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While at the Motoring J Style show in May, I spotted an amazingly original Datsun 510 two-door parked in the exhibition hall. Turns out it was owned by David Swig, the guy in charge of the event, and now I've managed to get him to bring the car to the former Alameda Naval Air Station (where they now make absinthe ) for some photos. The car was purchased from its original owner, who always garaged it and for many years drove it just once a month or so; this Datsun is solid Compare its condition to that of most 510s, which have spent their lives in glorious clouds of tire smoke and- all too often- wrapped around telephone poles! galleryPost('OrangeDatsun510', 6, '1973 Datsun 510');
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Welcome to Down On The Street , where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Today we're going to check out one of my all-time favorite Japanese cars, the one that started the whole hot-rodded Japanese machinery thing here in the US of A: Datsun 510! Sometimes I get asked whether irate car owners come running after me with a shotgun when they see me shooting their cars, but my experience with this Datsun was more typical; the owner came out to see what was going on, was glad that someone appreciated his car, and opened the hood and trunk so I could get better photos. It's funny that the car known as the "Poor Man's BMW 2002" is now worth more than a 2002. In 1971, you could buy a brand-new 2002 for $3,275… or a Datsun 510 for $1,990. Both cars had IRS, disc brakes, etc., but the BMW had the power edge, with 114 horses versus 96. With the money the Datsun buyer saved, however, another 50 horsepower could...
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The low-miles AMC beat the NASA-built Fairmont in the Electrocutioner Edition Choose Your Eternity poll , though the Fairmont did make a respectable showing. Today we're jumping back into a pool of flaming gasoline, because there's no telling how much longer the smell of incompletely burned hydrocarbons will hover around our garages. After seeing a Datsun 610 in the junkyard and then the '78 Toyota brochures over at Japanese Nostalgic Car (thanks, SOS10 ), we decided to find a couple of Japanese cars built before they'd discovered focus groups (and airtight quality control) over there. Datsun 280Zs are a dime a (rusty) dozen, but you don't see many mid-70s Fairladies in North America; it seems that those willing to go through the hassle of importing a classic JDM Nissan tend to go for the earlier models. Right-hand-drive, weird badges, and the utter impossibility of passing any sort of emissions test- sign us up! They're tough to find over here, but if you've...
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It was Half Price Day at the local self-service yard last weekend, and I had my eye on a Porsche 928 that had been there the week before, thinking I could buy that purty Porsche intake manifold to hang on my wall . Sadly, the 928 had already gone to The Crusher, so I decided I might as well check for other interesting stuff... and, sure enough, here was a super-rare '74 Datsun 610 wagon. The L20B is still there, and so is the factory 8-track player. Well, the 8-track was there, since I felt compelled to grab it. After buying all those 8-track tapes for the Junkyard Boogaloo Boombox , I need a backup deck! galleryPost('DOTJ74Dats610', 3, '1974 Datsun 610 Wagon Down On The Junkyard');
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newVideoPlayer("79_200SX_476.flv", 506, 423,""); The Datsun 200SX for '79 didn't have TURRRRRBO power yet, but it packed a not-too-shabby-for-its-time 92 fuel-injected horsepower. Weighing just 2,268 pounds (about 650 pounds less than the '08 Sentra), the 200SX didn't feel particularly Malaise-y, and it even came with a Sky Roof! It wanted you to open it up and watch its moves!
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The little Datsuns of the early 70s are just about gone now, though a few still roam the streets of the Island That Time Forgot. We saw a '75 B210 last fall, and now we've got an even rarer machine in this early-70s 1200. I'm calling it a '71, but it might be a '72 or maybe even a '70; we'll need to rely on the serious Datsun fiends out there to nail down the exact year. This car may spend most of its time garaged, but I see it on the street in my neighborhood from time to time. It appears to be an original, unrestored time capsule of an early Datsun. I'm hoping I'll be able to find the owner one of these days and ask him about this little jewel's story. Known as the Sunny back in its homeland, the 1200 was cheap, got great mileage, and was way more reliable than its European and Detroit competition. And it has an interesting Japanese racing history as well! Who knows, maybe this is the original Yankees bullpen car (though apparently the Dodgers had...
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Those of you who believed El Suburbanimo to be the ultimate New Jersey vehicle might want to reconsider after you take a look at this '73 Datsun 240Z. Back in the early 80s, with just 19,721 miles on the Z's clock, its owner decided some custom touches were in order. A little body kit here, some stripes and TURBO emblems there, and then the finishing touch: a small-block Chevy engine. It's awesome! BZR found this gem for us; make the jump to read his description. [eBay Motors] galleryPost('TimeCapsule80sZ', 9, '80s Time Capsule Datsun Z on eBay'); Like a time warp straight out of the 70s, with every optimistic Malaise-denying piece on there. Every angle induces another "Oh my God" reaction, every feature seems like some unholy caricature of a kitsch utopia. Makes "Black Gold" look restrained and tasteful by comparison, and pretty much every other 70s special edition seem subdued as a result. If you're featuring this car on Jalopnik (and...
