Original Owner: A 1981 Datsun 280ZX Introduces a Couple to the Z-Car World

On an April Saturday in 1981, Mick and Jo Wildin found themselves traveling through a dimension of time between sports car purity and modern comfort, a journey whose boundaries were that of 1970s devil-may-care youth and 1980s commuting realities. There was a signpost up ahead, and their next stop was  … no, not The Twilight Zone. It was a Datsun dealer.

Mr. and Mrs. Wildin had just driven 75 miles from their home in Greenwood, Indiana to look at a 1978 Datsun 280Z offered for sale by the parents of a young man in the military. Things did not go as planned.

“We made an offer, and they turned it down,” Mick Wildin recalled. “I said, ‘I want to think about it.’ When we got about halfway back home, I thought, ‘We should just buy it for the price they’re asking. It’s basically like a brand-new car.’ I stopped and called the guy from a phone booth, and he said someone who looked at it after we did had already put down a deposit. We decided we’d just buy a new 280ZX.”

The following day, Sunday, the Wildins drove their Volkswagen to Tom Wood Datsun in Indianapolis. The dealership is still in business, though in a different location.

“Indiana dealerships were not open on Sunday, so you could go on the lot to look and not be hassled by a salesman,” Wildin said.

By then, the 280ZX (model code S130) introduced for 1979 to replace the original Z-car (S30) had been selling quite well. As the Wildins left the dealership lot to ponder their choices, their sedan would not start. They had it towed to a VW dealership, which fixed it Monday. On Tuesday, they went back to the Datsun dealer.

“There was a car carrier there waiting to be unloaded and we saw a white 280ZX on it,” Wildin remembered. “It was the cheapest one they had, the base model. It was a white slicktop. It had wheel covers, not alloy wheels. A vinyl interior and high-back bucket seats were standard in a base model. It had no options, no power steering, no air conditioning. There wasn’t even a passenger-side mirror.”

They bought the car, picking it up that following Saturday. That same afternoon, the man selling the ’78 280Z they’d seen the week before called to say the buyer had backed out and asked if they still wanted it. 

“I said, ‘Sorry, we just bought a new one.’”

Their 280ZX became a semi-daily driver, a road trip car, and an entrance into the Z-car club world, where the Wildins still make multi-thousand-mile treks to the annual ZCON national meets. Since 2010, the ZX has had company in their garage, a 2006 350Z convertible that they scored for a great deal and with just 12,000 miles. They had to go to Arkansas to get it, though.

“A lady there owned it and then traded it in to get a car for her granddaughter. She never really liked driving a convertible,” Wildin explained. “We got it for about three grand less in Arkansas than what it would have sold for in Indianapolis. It was a perfect car and still is.” 

Factory Basics: 1981 Datsun 280ZX

After competing directly with European roadsters with its Datsun 1600 and 2000 models in the 1960s, Nissan upended the entire affordable sports car category in 1969 with the pivotal 240Z. Taking some inspiration from the Jaguar E-Type, the original Z took an abrupt turn down a closed-coupe GT road. The strategy was a huge success.

When the S30 series ended with the 1978 280Z, some 520,000 had been made over nine model years. The U.S. was the car’s largest market by far, taking over 400,000. Other sports car makers followed the closed-coupe route, including Triumph replacing the TR6 roadster with the TR7 in 1975, and Mazda joining with the 1979 RX-7. Nissan was by then prepping a Z sequel, with an even tighter focus on its largest, most lucrative market.

The second-generation Z car, the 280ZX (model code S130) carried over the fuel-injected 2.8-liter inline six from the 280Z, while the larger, heavier body offered more interior and luggage room. The exterior design was evolutionary but more rounded for improved aerodynamics. Nissan tuned the four-wheel independent suspension for better everyday comfort, and the new car was quieter inside. The ZX may have been a better everyday car than the Z, but that came at the expense of some handling agility.

The base 280ZX model, known as the Deluxe, was not far above the 280Z spec, and both A/C and power steering were optional. A GL (Grand Luxury) option package tapped into the “personal luxury” trend that was sweeping the U.S. market with cars like the Chevy Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix. The GL package equipment list read like something from one of those American coupes: velour-covered seats, power steering, windows, mirrors and locks; cruise control, air conditioning, 40-watt AM/FM cassette stereo, power antenna, digital clock, and illuminated vanity mirrors.

While such amenities might not have been on sports car purists’ wish lists, the GL would become very popular. Leather seating was a separate option. The lift-off T-roof option was also a big hit, and “slicktop” ZXs like the Wildins’ ’81 would be uncommon.

In Car and Driver’s 1979 280ZX road test, writer Pat Bedard said, “What was once an appealingly lean sportster has been transformed into a plush boulevardier, a personal cruiser not altogether different from what you’d expect of Buick if it took up a position in the two-seater and 2+2 market.”

Motor Trend was kinder, naming the 280ZX “Import Car of the Year.” Most importantly, buyers loved the 280ZX. Datsun dealers in the U.S. sold about 86,000 in its first year, a 37-percent jump over the 1978 280Z, which had just posted the S30’s highest sales year. In total, Nissan—the Datsun name was dropped by 1985—would sell over 330,000 280ZX two-seat and 2+2 models in the U.S. over five model years.

The 1981 280ZX engine got a compression bump that pushed output from 135 hp to 145. A nine-second 0-60 mph time was about a second off the pace of a base Corvette. Midway through 1981, Datsun added the 280ZX Turbo with Corvette-beating performance, and of course a higher price.

