Kings of Yester-Year: Arnel Solas’ Classy Slick-top 300zx

For every car group there are a handful of cars that people feel represent the “glory days”. For the Muscle Car crowd the late 60’s to early 70’s brought them healthy V8 beasts with titles and badges like RT, SS, GT or Judge slapped on them. It was Detroit Muscle or time for you to move on to a station wagon.

For the JDM Import crowd though our “glory days” had to wait a couple decades. Starting in 1989 with Nissan and Toyota, Honda and Mazda following soon after, it was the time of high-performance imports. The 300zx, Supra, NSX and RX7 were all made to be more serious performance cars not only with suspension but under the hood. Three of the four previously mentioned went to twin-turbo setups, with the NSX remaining naturally aspirated, when the leap to creating serious performance chassis’ was made. Even two decades later, people drool over these cars even in stock form.

The immaculate Slick-top 300zx that sits in front of you is owned by Arnel Solas. He has managed to build an amazing 300zx that pays homage to the 300zx’s that rolled off the assembly lines decades ago. Everything is tasteful and quality whether it is on the exterior or interior of this car. He’s taken the classic 300zx chassis and tweaked it to make a true head-turner with a timeless look. Hopefully you will enjoy this shoot by Rodney Ty as much as I have of Arnel’s beautiful Nissan 300zx.