whatever. I could imagine doing
anything like that with a car. I don't know. I mean, yeah, I can see. So I can see a haul,
like a haul to Vegas though. Like you, you don't get a lot of stuff. So you don't need a lot of
trunk space and, and, you know, cruising with the, with the windows down for a part of the way,
at least like 150 degrees. Yeah. And then while you're in Vegas, like it's a cool car to kind of
put around in Vegas, you know, while you're there, but, you know, but for, yeah, for real,
like livability types that like, if you're like, like road trip, multi-state or something, you
know, family to the kids, it's impossible. You know, the kids and things like that. So it's kind
of like, I even thought about when the guy bought my other Z, I thought about getting into, if I
get into another sports car, I told him, I probably maybe get a Mustang because as a back seat,
because it's more practical. Yeah. We're practical and things like that.
Or the G 37s or something like that too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was kind of thinking
that route when I, when I, when I was, when I sold the other car, but there's just something
about the Z. I just, there's something about owning a Z, missing the Z. And I think people who've
had Zs before always kind of gravitate back to them or something. Yeah. I, I, oh yeah. I mean,
I'm, that's a previous Z older myself. Like I, I am like, it should give myself back into a Z 32.
Like that, that was just the generation I grew up with, but it is, it is true. Like there's
some cars that just stick with you and like Zs, Zs are there, like with a lot of people
where they only want and they want to get it back. The, the West home people before with,
with, with my older Z and now with the C, this is this C, particularly the three,
three 70 is that it's like a pure sports car. Like it is purely a sports car. It's,
it's nothing else. You know, I mean, the way it's been designed, the engine, the way the engine
designed suspension, the, the, like everything in that car, Fred engine, rear drive, two seat
roads, two seat sports car. Like it's pure sports car. Like six, it was pure sports car.
And so, you know, I mean, there's a lot of cars that are multiple different things,
kind of like your, kind of like your car. Yeah. And my mind goes straight to that. Like, you know,
I could never, ever argue that the, the end in cars are purpose built, you know, performance cars,
because they're all based on economy, you know, four door, you know, essentially based on another
car. They already have their lineup too. Yeah. Like, like what my, what my mind goes straight
to a Neston era too is honestly, like I was, I was listening to somebody talking about disease
in comparison to the skylines and, you know, how the skylines really are. Like they were not
necessarily purpose built, you know, performance sports cars. They were, they have all of these
variants of like a four door, you know, sedan, they even have wagons over there and like, you
know, the different, you know, skylines and the, the obviously the top of the line GTRs were the
ones that everybody really wanted. But we saw one today. We saw one today. It was the,
what's the one before the new generation? Is that 34 33? Probably 34. Yeah. Before the newest.
Yeah. The, the one we got the GTR. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever that was, it was that was 35 or 34.
Whatever Pell Walker had that one in the fast and furious. Yeah. It was one of those today.
Not that far from the house. Guys driving around like, like slowing down. I'm like,
Hey, Jacob, look, look, look, look. He's like, what do you like double take out the window?
And like, we're trying to like drive side by side with the guy went another direction,
but, but I saw that from the front. Like, you know, I think the guy was driving the other side
of the car too. He had the right, right side drive. And so that kind of thing too. So that's
pretty cool to see something like that driving around town. Like it'll see those two very, very
often, you know, one random, random, random story on that. I was, I was driving on, just on the
parkway over here near us. And there was a FD RX seven, right hand drive RX seven that I've seen
around here a few times super nicely modified. And we were going down, we were going down to
make a parkway. It's basically like kind of a highway that kind of goes straight through
Temecula. And I pulled up next to him and I was like, Oh, it'd be cool to like, you know,
just get a little pull and like here and pull off. And, and dude, the thing just took off.