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Now that we've got two photographers out shooting Denver DOTSBE cars while out walking their respective dogs, we can expect to see plenty of vintage machinery from the streets of the Mile High City. Today we're going to look at a solid-looking 1970 or 1971 Datsun 240Z (Z experts, please help out on the exact year here) shot by Ejacobs , who brought us the late-40s International Harvester KB-3 last week. galleryPost('DOTSBEDenver240Z', 9, '1970 Datsun 240Z Down On The Denver Street');
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We're going to follow the exploits of some of the 24 Hours of LeMons teams that have members who comment here regularly, and today's team is Freds4HB's Scuderia Punk Rock Chef. They're going to be racing a 1977 Datsun 280Z, they're based in the East Bay, and apparently the "chef" part of their name is for real. I hope that means they'll be whompin' up eatin' vittles for all of us! These guys and Team Porcubimmer have really set the bar high for team logo quality, so the rest of us better start making nice with our graphic-artist friends. [ScuderiaPRC]
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We don't want to forget the Japanese pickups on DOTS Truck Monday, and it's been quite a while since we looked at the '79 Datsun pickup (the '74 Courier was more recent, of course, but it has a Detroit nameplate). Here's a solid '74, with faded paint but otherwise in pretty nice shape. Will these trucks start getting obsessively restored someday, or simply driven to death? Why the owner of this truck hauls around a bunch of rusty bedsprings is a puzzler. Maybe it's for passenger comfort when he takes it out on street-sign-shooting expeditions. Got to love that Malaise Japan grille treatment. For the millionth time, why can't we buy truly small pickups any more? That sure looks like an automatic shifter. Acceleration is probably on the leisurely side with that setup. galleryPost('DOTS74DatsunTruck', 12, '1974 Datsun Pickup Down On The Street'); First 150 DOTS Cars
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Six months since the last DOTS Datsun Z? What's going on here? Since they don't really rust here, I think the shortage of early Zs on the street has something to do with their hoon-friendly qualities; most of them were wrecked, blown up, or otherwise hooned to death. We know they can take a lot of punishment on the race track , too. I've found a few of the early-80s ZXs I might go ahead and shoot, since now I know we have fans of the Late Malaise Zs here. I spotted this Middle Malaise Z parked just a few spaces down from the beateriffic Toyota AE86 . Naturally, the first thing I thought was "track down the owner and see if he'll sell it for under $500," because this beast has 24 Hours of LeMons written all over it. Of course, that was before we found the $100 Volvo . This 280Z has been hit, Bondoed, hit, Bondoed, and then hit some more. The owner finally gave up on the whole rear bumper idea, opting for a devil-may-care bumperless treatment. Now the big tailpipe...
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newVideoPlayer("73_Datsun_610_476.flv", 475, 376,""); We've seen a '73 610 Down On The Street , and it didn't seem particularly luxurious. Quirky Japanese styling, yes, but luxury? You did get a lot of stuff not available on Detroit's econo-cars of the era (independent rear suspension, for example), but Nissan was claiming only 25MPG for this thing?
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Once again, I must rail against the sad fact that just about all the Malaise Era Japanese cars have been crushed by now, victims of their own utilitarian reliability and perceived lack of soul. Now that most of what we see from the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere are scientifically de-soul-ified transportation appliances, we realize too late what we lost when the genuinely quirky Japanese machinery got melted down to make... Avalons. We saw a '76 Civic here not long ago, but it's been two long months since we saw a Datsun down on Alameda 's streets. Known as the Sunny in The Sphere and the 120Y in Europe, we North Americans knew this car as the B210 . While the gas mileage claims for the B210 may have been on the ludicrous side, the car was cheap and (for its era) quite dependable. Look at it this way: You need to drive across the country with no tools. B210 or Chevette? I'd been seeing this car driving around town for a while, but I could never figure out where it lived. Most of...
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The well-heeled New York Yankees fan might choose to drive a pinstriped Rolls-Royce , but what if you don't got more louie than Phillip Rizzuto, yet still want to show off your pride that Steinbrenner's warriors are still hanging on in the playoffs? Well, you could get an early 70s Datsun B210 and recreate the bullpen car used by the '72 Yanks! Back in the day, when Nissan was trying to make a name for itself on these shores, they made a deal with the Yankees (and LA Dodgers) to use the B210 as bullpen cars. We're just hoping that some Fu-Manchu-mustachioed pitcher with a head full of greenies used the car to do some donuts on the outfield- hey, the legendary Nissan L engine deserves no less! [YankeeTradition.com]
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The well-heeled New York Yankees fan might choose to drive a pinstriped Rolls-Royce , but what if you don't got more louie than Phillip Rizzuto, yet still want to show off your pride that Steinbrenner's warriors are still hanging on in the playoffs? Well, you could get an early 70s Datsun B210 1200 and recreate the bullpen car used by the '72 Yanks! Back in the day, when Nissan was trying to make a name for itself on these shores, they made a deal with the Yankees (and LA Dodgers) to use the B210 1200 as bullpen cars. We're just hoping that some Fu-Manchu-mustachioed pitcher with a head full of greenies used the car to do some donuts on the outfield- hey, the legendary Nissan L engine deserves no less! [YankeeTradition.com]
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