Dean Lamonato's ZDayZ Biography

 

 

My affinity for Z cars apparently began at the age of 2 (yes, 2) when my father purchased a 1971 Datsun 240Z that was wrecked since he used to own 3 auto body shops in Pittsburgh (where I am originally from).  That was going to be mine once I graduated from high school.  My Z had been sitting inside my parents’ garage for over 16 years collecting dust, besides the driver’s seat and steering wheel; where I pretended to drive that car for many years.  Sure enough, after graduation, the long-awaited restoration process began; I still have that same car today.

 

I have since acquired a red 1991 300ZX TT Z.  My wife and I had to have some modern conveniences that my 240Z just did not have. I guess that is where age comes into play  We use our 300ZX for everything including road trips - what better way to take a road trip than in a Z.  We took it cross-country recently logging 6,855 miles and visiting 21 states in 19 days.  What an awesome trip!  Nothing like cruising from Columbia, SC, across the Plains to the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Colorado, down to Albuquerque, across Texas, through New Orleans, and back to Columbia, SC, with the T-tops off.  Man, I get goose bumps just thinking about it.  Only thing I can say is, “Glorious!”

 

As far as ZDayZ is concerned, Ashley Bradford, pointed us to ZDayZ in 2008 simply by me thanking her for her creation of her extremely helpful web site about the Z32.  If you have a Z32, this is a must have site: (http://www.ttxtz.com/tech.html). So, we went to ZDayZ in our ’91 Z32 TT and had a blast.  We did blow the #3 fuel injector on Saturday at ZDayZ, and 3 friendly mechanics came to our assistance, Tim and Brett who came from Ohio, and Bernie from Northern Virginia.  Bernie took a look at the engine and said right off the bat that it sounds like the injector has blown. Tim, also known as the “Z Whisperer” said it sounds like a bad injector, but then he busts out his foldable attaché case with what look like dentist picks and a electric meter “Yep, your #3 injector is dead. If you can find someone that has an injector for a Z32, I can replace it without taking the plenum off; it’s called the 'Dremmel trick.'"  Long story short, announcement was made at the rec center, and I did miss winning a cool Hawaiian Z shirt due to me tinkering with our Z right outside. If you are not present at the announcements, then it goes to whoever is present.  We still drove it back on 5 cylinders without a problem.

 

I loved our first ZDayZ experience in ‘08 so much that I wanted to volunteer my time to the event so we can give back just a little of what we enjoyed.  We want the ZDayZ event to be around for a very long time, so I did some talking to the staff and here I am designing the site for ZDayZ.