Performance Archives - Datsun Discussion Forum

Datsun Z432 Fairlady Technical Illustration

April 10, 2017 by Greg

For early Z aficionados, the Z432 has to be at the top of every collector’s wish list. While the more pedestrian S30 cars were equipped with the L24 engine and a set of SU carburetors, the Z432 was powered by the same dual-cam, inline six-cylinder 24-valve S20 as the venerable Skyline GT-R (Hakosuka). 7000 rpm was right in its wheelhouse, and the magnesium wheels, 5-speed, and factory LSD made the Z432 a formidable opponent on track or touge.

Of course, the ‘432’ references the S20’s 4 valves, 3 carburetors and 2 cams, and the rarity of the Z432 is reflected in recent sales of well over six figures.

From the DatsunForum archive of classic Japanese literature, this technical illustration was included in Motor Fan magazine in 1969 as a fold-out enclosure. How many of these were tacked up in bedrooms and garages all over Japan in 1969?

You can keep that Toyota 2000GT – Here at Datsun Ranch, we’d certainly rather have the Z432 to play with! Rather than squirrel these scans away, here it is, in high-res for your viewing pleasure. We hope you enjoy it.

[Super-high-res versions are available here: Datsun Fairlady Z432 1 and Datsun Fairlady Z432 2 ]

The Stainless Steel Carrot: An Auto Racing Odyssey

August 10, 2016 by Greg

You know the names… Peter Brock. John Morton. Frank Monise. John McComb.

How about Sylvia Wilkinson? In 1970, she was a young writer with a few published novels – but she had a real passion for competitive racing. Her next book, The Stainless Steel Carrot: An Auto Racing Odyssey, incorporated that passion. The book follows a young racer named John Morton as he campaigned the Brock Racing Enterprises Datsun 510 in the 1971 and 1972 SCCA Trans-Am 2.5 Challenge.

As you know, Morton won both championships, cementing his place (and those of the 510 and its BRE livery) in motorsports history. While Morton’s career continued, the book has been out of print since 1973, and original copies have become collector’s items.

Despite years of requests from fans of the book, it took friends and family (including John) ten years to convince Sylvia to bring the Stainless Steel Carrot back into print, with new material. Their secret weapon? They turned it into a charity project to benefit animals, with royalties from the book sales going to animal and environmental groups – and Sylvia finally agreed.

We’re proud to announce that The Stainless Steel Carrot has been republished with additional material, but a limited number of books have been printed – approximately 300 remain. Once these are gone, they’re gone. Forever. For this reason, we here at DatsunForum.com have agreed to help promote the book.

So, if you’re down with helping animals, preserving some cool Datsun history, and reading an awesome story about Mr. Morton’s heroic efforts against all odds in the 510, get a copy for yourself!

No question, The Stainless Steel Carrot is 365 pages of Datsun racing history that belongs in the libraries of racing fans and Datsun enthusiasts everywhere.

Grab your copy at http://johnmortonracing.net/

Datsun Competition Parts Catalog 1976

April 7, 2016 by Greg

OK, this is just too cool – The entire catalog of Datsun Competition parts and accessories for the Z, Roadster, 510, 210, and even trucks!

The staff here at DatsunForum spent a few hours scanning this pristine catalog for you guys, and I think you’ll enjoy checking out the contents. You may even get some ideas for your next project!

Page may load a bit slow due to the amount of content… Click each image for the full-size version!

Click here for the rest of the pages!

In Traction: The Cure for Datsun Wheelspin

October 8, 2015 by Greg

Special thanks to Cody Busch of Race Tech Connection and Quaife for this article!

After circuit racing our little small block powered Datsun 260z in the 24 Hours of Lemons in May, and drag racing with the NMCA WEST just two weeks ago, one thing stood out as the biggest issue on the car. Wheelspin! Our warmed over small block Chevy puts out way too much power for one 225mm tire to transmit to the pavement. As a solution to that, we contacted Quaife USA to provide a limited slip differential to tame the little beast we call Detroit Datsun.

