The most fun I ever had with a car was with a 71 Datsun 510 4 door that had seen its fair share of body trauma. In 1978 I bought it for $200 and had to invest another $25 in a rear drive shaft u-joint. I put a set of Michelin tires (from Sears) on it and ran the snot out of it for the next 8 years. The only thing that killed it was a rusted out subframe. I stripped the running gear out of it and in the ensuing 20 years sold the engine, transmission, rear axle and drive shafts for nearly 10 times my purchase price. I was always impressed by the L-series engine toughness and ability to rev. The IRS made it drive and ride like a much bigger car, it was very stable. Fast, dependable and economical....it never once failed to start and never left me stranded. I loved that rolling POS!
It sucks that I was only 5 years old at the time. These little sedans have a ferocious snarl and look like a blast to drive with wicked cornering ability. Sometimes a car like this is more fun than the fancy more expensive big name cars that I later raced. Thank you for sharing though I had the audio maxed and still wished it was louder to immerse myself in the glorious sound.
John Morton. not much TV coverage indeed. one attended a race..like they would attend church..you did so Because of it. @6:37 do you hear this?...thats what you heard at the track..one could tell what gear Morton was in and where he was at on the track..Because of it.
Those were the days! Too bad BMW was too dismissive of North American racing at the time to lend any factory support to the BMW privateers in the under 2.5 series -- they could have been in the fight probably? Those were great races to watch -- not much TV coverage though.
I read somewhere that the reason was that the SCCA would'nt allow parts that were homologated in Europe. Also by 71 BMW had put all its backing on 3.0 cs and then csl. Nissan had hired the best and got some concessions from the SCCA. They even had an aerodynamicist that later on went onto doing the aerodynamic work on the NPTI prototypes.
The most fun I ever had with a car was with a 71 Datsun 510 4 door that had seen its fair share of body trauma.
In 1978 I bought it for $200 and had to invest another $25 in a rear drive shaft u-joint. I put a set of Michelin tires (from Sears) on it and ran the snot out of it for the next 8 years. The only thing that killed it was a rusted out subframe. I stripped the running gear out of it and in the ensuing 20 years sold the engine, transmission, rear axle and drive shafts for nearly 10 times my purchase price. I was always impressed by the L-series engine toughness and ability to rev. The IRS made it drive and ride like a much bigger car, it was very stable. Fast, dependable and economical....it never once failed to start and never left me stranded. I loved that rolling POS!
It sucks that I was only 5 years old at the time. These little sedans have a ferocious snarl and look like a blast to drive with wicked cornering ability. Sometimes a car like this is more fun than the fancy more expensive big name cars that I later raced. Thank you for sharing though I had the audio maxed and still wished it was louder to immerse myself in the glorious sound.
This is what racing NEEDS TO GO BACK TOO...
John Morton. not much TV coverage indeed. one attended a race..like they would attend church..you did so Because of it. @6:37 do you hear this?...thats what you heard at the track..one could tell what gear Morton was in and where he was at on the track..Because of it.
What engine did the datsun run? L16?
Yes, and l18 experiment
Those were the days! Too bad BMW was too dismissive of North American racing at the time to lend any factory support to the BMW privateers in the under 2.5 series -- they could have been in the fight probably? Those were great races to watch -- not much TV coverage though.
I read somewhere that the reason was that the SCCA would'nt allow parts that were homologated in Europe. Also by 71 BMW had put all its backing on 3.0 cs and then csl. Nissan had hired the best and got some concessions from the SCCA. They even had an aerodynamicist that later on went onto doing the aerodynamic work on the NPTI prototypes.