My 1972 240Z

[gwpriester]

I had a silver 240Z. 71, I think. The difference was the emblem/vent behind the window on the side. Mine said 240-Z over the circle.

I was an art director on the Datsun account at the time and so we got a discount. I think I paid about $3,200 US for the car. The original 240-Z had an incredible amount of power. Then the smog emmission standards made it slower and slower, to the point that they increased the size to 260, which was a disaster and then to 280, which was my second Z. But none of the cars had the spirit of the first 240-Z. Brings back memories.

Beautiful rendering, by the way.

You could probably loose the blue plate in front however. It detracts from the rest of the image.

Gary

[Terry]

Gary,

Since you're a former 240z owner, you probably noticed that the front air dam in this image is an aftermarket item, and that the stock bumper verticals were replaced with the solid black units from the 260z.

This one is the last one that ran well before they introduced the 280. California passed new smog and bumper laws that were effective for the 1973 model cars, and that was the ruin of the 240 series.

That blue was the actual color of the California plate at the time. The blue plate was removed for the photo and replaced with a white one with a large black "Z" on it. That looked worse than the blue, IMO -- but then I was used to the blue...

[gwpriester]

Terry

When I worked on the Datsun account, 1970-77, I was living in Palos Verdes where Parker Advertising, the ad agency for Datsun was located. In fact, I spent my entire life in California before moving to New Mexico in 2000 so I am very familiar with the licence plates.

When I would do a photo shoot on Datsun, I even made my own licence plates that we would use. I created a female shape by cutting the letters out of heavy matt board then placing a piece of medium weight paper over the die and using a wood stylus to rub the paper into the die. Then I would paint the background and the letters onto the plate.

I would have done well in prison :-)

The dealers loved to load the Z's with every bit of extra stuff they could and the waiting list was such that most people would just fork over the money.

(Mine was metalic silver and had no extras).

Gary

[Ron Duke]

Barracuda. Close?
ron

[John Rayner]

hi Ron!

looks great! Is is just me, or does the barracuda look like it has a flat in the right rear? something looks just slightly off for some reason. Love the grill tho!

[Terry]

Hi Ron!

Great rendering! Joe should be very pleased!

John,

It looks slightly off because the plane of the driveway is tipped forward -- the car image is fine.

[Thatch]

Very nice Ron. Some nice little details there. I've taken a couple stabs at doing this but I just don't end up having the patience to get to the end. Can't say as I'd be able to do any better than you've done with it though. It looks great.

I would agree that the ground plane seems to be throwing off the perspective of the car. You've generally followed my slopping drive but for some reason (perhaps the lack of any other background) the angle fights the car. The only other things I see is that the upper side strip seems to have a little 'jag' in it in your version that isn't in the actual car (it's just straight) but that could be an issue of the file being resized. I sometimes get strange artifacts like that. The last being that the body seam under the bumper on the front right is a bit distracting in the yellow color. Seems to draw undue attention to that area.

These are generally niggling little things and mostly because it's of a subject matter I'm well familiar with. As I said though, it looks great. I was just joking when I threw the pics up. Had no idea anyone would take up the challenge. You done good.

Joe

[Ron Duke]

Can't increase the file size enough to get rid of distortions. Adjustment made on curve of road. Changed color of body seam front right.
ron

[John Rayner]

That is much better Ron. It looks like the horizon point is off a bit on the road...