The Greatest- and Sexiest- Car Ad of All Time: 1980 Black Gold Datsun 280ZX!

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The latest crop of Super Bowl car ads boasted some high-production-value salaciousness, but no car advertisement will ever come close to the perfection of the Quaaludes-and-disco Black Gold Man and Black Gold Woman and their gorgeous 10th Anniversary Edition 280ZX. Yes, many of you have seen this ad before, but I will not rest until all have experienced Black Gold (plus I’ve included a few Bonus Sexy Malaise Era car ads after the jump).


The only 10th Anniversary Edition Black Gold 280ZX I’ve ever seen in person was about to get crushed, and I was still in junior high when this car was new, but I still crave a car so lavishly appointed that there are virtually no options. Driven to the ultimate!

A few years before there was Black Gold, there was a very slinky Farrah Fawcett and her pet cougar taking her ’75 Cougar XR-7 to the beach. Glove-soft vinyl on deeply padded bucket seats! Poised opera window!

For ’78, the Cougar had Cheryl Tiegs in her padded-tire-deck-equipped XR-7… and an appropriately disco soundtrack.

The competition sort of gave up, once Black Gold Man and Black Gold Woman roared into a Martian sunset in their 280ZX; here’s the ’81 Mustang and its white-powder-fueled 90-pound driver heading to the disco.

Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Picard234 I'm not sure I'm going to rush in to trade my Soul for this. Interior does look pretty nice.
  • VoGhost Hmmm, Stellantis is failing and Stellantis has essentially no EVs to sell. Coincidence? I think not.
  • Qwerty shrdlu While I've seen BMWs with what looks like disruptive camoflauge driving around Charleston SC, it seems less like a secret and more "Hey look at me!" Likewise, a lot of spy shots are made by photographers who somehow knew exactly when and where to set up to take the shot.
  • Dwford Yes. Why are there so few spy shots online these days?
  • Michael S6 I’m holding out for the Jeep Compass Hellcat edition. I heard that the power to weight ratio will be mind boggling.
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