The Dream

Friday I acquired an interesting new car; a 1990 Nissan 300ZX TT with 632 miles on the odometer.

This car had been used in a 1990 Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott called "the Dream" Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo Commercial.

At the end of the commercial the car performs a jump. Apparently it was slightly damaged (the vinyl nose was probably broken). The nose was replaced (but not painted) and the car was donated to the University of California Long Beach with the understanding that for liability purposes, it never be driven on the street.

The car sat in the university's warehouse for the last 25 years until they decided to sell it for parts on the Public Surplus website. I receive regular notices from the website and noticed the car for sale.

Well, I was the only bidder--I think other potential bidders were scarred off by the warnings that the car was being auctioned off for "parts only" and "frame excluded" in red letters. Obviously they had to let me have the whole car for "the parts".

Apparently the car was originally black--but hastily repainted silver for the commercial--and the windows including the windshield were covered in dark film--you see that in the commercial. There is also a piece of black cardboard stuck over the radio.

The car is in almost new condition--the interior even smells almost new. The silver paint is pretty cheap and fading in spots as well as over-sprayed a bit on the glass and the clutch pedal is limp. I would expect that many of the seals and the timing belt should be changed before any attempt was made to start the car. Also, oil should probably be injecting into the cylinders and so on. The tires look new but they are 26 years old.

Also, even though there stickers all over the car stating that its a twin turbo, I think its actually a naturally aspirated model. I have it in a storage container and don't intend to drive it.

Does anybody have an idea how much this car is worth?

I have no idea of the value or anything but this is pretty cool stuff! Do you have some pictures of it?

Easiest way to see if its a twin turbo is to pop the hood and se if there are two or four big inlet pipes, the turbo has four, and also the cover on the center of the engine should have a red stripe with the nissan 3000 v6 writing and a twin turbo sticker on the left intake plenum.
N/A's have a black stripe with the nissan 3000 v6 writing.
It should start with just a basic tune up but the timing belt should obviously be replaced after all these years.

Does the car have a vin#? All production models have a vin number stamped on a plate on the dash visible through the windshield on the drivers side, also on the firewall above the brake booster and on the driver's side door plate. It should read JN1CZ for a turbo car or JN1HZ for an n/a. Being that it was used for a commercial and donated for non road use it might be a pre production model with no vin# or radically different vin number, they issue odd vin numbers for manufacturers cars to be road tested but never sold to the public. If it's got a weird vin or none at all it will solidify it's history. If it's got a normal vin you can likely have it titled and use it on the street if you choose.

As for value, they The oldest Z cars are just now becoming collectible. The Z32 is a ways off from that status with the uber low miles a production car in mint condition might bring $20k? Maybe $30k being such low miles, it's hard to say as there just isn't much market for these as yet. If your's is a pre production car it could be worth twice as much as a standard production car but there isn't much market for them so you'll likely own it for a number of years before you see much interest. if it's got a standard production car vin number it likely won't bring much more than any other low miles Z32.

I'd love to see pics of it!

Hi fellows, I just relisted the Z on eBay, 1990 Nissan 300ZX only 788 miles!!

Since the last time I posted, I replaced the timing belt and related items, splash guards, spare tire and canister, fluids, removed the 3 layers of window tint film, installed a Kenwood CD player and registered the car!

The Z drives fine, tracks and brakes perfectly straight. It could use new tires and paint, but aside from that its a great car. It now has about 800 miles on the odometer.

Peter

So, just curious but after checking, is it actually a TT or an NA as you speculated? Two intake hardpipes (NA) or four (TT)? Twin Turbo in red marking on the ps of the intake manifold as well for TT, none for NA...

It was an N/A.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-Nissan-300 ... 7675.l2557