Oh joy! Another Datsun 210 to add to the roster of the others of its kind still in active duty here. How many does that make? Maybe five or six. How many are there in your town? And one with vintage racing stripes, with a big “D” in the middle of it on the trunk; this is the kind of sight that really cheers me up. Don’t ask why, but I have a thing for Datsun 210s; one of the original Cockroaches of the Road™ and a seminal CC. I can get all mushy about them, like I did here. Speaking of that former logo-mobile, that woody wagon 210 is still plying the streets regularly, although its “wood” isn’t getting any better. And on the same subject, the ’50 Cadillac coupe is looking decidedly worse for wear. It was a bit depressing to see it moldering away slowly; it really does need to be inside. I tried to knock on the owner’s door, to make sure he’s all right, but he wasn’t home. Well, we’re all getting older; except this Datsun 210, of course.
Curious about the odometer reading. Some of the pre Naps era needed to have odometers that measured in AU. Best Nissan engine I had was a 79 which was the final year they had non-fragile head gaskets.
Huh?
“Pre naps era?” What was the Naps era, and when did it end? Shortly after graduation from kindergarten?
“Measured in AU?” Is that Astronomical Units? 150 million kilometers or if you prefer, 93 million miles?
If you’re trying to confuse me, you have succeeded brilliantly.
You are mistaken. I don’t do anything brilliantly. NAPS was the prefix that was given to the engine that had two plugs/cylinder. They had aluminum heads on a cast block and to my certain knowledge they had extremely fragile head gaskets in the presence of excessive heat. You can ask me how I know but I probably am embarrassed to answer. They started in 1980 and you found them in the pickups and maximas at least. I think more later. They had the NAPZ20 in the JDM and we got the Z22 and Z24. The Nissans that were made prior to the smog laws were tough as nails. As for the two pickups I had, I loved the way they worked and I loved it that junkyard engines were cheap. Put over 600 k miles on them.
Yup I did mean Astronomical Units and you actually did not seem confused at all. Doubt if anyone else was either.
Thanks for clearing that up!
I haven’t seen one of those Datsuns in my neck of the woods since forever, even at car shows. They probably all succumbed to rust from winter road salt. I vaguely recall a relative had a brown one of about the same vintage, and that the wheel covers reminded me of soccer balls.
http://hubcapsonwheels.com/images/53022B_Datsun_B210_hubcap.jpg
In 1994 my then-girlfriend had a 79 Datsun 210 in British Columbia.
We had a great weeklong tour of Vancouver Island in that thing, it was tinny, slow and noisy but what a great cheerful road trip car.
Even then they were all gone from SW Ontario.
The durable little OHV Nissan fours would run forever, but rust really did these things in from the top down/bottom up in the Aloha State and Guam, Saipan; from the usual winter road salt maladies on the mainland. California/Western State cars were most likely all driven up. These used to be everywhere.
How many are there in your town? Well I saw a mint wagon beetling down the road last week (well actually it was a Sunny, cause I am in AUS), and I know there is a Panel Van up on our friends farm used for carrying hay to feed the cows, because we gave it to them after it got too rusty to be registered. So that makes at least two …..
There are one or two little old lady driven Datsun sunnys about here,not much in Japanese cars has very good survival rates from that era.
Here is one that is in Australia that cost the government a lot of money when it was ticketed at going 160 KPH past this one speed camera
http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breaking-news-blog/cofferbusting-datsun-up-for-sale/20120221-1tkmt.html
The thing is that the puny engine in that old car(in OZ it is called the Datsun 120Y but in the USA it was called B210) could have never hit that speed. Everytime I see or read about a 210, I think of the car that police claimed hit warp 1 going past a speed camera
I remember that one, both the original call and the report from the race track where I don’t think they got it to hit 130km/h (80mph)
I have some friends who are the original (and sentimental) owners of a 77 Datsun 310 that is approaching 400K on the original engine and transmission. Talk about a cockroach of the road. There used to be hordes of the 210s around SoCal but I rarely seen one anymore. I’m sure most of them had hundreds of thousands of miles on them before they were retired to the junkyards.
yes,that A14 motor on these is tough as nails,here in casa grande(Arizona)my next door neighbor got an 81 Datsun 210 wagon(5spd)with almost 500k miles on it,he is the first owner&probably last of that car.i could not believe my eyes when I saw those numbers(its 6 digit meter)still stock motor.burnning a quart of oil between oil changes but hey half million miles.ATOMIC COCKROACH.
Datsun copied that engine from Austin its virtually a Japanese built A series from the A30 A40 Morry -thou family, they even interchange many Morry Minors here run Datsun motors the kids at speedway start in 120y powered ministocks. Given how many uses the powertrain has in NZ chronicly rusty Datsuns were a blessing.
Lots of Datsuns earn their racing stripes, there are quite a few of these still rallying because the 1600s (510s) are being used up & hard to come by spare panel fodder.
Because these weren’t called 210s over here, I thought of the previous model – this one was a works rally car driven to 6th place by Shekhar Mehta in the 1977 Southern Cross Rally (1725 miles) which was won by Rauno Aaltonen in a Datsun Violet/710, it was a significant international rally back then.
I had a brand new rental 120y up to 160 given enough road they could wind up race tracks seldom have long enough straights, good grief the NZ 1200sss could do way more than the old ton even the well worn beater I had in Tasmania could top 140 those little suckers go ok.
Victorian speed cameras were lethal I got clocked at 80 kmh in a 70 zone on Sydney road braking for a red light but thats ok Ive saved heaps not paying to use the ring road in a multitude of out of state cars they keep sending warning letters but they know their petty charges mean nothing interstate and are unenforceable. Dont forget the tree caught speeding in NSW and please check your speedo against a GPS you may get a rude shock about how fast you are NOT going.
great&super reliable engines.last forever.but you do not want one with automatic trans,so slow&really bad on petrol(about 18MPG combine)a buick roadmaster from 90s will give you a better gasmileage with 4 times bigger engine(LT1)than an automatic 210.