Like he, I heard the turbo's full and like, you know, he let it loose just in that probably was
not even anywhere near like its limit, but he let it loose and you just heard the turbo and
everything and he just took off. And so we stopped at the light and you know, he looked over and we
started chatting a little bit because we ended up right next to each other and he was like, Oh man,
like that thing sounds amazing. He was like, Hey, you know what's funny is like, I actually have a
Veloster in at home. And it's like, Oh, okay. Like, wow, there's a, there's a, there's an
appreciation for the in cars, but I was like all drooling over his car. Cause you know,
those arc sevens are like, if you talk about like the Japanese, like those Japanese sports cars,
the like the nineties and going into the 2000s, like the arc seven, the skyline, the Z
Supra, the NSX Supra. Yeah. The NSX was maybe a little, a little higher up just because it
like the price bracket it was in, but yeah, yeah, like the Supras, the 3000 GT, that one always,
that never really gets a lot of love. You know what? I never care. I thought that was like a Z
knockoff. And yeah, it really, it was like a bloated Z. Like it didn't have all little drive.
Right. But, but I was like, yeah, well, for me, all little drive, I'm always thinking like,
I don't live in the snow. What do I need that for? You know, like, I don't know what I need that for.
You know, so from perform like, you know, a lot of people will say like, Oh, it's a performance,
you know, because, you know, you can handle better. Like you got more grip and think, but
a lot of the, a lot of the issues you have with all will drive is that you get a lot of understeer.
Oh yeah. You know, if you don't, if you got a corner and drive the car differently on like,
you know, a cornering scenario, then you will, will drive because you're overcoming the front wheels
doing all of this work. And so a lot of times like, yeah, you keep, there are benefits in the
sense where you can maybe can get better launches and things like that. But, you know, a true like
cornering scenario, a lot of times like we will drive all will drive, they're going to be about
the same. Make the doughnut. Yeah. Yeah. Cause if you don't, yeah. Nowadays you have the
functionality where a lot of cars can kind of switch it off. Oh yeah. You can change the
bias and everything, but older cars, yeah, like, you know, the 3000 GT and all of those,
it was locked as a four wheel drive. Good little bitch. You know, whatever happened to them. I'm
with the, with this whole trend of like, you know, the, the Han movie, you know,
the, the, the first three where like, you know, Han's like, you know, what, what, what am I going
to do? Let you drive around in the Hyundai and he's, he's like throwing them the keys to the
Mitsubishi. The Lancer. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, and there was some dudes and like some thread with
the in cars or they're like, yeah, that, that in age as well. Cause where's Mitsubishi right now?
I don't make mini vans. I don't know what they do these days. I have no idea.
They apparently are big in the aerospace realm or like somewhere like in, well,
they make those trucks. They make trucks. I think those like, uh, moving trucks or those,
um, they're like, they're, they're, they made these like little moving, like, like UPS kind of
trucks, that kind of small trucks to the Mitsubishi. I don't know. I probably have seen them around,
but yeah, they have Mitsubishi logo on them. They're, they're, I, when I worked for a freight
company, we had one or two and they're by Mitsubishi. I remember it's the Mitsubishi,
you know, the Mitsubishi diamonds on there, on there and everything. So they're like little
like box, like, you know, like, you know, freight trucks or whatever, you know,
can UPS kind of things or whatever. Um, they do that kind of stuff. But anyways, man,
I don't know if I'm going to buy the car or not. I have no idea. We will find out. It's tempting.
We will see. I think it'll be a great addition for cool cars with Chris,
but, uh, yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens. You know, I got a lot of stuff happening
around here in these parts and, um, you know, I won't say it won't be cool to see,
to see you with the Z because I know you sent me some videos of, you know,
your old one and, and banned that car. It's super cool. Like, yeah, it did. It did.
All right. Since you're, since you're a local with all these cars and coffees,
I'm sure a lot of people, a lot of other people are going to be excited to see you in one too.
Oh yeah. Definitely. Even Jacob said, like, I won't point, he said,
what'd be cool if we show up together to cool up cars and coffee at your Z at the Mustang?
