Late in 1996 Chris Holmes, of Troy, put an ad in
the local Want Ad Digest for Z car parts. The last
line of the ad read "Call if interested in Z car
club". Shortly afterwords he received a call from
Dr. Jeffrey Fox and Al Smith, both from Schenectady.
Jeff was restoring a 1970 240Z and Al has a pristine
1982 280ZX. Thinking this would be a great idea,
the trio put their heads together and came up
with a plan to start the fledgling club. In
the summer of 1997 Jeff and Chris Attended the
National Convention held by the White Rose Z
Club in York, P.A. There, along with seeing some
increadible Z cars, they attended a seminar on
how to start a Z car club. The speaker, "Mad"
Mike Taylor", a very interesting character, gave
them his blessing and they were on their way.
In September of '97 they organized their first
event. Starting at Nemith Nissan in Latham, NY,
Thirteen gleaming Z cars cruised through the
Fall colors of NY's scenic Adirondacks. After
the long ride they ended up at Chris' Parents
house on Snyders Lake for a Bar-B-Q on the
deck. The Name While at the convention in
York, Jeff and Chris met fellow New Yorker
David Palermo of Rochester. David is the
proud owner of a White supercharged 240Z.
When David learned of their Idea for the
club his eyes lit up! After pulling parts
off of their cars to have signed by Yutaka
Katayama, aka "Mr. K", David went to Chris
and, with a strange look on his face, said
one word "ZANY". The name fit, in more ways
than one, and the club was officially started...
The History
1998 turned into a banner year for the club.
Along with membership rising we took on the
task of running a Z car show. In July we held
the first annual Northeast Z Car Show at Jerry
Rome Nissan in West Springfield, MA. With some
hard work and help from our friends from the
New England Z Club we put on our first successful
show. Approximately eighty cars showed up. The
show ran successfully for two years at Jerry Rome.
In 2000 the show was moved to Syracuse at Burdick
Nissan and the name changed to Northeast Z Adventure
2000.
