The Old School JDM picture thread.

[Balleristic31]

That sounds like my childhood! I used to stand in the interior and hold onto the roll cage on joy rides around the block!

[Balleristic31]

A few more pre flares



Gettin' to the good stuff



engine bay


and a few of my dad's buddies

[IminDiegoTriick]

great classic photos!

[Hans Gruber]

My work in progress, maybe 1 day i'll finish.
Datsun510

[eurotrash]

Work with eddie now and roomed with him a couple years back. he got any jdm toyota you can think of. celicas, corollas, stouts, crowns he even had a corina for a short time.
Our driveway


@ the jnc shoot

the drift project he'll nvr finish

[BlackbirdM3]

Wow, a thread I never thought I'd see on a German car forum. SWEET! My first car was a '69 Datsun 2000 roadster. It was pretty hammered when I got it. It didn't run, the brakes were frozen and the front end had been smashed. I bought it for $650. That was the start of what has become a 10 year long evolution of the car that has eaten a mindblowingly large amount of money. Since there were only 15000 of the 2L roadsters built for the entire production run, they are rare, and the engines share no parts with any other engine. The Datsun U20 was Datsun/Nissans first inhouse OHC motor. In the US smog version it was factory rated at 135 hp with a mild cam and Hitachi SU carbs. This was the way mine started. There was also another factory cam known as the "B" cam. The non-US cars got the B cam and Mikuni Solex 44pHH carbs. With this combo the motor was rated at 150 hp. Not too shabby for a 2L SOHC 8 valve 4 cylinder motor.
Contrary to popular belief, the car was not a Japanese copy of the MGB. The truth is, the 1500 roadster came out about 8 months before the MGB. No, the 1500 didn't have the power the MGB did, but by late '67, that was no longer an issue. The 2000 with the U20 motor came out in late '67 and it would eat a MGB for a snack.

Back to my car. The aftermarket following is very small for the roadster, and factory support is pretty much not there. This makes things like upper and lower ball joints worth their weight in gold. Either one runs about $450 each. That said, I've had to dig deep and turn over many rocks to find the parts I've amassed to build my car.

The Motor:
A custom one off cylinder head built by Dave Rebello of Rebello racing. The valves are cut down Chevy stainless steel ones with thinner stems. The head its self is fully ported and polished. The cam is a one off ISKY grind, dual profile, 315 intake/325 exhaust duration with a lift of .515 and .530. The intake ports flow 212.5 cfm and the exhausts 172 cfm.

The bottom end is bored .060 over, balanced, blueprinted. The crank has been knifed edged.





This is not a motor I wish to blow up. My guess is that it costs about the same to rebuild this as it does a BMW S14. (The pics above were taken a year ago when I rebuilt the motor for the 2nd time since I bought the car after I found timing chain pieces on my magnetic drain plug. Oddly, the pieces were not from my engine... The timing chains were fine.)

The suspension is also custom, the front coil springs are a set that were made to duplicate a set of the original NISMO comp springs from back in the day, but with more spring rate. The rear suspension is really out there. Normally the cars use traditional leaf springs. Nissan made a set of flat "comp" springs but they have never been ideal. A guy in Australia found a new alternative. He took a set of Volvo 360 mono-leaf springs and cut them down and reached them. This was a brilliant move. The ride went from harsh and skatey to something close to that of a Miata. I was the first to import a set of these to North America. When I swapped I lost 54lbs of unsprung weight. The trouble was I needed the weight in the back to put the power down. I added 60 lbs of lead to the trunk to fix the issue.

As time progressed the car became less street car and more race car. Now its 99% race car, 1% street car. I still put 8000+ miles on it a year on the street.

Last year I got my race license and was finally able to do something other than autoX the car. I got it into the HSR West/VSCCA event at Laguna Seca. We had 58 cars on grid. My friend Ron brought his '67.5 2000 race car up for the event at well. It turned into one of the most memorable weekends of my life. I got laughed at by the people at the front gate when I drove in with everything I was going to need for the weekend packed into the car, including a set of race wheels. The tech inspectors were also skeptical but signed the car off anyway thinking it would be a back runner at best. Little did anyone know.







My friend Avery's 510, this was the other street legal car in our field.

On my way out to the first practice session of the weekend.

My friend Ron in his '67.5 2000

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/228525_2029805871346_1430090650_32399226_179708_n.jpg

The grid





This was a battle of epic proportions, I couldn't get around the Alfa GTV, but I did get around the Huffaker Genie Sports racer. The three of us battled it out all weekend. I was faster through all the corners than both of them, but the GTV would out pull me out of the corners, I'd catch him at the ends of the straights.






















Yes, this is a 510 Wagon, and it flat out hauls ass.


At the end of the weekend I managed to finish 21st overall. The car never missed a beat, all I did was check the tire pressures and put fuel in it. I beat all the 2002s, all but one of the MGBs and all but one of the Porsches. Not bad for a car I drove to work the following Monday. It doesn't look like much, but its got it where it counts. I will sell my M3, and my '59 Alfa before I will part with this car. I've developed the car from the ground up, and the only thing someone else has done on the car was porting and assembling the cylinder head. I've done all the rest of the work and all the body work. I'm hoping to get it out to the paint shop sometime this spring.

Will

[BlackbirdM3]

Here are some more old school pics.




























Will

[BlackbirdM3]

Since there are few roadster pics,
This car was built by Steve Link, his father was Floyd Link one of the original BRE crew members. Its a fantastic car, but not that much faster than mine.











This car could be the most important Japanese race car in the US. This is the original BRE car that Frank Monice won BRE's first championship with. This is also the car mine pays tribute to. Adam Corolla owns and races it now.










Had BRE not had the success with the roadster they did, its possible that they never would have run the 240Z or the 510. A major part of the popularity of both the 510 and the 240Z rode on the shoulders of BRE. Had things been just a little different, the whole Japanese sports car movement might have been VERY different.

Will

PS, if anyone would like the original full sized version of any of the pics, let me know, they are all mine.

[ColdAccord]

more pics of the #29 s30?

Maybe this week I'll roll my 12/72 240 out and snap a few pics.

saw adam carolla's 510 at the vintage event at watkins glen this year. Datsun was the featured mark, it was pretty cool. attended a cool lecture with bob sharp.

here's a 72 240 my dad was holding for my sister, unfortunately she can't restore, store or use it (33 year old manhattanite, not much space for storage).
Only 45k on the clock, lime green car. needs some metal on the quarters and the carbs cleaned but good besides that. no rust, uncracked dash, etc. Sold it to his buddy who owns a bodyshop for $1k



my dad's 71 and my euro s50 touring a couple years back at the vintage glen (may have posted this already)



lastly, just a cool s30 (not affiliated, probably saw it on hybridZ)

[JeST]

I would kill someone for one. No questions asked. This is my version of a white unicorn.

[illest318i]

The Legendary 510!!

[devon.818]

where do i get a 510?

[Dj Buttchug]

wow some awesome pics. nice post

[BlackbirdM3]

I would kill someone for one. No questions asked. This is my version of a white unicorn.

Had I found a '72 Skyline, I'd have bought that rather than my M3. Since I couldn't find a Skyline, I'm stuck with a 73000 mile E30 M3. ;)

I don't think I have any more pics of the blue and white 240Z. He was running in the big bore group that was just before my group. It was hard to shoot everything.

Will

[hamster]

Old Datsuns are awesome.