Jun’s Datsun 510 Wagon

This next build has been a favourite of mine since I first laid eyes on it, I’ve read it countless times and it always makes me want to run out to the garage and start working on my own car. Jun is one of those people who gets it, his modification technique is very detailed yet not too mechanically intense, anyone with a vision and some elbow grease can emulate it, he even inspired me to ‘do work’ on my own engine bay instead of continually delaying it. This 510 wagon gets a serious dose of Japanese style, helped along by it’s owners visits to the motherland, bringing home swag on the return-flights home.

There’s no need to feel disappointed when you get to the end of this build, as you’ll see that Jun has recently picked up a Datsun 620 4WD, and he’s working his token magic on that ride, too.

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Project 510: RB20DET gearbox

I was standing in the garage today, looking at my car with a bunch of the engine bay torn apart, planning in my head how I was going to document the activities in my next post. Then it struck me, I still hadn’t posted about the last thing I did; retrofitting an RB20DET gearbox to the FJ20. The FJ20 uses a 5-speed gearbox which has one niggling problem, they have a tendency to crunch when changing gears in higher rpm. Apart from that, there was nothing wrong with it, no whining noises, never hard to find a gear, never popped out of gear, but that didn’t stop me from upgrading when I learnt that the RB20 gearbox bolts up with minimal mods…

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Oh, you like Datsuns?

Spriso Motorsports are truly living the Datsun life, now being in the game for over 10 years churning out nostalgic drop-top rides with modern Nissan running gear. Leigh, the man behind the Spriso website, emailed me to let me know that the team have documented 7 of their Datsun Roadster builds online. I love companies who take the time to do this sort of thing, it’s one thing for an individual to do it on a forum, but when a company does it, you know they go straight into our good-books. Check the links below to see more…

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Speedhunters: Best of 2010

Here is my second and final guest-post for Speedhunters in 2011. You can read the actual story by clicking here. As usual, I like to post it on my own blog as well for archiving.

There are some teaser shots of new upcoming builds to be featured in 2011, so make sure you stay tuned for those, regular programming will commence soon. I apologise for the lack of content but the guest-posts take a decent amount of time to put together.

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Speedhunters: One year on

I’m pretty sure that the majority of you who read this blog also read Speedhunters. If that’s the case, you no doubt would have seen that I recently contributed to Build Month. This is the second year in a row that I have been asked to guest post, and I am very grateful to be able to do so. I like to re-post my contributions on my own blog, mainly for archiving purposes, so here is the first one for 2011. You can read the post on Speedhunters here.

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SR20DE 510

I’m trying to get through some of my oldest submissions that I’ve been holding onto for way too long, and one of them is from Duke, a fellow 510 owner whose build you can check out here). You know I’m never going to hesitate to feature a Datsun build, so when he kindly submitted one of such a high caliber, it was definitely going up on the site.

Quick specs: ’72 Datsun 510 4-door built for race/rally duties, packing a dry-sump equipped 260hp SR20DE with individual throttle bodies. More info after the jump…

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SR20DET 240Z

A highly desirable car built to only the highest of standards, this 240Z has had no expense spared during its reincarnation. Chesse submitted this build while the car was still in it’s assembly stage, but now it’s completely finished so we can enjoy the full journey of the cars restoration.

What, pictures and text not enough for you? Well if your pockets are deep enough, the car can be yours for the sum of $125,000. Yeah, I think I’ll have to stick to the pictures too!

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Drag-spec Datsun 510 Coupe

I just saw this link get posted on Ratsun a moment ago and knew I had to tee it up for a feature. A Datsun 510/Bluebird coupe gets the full drag treatment over in Japan, with a tube frame chassis, massive slicks taking up the whole rear end, and a potent straight 6 L-series finished off with some amazing titanium headers. It’s interesting to see the engine choice after fabricating such an elaborate chassis. In western countries a big V8 or a turbocharged 4cyl/6cyl would have been a no-brainer choice, but in this case the Japanese builders have stuck with N/A straight 6 power.

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Chronicles of the Crazy Octopus

Remember the Crazy Octopus FC RX7 from a few years ago? Well he’s back, and this time armed with an S30Z, providing us with a very productive build with some sharp photography to go with it.

Shout-out to **** from Jtype for submitting this one.

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Dedication… Datsun 610

Many aspects of the car scene are subjective, whether it be the style you choose to modify in, the brand of car you desire, or the purpose you use it for. One thing that can’t be argued about is the bond between a man and his car, and how hard it is to break. Jon drove a Datsun 610 that was the recipient of an unfortunate T-bone accident, but he didn’t give up and chose to re-shell his pride and joy in the driveway, one piece at a time.

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