Just a few years ago I was Mr. Honda FWD. I've had a big roll in the import scene here in Des Moines, IA and let's just say it's full of FWD hondas as far as the eye can see. So naturally this being the car of choice around here when I started off I was sucked into the trend. I learned a lot and built several nice cars, the last one I owned was my prized show winning 97 civic hatch. I thought this was the greatest car I would ever own, quick in the straights, turned like a champ, and looked like a trophy.
Then one day while helping a friend out, I saw one in person for the first time. I had only seen them in magazines and had no idea what they were like in person. It was a 280z for sale, covered in primer, littered with rust, and has had some better days. I don't know what it was about the car i liked so much, I think it was mostly because it was something different to me so I bought it and my life hasn't been the same since.
It opened my eyes more. Made me realize why so many people laugh and joke about hondas. Why everytime I would show up with my civic to a car show and have all these people give me crap for "wasting" my money on the car. It really wasn't anything special, it wasn't as fast as I had perceived it to be, nor could it turn as amazing as I thought. It was just a show car that in all honesty wasn't that great of a show car. I looked at all these different Z car builds and found them so amazing, they have such great style, people do some amazing fabrication with them, also they turn and turn well.
Anyway, a few years later I ended up selling a 91 crx. It was my daily driven car that I had had forever! This lead to buying another RWD machine. A 240sx. I've always had a passion for drifting, I was a big follower of D1 and anything else that Nomura and Tsuchia would do. So of course now that I had a chassis that was well known for performing as a great drift car I built it just for that and attended my frist competition in June.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F22NrxAN3U&list=UUox7k28lllSEGVdful1eGlw&index=1&feature=plcp
This car has gotten me more into building and making my own things. Not everything is as easy as turning 4 bolts like it is for a honda. I've run into several issues with the car that I've had to overcome and fix. This lead me to becoming friends with the local machine shop, where they let me use their CNC mill to create a custom Hydraulic handbrake.
I like where things are going now, I've left this little kid stuff behind me and am starting to move towards better cars and learning how to do bigger and better things. I have to thank Datsun for that, because if I had never found my little Z i wouldn't be doing things like this. I would still be rocking a honda and thinking I was the best when in reality I've come to find out, I don't know jack squat!
So now just as of last week I said goodbye to the Honda world and sold my prized civic so I can begin to look at another Datsun.