The Problem:
Before getting into the function of our new limited slip differential, it is important that you understand how an open differential works. Looking from the top at a vehicle going around a corner the outside wheels must spin faster and further than the inside wheels.The idea behind a differential is to allow both wheels to spin at different speeds. See the illustration above, or for explanation of any of the technical terms blowing your mind in this article, see our full explanation of commonly misunderstood drivetrain parts here: Drivetrain Basics

Strictly speaking of rear wheel drive cars, the power comes in from a transmission connected to the rear end via a driveshaft. The drive shaft is bolted to the pinion gear and the pinion gear powers the ring gear which is bolted to a carrier. That carrier can be open, locked, or a limited slip (interchangeable with traction lok, suregrip, positraction, etc). Each has its own benefits and drawbacks, but an open differential has the handicap of always powering the easiest to spin wheel. If you are going around a corner that is usually the inside wheel. If you are on snow it is whichever wheel is on the slipperiest surface; the exact opposite of what you would actually want in either situation! This is where an open differential leaves you with a useless spinning tire and no power transfer to the ground, and it is also where a limited slip differential comes in handy. It does exactly what the name implies. It limits the slip of the tire that is easiest to spin!

Evidence:
In our Datsun’s case, the problem is that around corners and on the dragstrip our small block Chevy has too much power for the one wheel that is receiving the power in low grip situations.

If the vehicle is going to be as quick as possible we are going to have to limit wheelspin in corners and on the dragstrip. Take a look at the right rear tire smoke in that video and you’ll see why we needed to contact Quaife. The miles per hour on our timeslips indicate that if we can get both tires to transmit power to the ground, we’ll be much faster than the elapsed time indicates.

Our solution to that awesome and ridiculous one wheel wonder burnout is a new Quaife automatic torque biasing (ATB) helical limited slip differential (LSD).

We called upon Quaife for a few reasons. First being the reputation that their products carry. Quaife puts so much quality manufacturing and engineering into one piece of equipment, that the finished product looks like a work of art. All of the machined surfaces, gears and quality of metal are absolute top-notch eye candy. Quaife also offers a type of limited slip that is different from many other brands. You may have heard of a clutch type limited slip and you have probably heard of a Torsen type limited slip. A Quaife ATB differential is a “helical” limited slip.

What is that and why is it right for our/your car?

While traditional clutch type limited slip differentials use clutch friction packs that are compressed by the outward forces of gears and the inward forces of high traction tires (once again see our drivetrain explanation), this helical type of differential uses gears. The separation and compression of these gears inside of a machined pocket in the carrier together with side gears connected to the drive axles inside of the differential, automatically biases the power to the higher traction wheel. However, unlike some clutch type limited slips, not all the power is distributed to the higher traction wheel, and the benefit of an open differential being able to corner is still maintained. A gear actuated “helical” LSD also allows for automatic adjustment over different terrains. What that means is that in a rainy road racing environment with puddles etc. the lower traction wheel will not be the only one spinning, allowing for higher grip, better handling, and lower lap times. For drag racing, that translates to letting you lay down down two strips of rubber, like John force at the NHRA Winternationals.

Other benefits of Quaife’s helical limited slip design over traditional clutch/Torsen type LSD’s, is no extra maintenance, no unique lubrication needs (i.e. friction modifier), and no wearable parts that will need to be replaced. It is smooth and quiet, and requires no break in period!

Why Quaife?
Since 1965 Quaife has been manufacturing the highest quality transmission and drivetrain components in the world. Through constant innovation, and improvement of quality and precision, they have found themselves as a worldwide leader in racing drivetrain components. All of the elements that go into manufacturing any of their products are sourced from the UK, and all of their ATB limited slip differentials are backed by a limited lifetime warranty. With Quaife’s Products enjoying success in Formula 1, rally, circuit racing, and rallycross racing worldwide, you can truly rely on them for quality and performance. They have applications for over 950 different vehicles just on the limited slip line of products.

Just as an example of their excellence in manufacturing, the following pic shows one of the Quaife differentials side gears (on the right) compared with a competitor’s gear (on the left) both for the same vehicle. The Quaife gear shows little to no sign of wear, no metal porosity, and an overall beefier design.

