| Just heard a song on the radio that jogged my memory to the very first time I drove a Z... It was the summer of 1982. My buddy Marshall had an old 70s purple Duster. Anyways, we were out cruising one night and a (loser, drug dealer, now realtor interestingly enough) mother-effer ran a stop sign in his POS orange Pontiac Lemans and smashed right into us right in front of the passenger side door. It was my first car accident and I remember how everything went into slow motion. I remember saying "Marshall ... fucking Stretch is gonna ram us" and then I turned my head to the side just before my head hit the window (no injury - thanks 80's fro LOL). But I digress... A couple of weeks later Marshall shows up a my place with a black (I believe it was called Black Cherry) 76 280z complete with window louvers, a whale tail, mag wheels, custom stereo, and a "racing cam" (whatever the F that was but it was cool sounding). I though it was beautiful - a huge upgrade over the Duster or any of the 2 seater cars around. (Typical two seaters in my town were 70's American cars that were about the length of a modern Suburban - totally different from the Z in every way). It cost him $5000 (which was like "infinity" back then). Anyways, he handed me the keys and said "you gotta drive this". We headed over to the local cruising strip - yes complete with drive-in A&W - and found ourselves at the front of the line at a red light. All of a sudden everything started moving really really fast. Marshall said "crank the stereo" - the song was "Burning Down the House" by "Talking Heads" (on Maxell Metal of course, sounded wayyy better than 8-track..) ... Light turns "green"... I hammerred the throttle in a way that you are only bold enough to do when you are a teenager... and this thing effin RIPS... 20, 30, 45, 65, 66, 67 ... shit ... red light ahead ... better hit the brakes ... hitting the brakes ... hitting them ... effin standing on them now ... whew ... stopped.... My buddy had that car for a couple of years and we had a lot of good times with it. I always remember that first drive though and thinking .."That Z was beautiful but it sure has shitty brakes...I gotta get one!" LOL Anyways, that's my story - would love to hear yours ....
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19:57:23 04/12/13
