This slideshow is from the excellent KGC10kai blog, please check it out, it’s chock full of great photography (he must be a good guy, he has great taste in music!). I believe this was a club run last weekend, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many C10s on the road at once!
Some of you have no doubt heard of the Canby Datsun Show that took place this past weekend up in Oregon. Well this year there was the fine assortment of eye candy Datsuns and eyesore Ratsuns, but one truly bizarre 240SX Retro Oddity showed up in Glow Green to stun the crowd:
Issue 2 of JNC should be arriving in mailboxes this week, and in it you will find an article about Lucha Libre Racing. Or you might have seen the team’s 1967 Datsun 1600 Roadster in the race car corral at the JCCS this weekend. It’s the first Japanese car to race La Carrera Panamericana, the legendary road race that takes competitors 2000 miles across Mexico in the course of one frantic week. Streching from the Guatemalan border to Texas, it’s one of the toughest races in the world.
This year, owner Michael Emery is mounting a second attack on La Carrera. He’s also raising money to buy school supplies for Mexican children, so please check out his entertaining blog and help out with a T-shirt or sticker purchase if you can. JNC advertiser Pack Racing/VTO Performance went the extra mile by custom-making a set of 15-inch superlite wheels for the car!
JNC also bought a small square of real estate on the Datsun’s flanks, and we are excited to report that soon our logo will be hurtling across Mexican highways when the race kicks off on October 24. We wish LLR the best of luck!
Let’s start the week off with another WTF moment. What’s with these things? Last month we showed you a Datsun Fairlady Roadster on a Jeep CJ5 frame. Now here’s another one spotted at Pismo Beach, sent in by an alert JNCer/quickdraw cameraman, who hypothesizes that the Datsun Fairlady’s body-on-frame construction has something to do with this phenomenon. Sad but true.
Just a quick reminder for those of you from or visiting NorCal this weekend. Be sure to check out the Z Owners of Northern California’s Blackhawk Datsun/Nissan Extravaganza in San Ramon on June 28. All manner of Datsuns are welcome – 510s, Zs, and Roadsters. Doors open at 10 AM. For more information, check out the ZONC website.
O-kaaaaay. You don’t see this every day. And by this we mean a mud-splattered Datsun Roadster mounted on a Jeep CJ5 drivetrain. Here’s some videos of it doing it’s thang. Fairlady? More like bearded lady.
We all have that one friend who has given an affectionate pet name, usually female, to his car. Perhaps you are that one. Hollywood has no shortage of examples. Who could forget 1974’s Gone in 60 Seconds, when car thieves assigned each vehicular mark a woman’s name to use in code, or Christine, the demonic ‘58 Plymouth Fury of the eponymous book and movie. But when it comes to manufacturers actually assigning a girl’s name to an entire model line, that’s unheard of in the States.
Not so in Japan. A whole harem of female names appear in the lineups of our favorite marques from across the Pacific. One of the most recognizable is the Nissan Silvia, made famous by its drift-worthy US counterpart, the 240SX. Of course, the name Silvia first appeared on the production version of Nissan’s 1964 show car, the 1500 Coupe. The hardtop coupe was based on the Datsun Roadster platform and shared its 1600cc, 90hp engine. Only 554 were made.
In 1975, the name was revived in earnest on the S10 coupe, an exotically-styled two-door hardtop that screams retro-futurism today. It shared a 105hp L18 four-cylinder with the Bluebird, but received a 2.0L engine in the US and the 200SX name.
Since then, a steady progression of Silvias/SXs have followed. The S10 was succeeded by the more conventional-looking S110, the angular S12 stuffed with 1980s electronic wizardry, and the drift machines – the S13, S14 and Japan-only S15 (Edit: Australia got the S15 also. Lucky blokes!). The long-lived S-series was one of the most prolific low-cost FR platforms in the world, but ceased further development after the S15. This was due to Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic cost-cutting measures, which culled many a platform with the goal of making the FM shared by the 350Z and Infiniti G35 Nissan’s lone sports car chassis. With the death of the S-series, the Silvia name went with it.
However, recent rumors have suggested that an inexpensive FR revival may be in the works at Nissan, though there’s no word whether the Silvia name will rise again.
Dang, did we take a wrong turn at Amesterdam? We are completely smitten by the quaintness of the Danish town of Solvang, site of the annual Datsun Roadster Meet. We wish there was some time to kick back with a nice helping of dyrlægens natmad while listening to some Whigfield, but we have to catch the Z Car Nationals in Silverado tomorrow. It’s the Datsunmania tour!
We all have that one friend who has given an affectionate pet name, usually female, to his car. Perhaps you are that one. Hollywood has no shortage of examples. Who could forget 1974’s Gone in 60 Seconds, when car thieves assigned each vehicular mark a woman’s name to use in code, or Christine, the demonic ‘58 Plymouth Fury of the eponymous book and movie. But when it comes to manufacturers actually assigning a girl’s name to an entire model line, that’s unheard of in the States.
In 1975, the name was revived in earnest on the S10 coupe, an exotically-styled two-door hardtop that screams retro-futurism today. It shared a 105hp L18 four-cylinder with the Bluebird, but received a 2.0L engine in the US and the 200SX name.