Quaife has an in-house group of engineers and performance specialists constantly improving their already amazing products. Trust us, just holding one of the products in your hand you can feel the quality of workmanship. They’re on the cutting edge of computer aided manufacturing, and they feature in-house CNC machines in the creation and inspection of their products. What that means for you is the greatest quality products the first time, with a warranty and history to back it up! There is no corner cut and no steps skipped in creating any Quaife product. Their mission is simple, to continue to deliver the highest quality drivetrain components without any compromise. For more information, see their website via the link below, or contact one of their retailers.

The Next Steps:
Our new mission is simple as well! We will be installing this beauty into the rear end, then testing the difference it has made at the next NMCA WEST Drag racing event to truly show you the difference that a Quaife ATB limited slip can make for your car! Hopefully improving upon our best timeslip of 14.2 seconds at 101 MPH.

Along the way, we’ll walk you through how simple installing a limited slip is, and give you some feedback from our ride’s new toy.

Thanks again to Quaife USA!
(855) 417-4300
[email protected]
http://www.quaifeamerica.com/

Datsuns? In Hot Rod Magazine? In 1976? No way!

August 24, 2015 by Greg

Yes way. In February 1976, Hot Rod Magazine (which we ALL read and enjoyed) did a feature on not one, but THREE Datsun models from 1976… and modded them to boot!

The team at Creative Car Craft in El Segundo, California took a Datsun B210 sedan, a 620 Lil’ Hustler long bed pickup, and a 280Z and completely reworked the drivetrain, interior, and suspension.

We thought you’d really enjoy reading the article – it’s interesting to see what techniques were used then vs. now, as well as the driving impressions of the cars!

Click images for larger versions – Enjoy (and share)!

Datsun SPL310 Road Test from March 1964 Motor Trend

May 16, 2015 by Greg

To the uninitiated, Datsun roadsters were just a knockoff of the British MGB – but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Datsun Fairlady was introduced before the MGB (by nearly a year).

Further, while the MGB became heavier, slower, and less attractive after 1967, the opposite was true for the Datsun Roadster, which remained relevant and a great sports car buy until it bowed out in 1970 (to make way for the 240Z).

Check out this road test from the March 1964 issue of Motor Trend magazine. [click on the images for high-resolution versions]

76 Datsun 280Z Widebody Build – “Banzai Runner”

April 5, 2015 by Greg

[Editor’s note: As a long-time Datsun restorer and collector, I get to meet people all over the world who share my affinity for classic Nissan products. Sometimes, however, some of the most interesting people and builds are right in your own neighborhood. I recently got to spend some time with Stuart Jamison, an Arizona resident who’s building a Z that will definitely stand out from the crowd, and should turn heads for decades. I’ll let Stuart tell the rest of the story, but I wanted to give him a proper introduction… Enjoy the build!
-Greg]

My family has never really been a ‘car’ family. I think I just was the odd one out. The day for my affliction with cars came when I went looking for my first car. I remember test driving mainly sports cars of the time, like a Fiero, a Mazda RX7, and then finally a 1979 280ZX. I had no idea on anything about these cars, other than I liked the looks and style of them. All of them ran fine, except the 280ZX. I paid about $1200 for it my senior year in high school. My affinity to cars also increased when I came across Top 3 Best Window Tinting Services in Hamilton, Ontario that transformed every car into a cool vehicle on the road.

It had a 5-speed, and it didn’t run. It needed a new distributor and some other things to get it to work right. Eventually got it going, and fell in love with this model. It started
seeping oil out of the plugs at one point, but continued to run. MAF problems, but still it continued to run. I was amazed at how well this car ran, even though it had problems. Eventually my neighbor and I worked on it, and that’s when I started learning about fixing cars. Clutch change, head work, rings, etc. Everything was done by myself until something came up and no one knew how to fix it, which meant a shop would have to tend to it. These were the pre-internet days, and I had a Japanese car in a predominately American car neighborhood. This car remained in my possession for about two years. It ended due to another guy T-boning me while I went through an intersection. The guy’s response was “I just didn’t see you”. He had no insurance, and it wasn’t even his car. Car was totaled and off it went, never to be seen again.

I drove past a fly-by-night car dealer on 7th Street and Dunlap here in Phoenix every day on my way to work, and ooh’ed and ahh’ed at a Flame Pearl Red 1988 300ZX that was fully loaded. Leather, digital dash, everything a boy could dream of. So with some help from family on a co-loan, the 88 300ZX replaced it, but it was never the same.