We kind of parked like, like nose to nose or something like our credit card,
you know, cars, your parks, whatever, or even side by side, whatever, you know,
at the, at the events, like that'd be super cool. That'd be super, super cool.
But he wants to mod his car. He's always telling me how mods you want to do the car and all
that stuff. He said, you know, we'll get your license first, you know, worry about that. And
then let's start there on the drive. I was hanging with, there was a, there was a guy who had
pretty much almost the same year of Mustang as the, as you guys have as your son has,
and his name was Chris actually. It wasn't mine. Was it, was it red? Was it red?
No, it was black with red stripes, actually. Oh, okay. Was it the six cylinder or the eight?
It was a six cylinder. Really? Yeah. He's probably been around, because he lives in
San Diego. So he's, he's probably been around it, you know, some other cars and coffees and stuff.
But yeah, he told me, he was behind me for a good amount of time. We actually got lost together.
We were like one of the folks that, yeah, we were lost buddies and like just wondering like,
okay, where are we? Like we knew we were getting back to it, but we didn't know where we were
going to be in the pack when we got back. And, and yeah, when I, when I stopped off,
I started chatting with him and I think he said his was an 06, 05, something like that.
And, and yeah, he was like, yeah, my name's Chris and I was like, oh, there's some similarities here.
Nice. People love that. People love that Jenna Mustang.
Yeah, it looks classic. It looks clean. It looks great. You know, I mean,
he doesn't handle great or whatever. It doesn't, it has that live reaction.
He did say that. He literally said what you just said is like, yeah, like,
it's fun like to drive with a straight, but like that library axle on the corners is not
just that, but this is like handles very well. I kind of want to take,
I feel uncomfortable taking turns in the Mustang as fast as I would in the Z, but just say that.
I mean, the car has got smaller tires on it and you know, it's Jacob's car. I want to break it,
you know, whatever or roll it over or whatever it does. I don't know, but, but it doesn't,
it just feels like a regular car. Like you're driving like a
Toyota Camry or something. Well, but the Toyota's front wheel drive versus rear wheel drive.
I mean, I wouldn't say like the old cop car, but it feels kind of like that.
I was like a crown Vic. Yeah. I'm not quite a crown Vic, but I mean, but maybe a little bit.
I don't know. But anyways, Urge, I know it's late. I know it's just so much fun having you
on the show today, man, and talking about cars and cool stuff. And so where can everybody find
out all about you and all your cool stuff? What is your handle on YouTube?
Yeah. No, well, thanks for the shout out. The one time where I get to actually show this on camera,
but the driven dad, uh, check it out. YouTube, Instagram driven dad, 22 will take you right
there and got some fun stuff planned. So yeah, feel free to check it out. Awesome. And don't
forget to follow on cool cars to Chris.com. It is the official website. I got to rebuild the website.
Don't you worry. But as of right now, cool cars are Chris is available for you to check out all
cool stuff, all the episodes you can subscribe, you can follow, you know, you can send a message.
I think you even send him voice message if you want, but please leave a voice message to be
kind of cool. So anyways, until next time, be safe, keep your car on the street, not in the ditch.
See you later. That's consumer advice. See you guys.
Okay, let's see. Oh, everything's, oh, everything else quick, everything up a little fast.
Yeah, because usually it takes a while sometimes. I've had to take like 30 minutes afterwards,
but it's probably cause I was doing 4k and I'm not doing 4k with it with a free be here. So
the free one or whatever, but I'm going to stop it here.
About this episode
Chris and Courage share their experiences from a San Diego car cruise hosted by the Avant car club, featuring a diverse group of vehicles including Porsches and Nissan Z cars. They discuss the appeal of Nissan Z models, reminiscing about past ownership and potential future purchases. The episode also explores the psychology behind daily driving a dream car versus keeping it as a weekend vehicle, weighing the pros and cons of each approach. Along the way, they highlight unique car builds, scenic routes, and the camaraderie of car enthusiasts on group drives.
