This 70's Porsche 911 Competitor Deserves MORE Attention!

The Nissan Z cars have long been a favorite of mine, with their long sloping hoods

impressive drive train, and able to take on European rivals like the Porsche 9-11

and even American cars like the Chevy Corvette. This one in particular is a 1977 280Z

However, this one has been highly modified with an LS1 underneath of the hood

no longer seeing the 2.8 liter that it was originally built with

So in this video, we're going to be getting into everything that you need to know about the 280Z

as well as that LS swap. So stick around if you want to hear about that. Now back in the late 60s

Nissan was looking at sports cars like the Chevy Horvette, the Porsche 9-11, and other sports cars of the time

and realizing they were either quite expensive or compromised, and there really wasn't anything coming out of Japan

to compete with those cars. So they decided to build the Z car. The first car was actually the

1970 Nissan 240Z, and this is the 280 Z, which there isn't a ton of difference between the two cars

However, the original one came with a 2.4 liter in line 6 engine, and this one came out with a 2.8

liter. The 280Z also had some differences between the two cars, including an accordion

front and reader style bumper, of which this one has been modified to remove them

This is actually a super common thing, as those accordion style bumpers were really only there

for regulatory reasons and didn't look all that great, so most people ended up deleting them

and replacing them with something like this. The original 2.8 liter engine that was found in this car had 170 horse

power and 177 pound foot of torque. Of course this one no longer has that engine so it's

considerably more but we'll get into that later. This original car has three different

transmissions to choose from. There was a four-speed manual, a five-speed manual and then a three-speed

automatic. However, this one in particular has been upgraded to a six-speed manual to go along

with the LS1 swap. Now the exciting thing is actually that I get to review this as I was able

to borrow this from an owner that has had this car since 1992 and it was instrumental in making it

so that LS swaps could even happen in this car. All right, so as I do with all of my reviews

let's start off with the power train. And with that, let's start with how you get to the engine itself

Of course, there is a latch of the normal spot in the interior to be able to open the hood

However, this one has a rear opening hood. So you basically pull a latch right here

and it lifts up like this, which is a rare sight to see in a lot of vehicles nowadays

And I personally think is one of my favorite ways to open a hood. Now that we're on the inside of the engine bay

you can see this is any, anything but stock. In fact, this engine is an LS1 out of a 1998 Chevy Camaro

It has been dinoed at 325 horsepower and 326 pound foot of torque which is almost double of what you got from the 2 liter in line 6 that was in here originally And having been in this car myself

I can say it runs extremely smoothly. And not only is this a completely different engine

it has a custom headers, custom intake, and a completely custom exhaust. That is dual exhaust

all the way to the rear pipe, which comes out of a single outlet. As I had mentioned earlier

it also has a completely different transmission being a six-speed manual transmission, and it also has a limited slip differential in the rear. However, while we're on the note of modifications like this, let's talk about a couple other modifications that have been done as well. Its suspension has been completely modified with new coilovers. It has modified front and rear strut braces. Then, of course, the brakes have willwood calipers. Of course, I have also been tons of modifications to the exterior and interior of the vehicle as well, but we'll be getting into those later. All right, so while the drive

train of this vehicle is extremely special having that LS1 swap. I think my favorite thing about this

vehicle is the exterior styling. I think Nissan did an amazing job at building this car. I really like

the long sloping hood, which is not something you get very often anymore. And then of course

the short rear end going into that spoiler. So as we talked about a little bit earlier, the 280Z is an

interesting vehicle because it's actually quite similar to the 240Z. As we can see over here, so this bumper

originally had what was an accordion style bumper, which has talked a lot about with 9-11s

They had to do the same thing because for regulations getting into the United States

you had to be able to have a bumper that could go in, I think, about five inches for pedestrian

safety. However, to be honest, most people did not like the styling. So most people went this route

of doing a delete on that bumper and putting in a new kit. So the owner decided to go ahead and do

a new kit on this one, which included this front rear dam. It also had these rear side skirts

And then if we jump over here, this rear bumper had the same thing where it had that accordion style bumper before and now has this

The note of being completely custom as well, this car actually originally started off as a white car and was repainted this red color

And with that repaint, they also red did the interior to match, which has red

This originally was a tan interior and had a custom leather interior

But we're going to talk about that in a couple minutes. Now, one of the most exciting things about this design is that I feel like Dotson got away from the design

as it turned into Nissan later on and we just kind of lost this design and shape

However, I'm really excited that the new Nissan Z seems to be going back to that

And that includes things like these round headlights in the front, which I think look really awesome