It was full of luxury and the car practically drove itself, an awesome touring car, whereas in the 280ZX you drove the car. Never really had that feeling with any other car since then, but have always been a Nissan guy since that ZX. In 2000 I bought my first new truck, a Nissan of course, which was an experience in itself. It was a 2000 Solar Yellow Nissan Frontier Desert Runner. 6 years later, I traded in the Frontier and I bought my second truck, a 2006 Titan-SE crew cab, which I still own today.

Things started taking a turn in 2012. I was really getting the bug to have a Z again. I thought about trading in the Titan, but was convinced otherwise not to do so by my wife. I had been on a track for the first time with some super cars, at an event that comes to town every now and then. Got to drive Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Audis, and of course the GTR. I would say that was when the time hit where I wanted something fun to drive again. By now, I was older/wiser and making decent money. I could do the things I always wanted to when I was a teenager with a Z. After thinking long and hard about it, and convincing my wife, I set off to find a project car – something I could work on, and bond with my new father-in-law over, since he was a huge car guy.

Part 2: Project “Banzai Runner” begins.

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

SR311 Fairlady Roadster racing parts catalog from 1969!

August 3, 2014 by Greg

As early as 1963, the Datsun / Nissan Fairlady Roadster was a formidable competitor on the race circuits of Japan, competing against the best offerings from Europe, Italy, Germany and other Japanese manufacturers. From 1967 to 1970, no other car even placed in the top 5 at Fuji Circuit… That’s domination!

76 Datsun 280Z Widebody Build – “Banzai Runner” – Part 17

April 24, 2014 by Greg

Although it’s been a love/hate relationship with this project, I still plan to stay on the path to building it the way I want it. I have loved the idea of building a car that could be enjoyed on the track and on the street. I never plan to win any trophies with it, but love the fact I can drive the car down to the local track, spend the day there, and then drive it back home. The car has never been fully restored as you saw, but it’s got patina and soul. It’s a car that’s been used and a car that’s been driven – and driven hard, enjoyed to the fullest.

I’ve logged just over a thousand miles so far, being driven up to Flagstaff, through the canyons in Sedona, and back through Globe. I have a few loops in town I’ll take and storm back down into the valley over the course of a few hours. This was never fully developed as an outright race car, because I like the idea of being able to drive wherever I want. When I haven’t driven it in a while and start it up, I get the biggest smile and feel a bit giddy. No drivers aids or electronics to help out, just the raw output of the straight-six. It still scares me sometimes when I have my foot down on the pedal. Its really fun to play with, a source of freedom, a total personal satisfaction listening to the sounds, and knowing all the mechanical parts doing their job. The triple Webers have a very unique sound – it’s very exotic and you can feel the instant power behind them. It pulls all the way up to 7000 rpms without giving up and probably would continue if it wasn’t for the cast pistons…. I do get some exhaust fumes into the car, which is inherent in these models when you have the windows down, but it just adds to the overall experience.

So here we are today… with lots still to do. Plenty of lessons learned from just going out and doing it, rather than planning it out. Overspent on parts I didn’t need, just because I thought they would work and they didn’t. It happens, but trying to minimize the cost was still a goal which unfortunately didn’t happen exactly the way I wanted it. When you have to buy two engines within a year, that’s not good at all for anyone’s budget.

For the near future, the plans are to get the body prepped and find someone who can paint it or do a wrap… Get some turn signals back onto the car and get the interior put back together. Seam seal the rear inner fenders, and put some sound deadening and insulation down in the rear of the car to help prevent some of the fumes from coming in to the car from the exhaust. Redo the body wiring on the car as well at some point and under the hood. Reroute a few plumbing items and clean up the engine bay… and finally figure out how I’m going to re-do the front hubs. The center bore on the HRE wheels is 58mm, and the center bore on the hubs are 73mm on the car. So they will need to be opened up a bit on the wheels. Maybe a spacer or two will help offset some of that bore on the hubs so they can fit. Time will tell… What does the future hold? Maybe a 3.2L with ITB’s… but that will be way down the road unless I win the lottery or something!

