First Leopard on US soil!

My bro and fellow M30 enthusiast Mark told me about a Nissan Leopard on US soil, in Seattle nonetheless (where I used to live). It’s been kinda secret, but it’s gonna get out soon.

As an enthusiast, I wanted this. I wanted this BAD!!! But not $9000 desperate. Maybe if it was a Zenki.

Then again, it is an Ultima Turbo.

So I tried to finance it through my credit union. I didn’t want to take a personal loan, I just wanted to see what the chances of getting it were. It was financed through my credit union, it would be at a cheaper rate.

So I went through the notions and applied. I had to apply under the “classic car”. Of course I was met with the typical, “it’s not an American classic”.  So I asked what would constitute a classic that was American or European? It is a rare car, first documented in US soil (there was a mention of a zenki in Canada).

It wouldn’t work out and I also don’t know if it would have been able to come to California on top of that.. well, not a daily driven car for that matter.

$9000 (the asking price) is pretty steep. It is also knowing that you can build an M30 with a VG30DETT or RB26 or 1JZ for that cost. But my resources were not enough (I spent money in Japan and Hawaii. Then when I came back from those vacations, I bought a $3000 M30).

You can probably pick up 3 M30s and fix with that cost. Nonetheless, I wanted to be able to say I own a JDM leopard.

My ego wanted to say, “First in America with a Leopard”. I wanted that title. I wanted to own an authentic leopard. I wanted to keep this leopard in it’s purest form to show how great it is by itself because I am an enthusiast of the F31 chassis.

But it is NOT my dream zenki F31. So it is something I did not want to pursue further if I couldn’t get it through financing.

So, for now, I will not pursue this car.

 

 

2020 update – Our friend Satoshi-san said the miles didn’t match the condition. A guy named Curtis bought it and up until 2019 it was in various stages of repair.

Mark bought it and now it sits in Tacoma until it can be transported to Hawaii!!!

I was also able to test drive this car in 2019!!

 

 

 

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