You do see some other Zs out there that kind of have these headlight covers And I think those look cool as well However this original style you just can beat it It looks so nice The thing that was distinctive of this time and style is in the 1977 and the 1988 year

you had these heat extractors. They're not hood scoops, they're heat extractors

So when you turn the engine on, it actually brings heat out of the engine to keep things cool

Another thing that changed with the 280Z is these taillights, which actually are a little bit

different style than what you saw in the 240Z. One other cool modification, there are these mirrors, which actually are pulled from another vehicle

All right, let's move to the interior of this Nissan 280Z, and this is an awesome place to be

Unlike newer cars nowadays, you are not greeted with any form of infotainment center

Everything is manual, and honestly is higher quality than I was expecting

These cars were originally meant to be a budget version of a lot of things like the 9-11

and to be honest, it's a lot better than I was expecting. This steering wheel is extremely simple. You don't have any buttons here, and it's a nice, thin steering wheel, but it's still a bit, for lack a better word, cushy to be able to allow you to have grip

And then, of course, you're greeted by that Z symbol right in the middle of the steering wheel, which then you know you're in a real sports car

Now, as I had mentioned earlier, this car has been modified on the interior

This actually started its life off with a tan interior. It was a white exterior and a tan interior

However, at some point, the owner decided to go ahead and completely do a redesign to kind of let it match the exterior of the vehicle

And so you'll find leather throughout the car, including door cards are both a red and black, along with the seats

And even along the A pillar and the ceiling. And honestly, it really ties it together

It gives it a little bit more of a modern feel, a nicer and higher quality feel than you normally would get

And it is just nice in here. Moving over to the center stack, you have your temperature, your oil

You can see the status of your back. And of course your fuel gauge, which is kind of interesting that it's not in the gauge cluster

And then you can't go wrong with the quartz clock. Right below those gauges, you have some interesting things right here

To the left of this map light right here is a floor temp. And what this is basically lets you know when the candle it converter has overheated

That light lights up so that you know that there's an issue. And then to the right of that map light is your fuel light, which again is not in the gauge cluster like you normally would see

And instead that would pop up and let you know you're low on fuel. Below that is two different vents, which is funny because it's a different style than the vent that's on the left-hand side of the gauge cluster, but both look really cool

Below that is your H-back controls, which are your manual controls and look really cool

And then below that is an aftermarket head unit from Alpine which you notice throughout this car It has been completely upfitted with an Alpine sound system including the amplifier that is seen right behind you And then below that head unit you have things like your fasten seat belt your rear defogger as your hazards button and your rear defroster And then

of course, one of my favorite things in this car is this six-speed manual transmission. And having

been in this car a little bit, it shifts butter smooth and works so well. I honestly was super

surprised at how well this LS engine works and just seems to work well with this car. There really isn't any

hiccups, which you would expect with something that's not meant to be in a car like this. Moving a little bit farther back in the center console, your e-break, which is funny because

it's on the right-hand side of the center control stack instead of closer to you or over by the

driver's door. So you actually have to reach over the center stack to be able to get to it

And then behind all of that is just going to be your center console with some simple storage

and you have two cup holders in this vehicle. Now, one other modification that has been added to this

vehicle is an interior roll cage, which you can see right here. One other really cool detail about the

interior of this car is got to be this door cell which says Dotson in big letters and lets you know

exactly what you're driving. All right. So moving around to the exterior of the interior of this

vehicle, we first have to get into it. And that is done by just pushing this button right here

You got to push it a little bit hard and then you lift up and it's a hatchback, which is one of

my favorite things for sports cars as a hatchback because it allows a lot of interior capacity

for luggage, golf bags and that kind of stuff. And that is no different in this vehicle. As you can

see in here you do have a lot of space but you also do have some important things going along with

the sound system you have the subwifer and then you can also see that's taking up a little bit of

space in the rear is the strut tower brace that you can see which gives this vehicle a little

bit more rigidity outside of that it has really really nice carpeting and is just really well

done back here but there's not much to speak about other than that so this has been a really

cool experience getting to spend some time with a real 280 z and with this lswap i think that

makes this one of the most special 1970s sports cars to ever be made and honestly I think a lot of

people should be looking at these more. Unfortunately, people are looking at things like 9-11s and

corvettes and I really think that people should be giving way more attention to these because

Japan was pushing out some amazing sports cars in the 70s that just don't get enough attention

As you guys probably already know if you've watched my videos, I like Japanese sports cars

with the Toyota Salica being one of my favorites and I have long wanted a car just like

like this. I think the Zcars are a fantastic lineage of sports cars. And I hope you guys like them

just as much as me. So make sure to like this video as it helps me out in the algorithm. And

if you have any thoughts about this car, leave it down in the comments. I'd love to hear from you