My two minutes of fame (No E30 Content)

[BlackbirdM3]

A few weeks ago these guys came up and did a photo/video shoot of a friends and my Datsun roadsters. They were awesome to work with and do some great videos. Check the rest of the site out. I can't wait to see the video they shot.

http://www.petrolicious.com/articles/sneak-peek-napa-valley-roadsters

Will

[lambo]

No E30; no ca......OH MY GOD THOSE ARE SO COOL!!!

[Pantless Spency]

they are very cool lambo :P
cant wait to see the video will!

[InNeedOfBoost]

Nice!!! I'm still a bit of a Nissan guy at heart...esp when it comes to old school Datsuns.

[BlackbirdM3]

The Datsun roadster really has a pretty important place in history since it was the first Japanese sports car to really gain popularity in the US. The whole Japanese sports car culture might be very different here in the US had BRE and Bob Sharp not raced them and more importantly, won with them. This was where Pete Brock started (BRE = Brock Racing Enterprises for those of you who don't know.) He was supposed to race the Toyota 2000 GT with Carol Shelby, but the deal went sour and they parted ways. Pete Brock then contacted Nissan USA to see about racing a couple roadsters but Nissan USA said they were lousy race cars (they couldn't keep their cars together to save their lives.) Pete Brock thought they were smoking crack and made a call to Nissan Japan, to talk with an old who he had worked with in the past. Mr Katayama (Mr K.) immediately sent a couple of cars to BRE where they were race prepped and taken racing. BRE chose Frank Monice as their primary driver for the '69 season since he was the only person who could be Pete Brock back when he was racing a Lotus sports racer.
Much to the irritation of Nissan NA, BRE began to chalk up win after win proving that the roadster was a great race car and that Nissan NA didn't know what they were doing. At the end of the '69 season, Frank Monice had won the west coast championship for D production.
For the '70 season BRE replaced Monice with John Morton. They were planning on running the 240Z in CP that year, but the car was a long way from being race ready. The decision was made to run the roadster in CP. Again, it proved a solid competitor allowing BRE to qualify for the Runoffs in the fall. Morton drove the 240Z, but other drivers ran the two roadsters (the 44 and 46 cars) Oddly enough it was the two roadsters that led till late in the race when they both suffered axle failures taking them out and giving John Morton the win in the Z. For the '71 and '72 seasons BRE ran the 510 and won with it. The roadsters however continued to win as well.

If you look back through the SCCA records there have been a lot of championships won in Datsun roadsters. Heck, even today a few continue to race and continue to do very well. Bill Wessel finished 3rd in his 1600 roadster at the National Championships this year. Not bad for a design that dates back to 1962.

Will

[F34R]

LOVE the red one, the black one is meh.

[BlackbirdM3]

LOVE the red one, the black one is meh.

The black one isn't black. It has black on it, but its Audi Dolphin grey.



The red one is pretty cool. Its a '68 1600 with a pushrod 1600cc motor. We pulled the stock Hitachi SUs and installed a set of 40mm Mikuni pHH carbs. It sounds fantastic, but isn't all that fast.

Will

[Nsquared97]

Any idea if they will have some on-board footage of either car in the video? Would love to hear them.

[BlackbirdM3]

Any idea if they will have some on-board footage of either car in the video? Would love to hear them.

There should be quite a bit. To start the day off, we mounted cameras to both cars and did some quick runs through the country, I chased the red car and then he followed me. After that we picked up and headed up valley. They wanted us to both pass the camera car so my friend in the red car went first and once he was well clear I went around the camera car at the top of 3rd gear. We did some freeway shots, then at the end of the day one of the guys got in each of the cars to capture just motor noise. Getting out of the vineyard where we shot the rest of the stuff was a little tricky. It was a steep drive way that at the top gives you about 50 yards of visibility in either direction to traffic going 65 mph. Its usually pretty busy. The guy with the mic was in my car first, so he got the slightly sideways drag race launch. No I didn't dump the clutch, I just floored it off idle and lit the back end up as I was making a left turn. With my car you hear a lot of exhaust, the carbs are loud, but my airfilter does a pretty good job of muffling the noise. On the red car the carbs are much more loud but he has a quieter more restrictive exhaust. (I'm pretty much a straight pipe with a Borla XR1 race muffler at the end. )

So, yes, there should be some good audio of the cars.

Will

[ZM Blue Devil]

awesome pics, awesome cars, awesome location. Not necessarily in that order.

[BlackbirdM3]

The video is posted

http://vimeo.com/55825845

Its kinda short, but still kinda cool.

Will

[frankenbeemer]

Beautiful. Love the sound.

[Pantless Spency]

finally got to watch the video, that was awesome will! those roadsters are looking sooooooo gooood.

[Wergen7]

i watched all these videos a few days ago. i enjoyed them

[ncbrock]

I miss having a car with side drafts