RICCI’S GARAGE
Ihave a theory that my border collie is powered by an Eighties Atari games console And not in a way which requires forceps and an emergency vet but rather he appears to have no memory or save function
Because despite going out every morning for the past years at am a master reset is performed wiping all his previous memory And while rebooting woof exe is then executed continually until we finally leave the house
Putting him in the car and driving somewhere new doesn’t fix the error either However the rumble of my E at rpm does at least cause him to lay down for a bit and that allows me to go hunting for dogspec xs being used out in the wild The best spot so far being a MkI Mitsubishi Pajero
Having had no prior experience of any Japanese x I thought this Pajero was the best thing I’d ever clapped eyes on and immediately vowed to own one So for the duration of Christmas my search history revolved around this or an series Land Cruiser And as much as I’d love a or series it appears hipsters have ruined values on the s and global conflict the s
There’s something uniquely cool about this era of JDM x But it’s also a very fine line to tread For example a threedoor Pajero unless an Evolution looks like the kind of car a youth worker converts into a Zombie Apocalypse Vehicle despite living in the middle of Bedford As for the fivedoor Wagon well if that happens to be a Shogun made after you’re either very enthusiastic about selling caravans or you ramraid cash machines at the weekend
What about something German or closer to home? I haven’t started a towing business since the weight limits changed so a VW Touareg is out the question And my cholesterol is far too stable to own an early Range Rover currently
No it has to be Japanese It has to be from the Eighties and it has to have a load of badly translated stickers down the side of it Bonus points awarded for a spare tyre cover with an bit drawing of some rocky terrain too
A few days ago the perfect solution turned up But this wasn’t a Pajero or Land Cruiser It was a sixcylinder Nissan just not an Arab spec Patrol being driven on two wheels It is twowheel drive however and it’s from the Eighties Yup I’ve bought the famous off roading Nissan Z ZX
I had every intention of starting different from other years mainly because I now own cars and only three actually work But this is the danger of forced time off over Christmas once the festivities are over it is bloody boring And with my internet cookies firmly set to JDM project and cheap it was only a matter of time until the inevitable happened
I have no idea what I’m going to do with this Z either other than use it as a velourcovered soft play for my daughter I can’t even pretend it was a planned purchase It can’t even be driven because it lacks a clutch master cylinder
More annoying than that is the fact I still really want a MkI Pajero Wagon So if anyone reading this happens to own one and has always dreamt of a Z project with no clutch it’s a niche request but please get in contact I beg of you
“I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M GOING TO DO WITH THIS Z31, OTHER THAN USE IT AS SOFT PLAY FOR MY DAUGHTER”
Internationally renowned photographer Mark has been working with TG for many, many years. When not taking photos he’s buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world