Original notes
In this episode of Cool Cars with Chris, we dive into San Diego car culture, a Southern California car cruise, and the timeless debate every enthusiast faces:
Should you daily drive your dream car?
Chris and Courage talk about a recent San Diego car cruise with Avant Car Club, featuring a wide variety of enthusiast vehicles including Porsche 911 sports cars, modified Nissan builds, and high-horsepower sleeper cars. The drive takes the group through some of Southern California’s best driving roads, including Sunrise Highway, Julian, and Highway 79, before ending at the iconic roadside stop Garage 79.
The conversation also explores the legendary Nissan Z sports car lineup, including the 300ZX, 350Z, and 370Z, and why these cars remain some of the most beloved Japanese sports cars for drivers who love manual transmissions, rear-wheel drive performance, and affordable enthusiast cars.
Chris also shares the story of test driving a modified Nissan 370Z, comparing it to the Z he previously owned and discussing what it’s like buying a used sports car that has aftermarket upgrades.
Along the way, they dive into topics every car enthusiast cares about:
• Car cruises and driving events
• Sports cars as daily drivers vs weekend cars
• Buying used performance cars
• Modified car builds and E85 power setups
• Porsche 911 ownership and pricing
• The psychology of owning a dream car
If you love car culture, Nissan Z cars, Porsche sports cars, car cruises, and enthusiast driving, this episode is for you.
🎙 Connect
🌐 Cool Cars with Chris Website
https://coolcarswithchris.com
00:00 🚗 Intro – San Diego Car Cruise, Nissan Z Talk & Dream Car Debate
01:36 🎥 First Video Podcast for Cool Cars with Chris
02:30 🏁 Weekend Car Events & Choosing the Right Drive
03:47 🌄 San Diego Car Cruise: Sunrise Highway to Julian
05:03 🏎 Porsche 911s and the Cars on the Cruise
08:02 🔥 600HP Sleeper Nissan 240SX Build on E85
10:06 👥 What Avant Car Club Is & How Their Drives Work
12:03 🚙 Driving a Fun Car Every Day vs Weekend Cars
14:20 🧰 Using a Sports Car for Work & Job Sites
17:22 🧠 The Psychology of Daily Driving Your Dream Car
18:40 🏎 Nissan 300ZX Ownership Story
21:12 🔰 Why Nissan Z Cars Are So Popular
22:58 🔎 Looking for Another Nissan Z
26:20 🚗 Missing the Nissan 370Z
31:14 🏁 Test Driving a Nissan 350Z Again
34:02 🔥 Test Driving a Modified Nissan 370Z
39:00 ⚠ Dangerous Wiring Found Under the Pedals
41:10 🚀 How the Modified 370Z Drives vs Stock
44:30 ⚙ Missing Features Compared to the Old Z
47:00 💰 Negotiating With Used Car Dealers
52:15 🤔 Should You Buy a Modified Sports Car?
57:20 🏎 Nissan Z Market & Used Sports Car Prices
1:01:20 🎙 Final Thoughts on Dream Cars and Driving for Fun
In this episode of Cool Cars with Chris, we talk about Nissan Z sports cars, a San Diego car cruise, and the debate around daily driving your dream car, diving into Southern California car culture with stories from a real Avant Car Club cruise through Sunrise Highway, Julian, and Highway 79. Chris and Courage discuss Nissan Z models like the 300ZX, 350Z, and 370Z, compare them to cars like the Porsche 911, and explore what makes enthusiast cars special whether they’re daily driver sports cars or weekend fun cars. The episode also covers test driving a modified Nissan 370Z, buying used sports cars, modified car builds running E85, sleeper builds like a 600 horsepower Nissan 240SX, and the realities of owning and driving performance cars. If you’re into car podcasts, sports cars, manual transmission cars, rear-wheel drive performance cars, car cruises, Cars & Coffee events, and car enthusiast culture, this episode is packed with stories, insights, and real experiences from the world of enthusiast driving and automotive passion.
#NissanZ #CarPodcast #SportsCars #CarsAndCoffee
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