The ZX may have been softer than the Z, but it broadened and influenced the sports car market, and it achieved racing success, too. Actor and race driver Paul Newman won the C-Production class in the 1979 SCCA championship with a 280ZX. He also starred in a TV spot with the 280ZX and his racecar to promote seatbelt usage.

From Barracuda to Z

Just out of high school in 1970, Mick Wildin looked at the Datsun 240Z but instead waited a year to buy his first sporty new car, a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. He got a good deal because the car, with its unloved 318 cubic-inch V-8, automatic transmission and bench front seat, had been sitting on the dealer lot for a year. He would still think about the Z for years, and in 1981, the base-model 280ZX seemed to be waiting for him.

“Everybody was getting a GL, where this one was pretty bare-bones and actually closer to the previous 280Z,” he said. “We later had the dealer put A/C in, but when it got converted to the new refrigerant, there were problems, so I removed it.”

The ZX would be a daily driver for 19 years, at least much of the time. “My wife and I both worked for the phone company, most of our time being with Indiana Bell, Ameritech, SBC, and AT&T. I worked in IT and she was in clerical support, mostly involved with IT people. Sometimes we worked in the same location, and she would drive our other car and drop me off. Other times, we were in two different locations, and I’d take the Z.”

The Wildins did not meet at work but rather on a blind date through a friend. “She didn’t like me when she met me,” Mick said, “but we’ll be married 50 years in July. We didn’t have kids. It’s just us. I retired at 55, but I do some handyman work and some yards.”

Wildin, 73, says their 280ZX looks mostly like it did when he bought it, but with a little sun fade on the paint. The metal and paint are all original except for one rear corner, where the car got hit. Years ago, while driving in Chicago, he heard the screeching of cars suddenly braking ahead of him just in time to stop the ZX with a bit of room to spare.

“I looked in the mirror and saw a pickup truck coming up from behind. I heard his tires screech, and he hit my car. The guy was pulling a trailer, on his way to pick up a ’67 or ’68 Camaro, as I remember. I was able to leave a gap, so I never hit the car in front of me. It could have been much worse. Until then, the Z never had any damage. I can’t tell that it has been hit, and I don’t know if others can or not.”

Wildin points out that the car still has the factory “OK” inspection sticker in the window, though it’s worn from washing. He notes that two stickers under the hood are in English and French, rather than English and Japanese, like the others. “Also, I heard that a lot of dealerships cut off the tie-down hooks that were on the front and back, but our ZX still has them.”

The Wildins later got into the Z-car club scene with their ’81 280ZX. They have put many thousands of miles on both of their Z-cars driving to regional and national gatherings, including the Z-Car Clubs of America (ZCCA) annual International Z-Car Convention (ZCON).

“We’re in the Indy Z-Car Club and the ZCCA,” Wildin said. “Since 2008, we’ve driven the ’81 to San Antonio, Texas; Daytona Beach, Florida; New Hampshire, and Toronto. When we went to ZCON in California and Arizona, we took the 350Z, because we didn’t want to drive through the desert without A/C.”

A bit closer to home, they drive the ’81 ZX and the ’06 350Z to Indy Z-Car gatherings in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio.

“They rotate it every year. I have a picture of the 2013 event in Nashville, Indiana that I was the main organizer for. We had about 85 cars that year,” Wildin said.

ZX Memories

Hagerty: Did you think the 280ZX would be a ‘forever car’ when you bought it?

Wildin: When we got this car, I said I was going to take care of it, because I thought I could probably never afford another one. I do my own maintenance. When we moved to our current house, with a 10-foot ceiling in the garage, I was able to put a lift in. Before that, we paid for a garage for the 280ZX for 10 years when we bought the 350Z. It was about three miles away. I’m a runner, so I’d just run over to take it out. Then I’d take it back, and my wife would pick me up.

Hagerty: Any challenges in keeping the ZX looking so good for all those years and miles?

Wildin: It was pretty much always garaged, except for a year when I was working in Chicago. There were times when I had to drive the Z to the airport and leave it parked out in the sun, which is how it got the fade. In the Midwest, you don’t see them because a lot rusted away from the salt used on the roads in winter.

Hagerty: A key selling point for the Z and ZX was that they would be more reliable than European sports cars. How was yours?

Wildin: It broke down on me just once. I was a quarter-mile from home when I stopped for gas. It was pouring rain, and the car wouldn’t re-start. I had it towed home, put it in the garage and saw that the jumper from the solenoid to the starter had shorted out.

Hagerty: Had you ever thought of selling it?

Wildin: Over the years I had talked about selling it a few times, and Jo would always say, ‘You’re not selling it, because then you’ll talk about it like you talked about the Barracuda you had in the Seventies and sold.’

Hagerty: With your modern 350Z to drive, do you still take the 280ZX out for long trips? 

Wildin: We’ve had it out every year, several times a year. I’m not afraid to drive it just about anywhere.

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Car: 1981 Datsun 280ZX

Owner: Mick and Jo Wildin

Home: Greenwood, Indiana

Delivery Date: April 1981

Miles on car: 110,000

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Are you the original owner of a classic car, or do you know someone who is? Send us a photo and a bit of background to tips@hagerty.com with ORIGINAL OWNER in the subject line—you might get featured in our next installment!