A final lesson that was quickly learned was with these big tires… burnouts just dont happen anymore. Already broke a u-joint. Luckily I was right outside my house when it happened, and was easily able to fix it.

MOD LIST
Rebello P90 Head work Street Ported with supertech valvetrain
Rebello Camshaft (63DE) .487 lift 279 duration
Rebello 3.0L Stroker 297hp @ 6700RPM (Engine Dyno / Car Dyno 225hp)
Champion 3 Row Aluminum Radiator
Electromotive XDI Ignition with CAS
NGK Spark Plugs
Accel 7048 8.8mm 300+ Spark Plug Wires
Kameari 50mm Intake Manifold
Triple Weber DCOE45
MSA 2.5″ Coated Header 3-2-1
JDM Heatshield
Godspeed 10 Row Oil Cooler
Reduction Gear Starter
1983 ZX Alternator Mod
Energy Suspension Polyurethan Bushing Kit
Tokico Illumina Struts/Springs
5 Speed Close Ratio Transmission
Competition Clutch Stage 2
Competition Clutch Lightweight flywheel 10lb
Custom SS Exhaust
Magnaflow XL #12616 Straight through muffler
Toyota Front Caliper Mod with Cross drilled rotors
Maxima Rear Caliper Mod with Cross drilled rotors
Earls Stainless Brake lines and fittings
Vintage 3 Piece Hayashi Racing HRE 505 wheels 17×10.5 Front and 17×14 in Rear (-63.5 offset)
KUHMO 275/40/17 up front and 335/35/17 in rear
Ebay GT Fender Mirrors
JDM Tail lights
Datsun Competition Hood Scoop
MSA Victory Spoiler
Ztrix Street IMSA Body kit
Custom Upholstered

DCOE 45 jet settings:
38 choke
145 main
160 air
65f7 idle
f11 tube
00 Pump Bleeds
45 pump jet

Lastly, here’s my spreadsheet for the build, including costs and details:

Questions about this build? Comments? Discussion here: Widebody 280Z discussion

Stay tuned – I’ll be updating this build article as the project progresses. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing you all at an event soon.
-Stuart

76 Datsun 280Z Widebody Build – “Banzai Runner” – Part 16

April 24, 2014 by Greg

Sunday morning at 7 am, I was headed back to John’s shop in Scottsdale, this time to get the front fenders and the IMSA G-nose installed. Again, lots of trimming, sanding, and fitting for a good fitment. The fiberglass parts aren’t perfect, as they’re made for race cars who don’t care about fitment. We just cut away enough to get it close, and I will need to do all the detail work on my own at home now.

The biggest challenge we had was getting the headlights mounted. John had never mounted these pieces before, because he had never had a request for it. So this was all new territory. The issue was to make sure the headlight was mounted in the center of the fender as well as on the headlight bucket on the G-nose. It took several hours to get this down right with lots of measuring and fitment testing again. As you can see, the stock hinges were converted to work with a G-nose front end. The stock 280Z turn signal lights also had to be removed.

Finally… everything came together, and we bolted it all up.

The front lip measures 5.5″ off the ground. We would need to do some more testing with the front wheels now, and this is where we ran into another issue. That spacer is causing problems again, pushing the wheel out too far. I was not able to turn the wheel very far without it hitting the fenders. We thought about trimming the fenders, but I’ll just have to get the front hubs converted like I did on the rears. So I made a call to my wife, who brought me out my old 16×8 XXRs and they were put on instead. I was able to drive home on those without any issues.

At this point, there is still a lot to be done: Front hubs with 5 lug conversion, more body work, paint, and I have to put the interior all back together again. We took everything out of the interior during the welding so we could watch for fires. It’s not done by a long shot, but it’s close enough to where I can drive it again, and have some fun with it in the meantime.

Planning ahead was definitely not optimal, especially with the wheels. I spent a lot, but learned a lot along the way. Such is life when you start hot rodding and going outside the boundaries of what’s considered “normal” off-the-shelf parts. The flares were sold as well as the front air dam to help pay down some of the added cost. The $400 hub adapters might wind up as expensive paperweights, unless someone wants to buy them down the line.