Old racecar pictures

General Discussion about the Datsun PL510
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funwithmonkeys
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by funwithmonkeys »

So I found this today up the road from my place.
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It is a 1972 KPL610. It has been parked for a long time. Anyone know anything about it?
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bertvorgon
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by bertvorgon »

The "N" is missing, Noel Florack, he was a customer of Andy's and partner with Pete Robichaud in racing at Mission, if memory serves me well.
Now, I'm not sure the lineage of that car, see if someone else pipes up.
"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
510rob
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by 510rob »

Wasn't that car at the 1st track day the 510 Club held at Mission waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day?
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bertvorgon
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by bertvorgon »

Good one Rob, you would be correct, one of us should have a photo and I bet they are on my VHS/DVD media.
"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
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Byron510
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by Byron510 »

The car has been listed on CL a number of times for a reasonable price given what's there. But it looks too modified to come back to a street car without some serious surgery. And as with many old race cars, registration is often lost in transition.

It would be a cool project, but as Peter always said and became his avatar; TMPNET (too many projects, not enough time.....)

Byron
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because the opposite never works.
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KiKiIchiBan
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by KiKiIchiBan »

@funwithmonkeys buy it!
My P510 Bluebird SSS Coupe www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.php?t=26929

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funwithmonkeys
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by funwithmonkeys »

It is not for sale. And my wife would kill me if another car appeared in our driveway.
If no one from the future comes back to stop you from doing it then how bad of a decision can it really be?
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RMS
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by RMS »

ah come on you should be in good shape, two real ugly trucks just left your yard...the race car would look great in comparison.
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bertvorgon
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by bertvorgon »

I finally got my hands on the old GOLDRUSH posters. This was the two car timed solo I mentioned in my story. Thanks to Randy Hone for going through his old records.
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"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
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Tedman
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by Tedman »

FYI- There's some nice pics of Bob Stevens' 2.5 Trans Am 510 on track at the '72 Riverside race in the Petersen Digital Archives here:
https://archive.petersen.org/pages/home.php?login=true

Do a search on "1972 riverside can am" and there's lots of 2.5 TA photos interspersed. He did well in that race, finishing 4th!

Also, you guys mentioned that he built several BRE style race and street cars (incl. Byron's Bronze). I wonder if one of them was for Gerald Murch. Here's a pic of Murch's B Sedan 510 in action at SIR in July '72:
https://flic.kr/p/NJ9gbJ

SCCA results from the '72 2.5 Trans Am races at Laguna Seca and Portland show Murch's sponsor as "Stevens Datsun 510". Records show Murch finished 23rd at the '73 SCCA Runoffs at Road Atlanta, probably in that same car.
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by nordance »

Been a awhile since I've checked in on you guys, but I thought I could add a little bit to this thread about old 510 race cars in BC. I was a part of NorthWest Racing and crewed on the "510 Express" in 1970 and was crew chief on the 510 that won the Canadian Road Race B sedan Championship in 1971. The "510 Express" was the brainchild of Don Lamont and Lloyd Saunders, both salesmen at Doug's Automotive in New West. They hired Mike Connors to build the car in a garage on Dyke Road in Queensborough. Salter St. was the test track for it. The 2 litre engine was used because it developed more horsepower that the L16 (speed parts for the L16 were almost non existent in 1969). The front brakes were Ford Cortina calipers mated to the Datsun spindles (larger swept area). Suspension tweaks were limited to shortened springs, larger antiroll bars and adjustable rear shocks. It ran in B Improved Sedan in ICSSC races and C Sports Racing in CASC. Don and Lloyd shared the driving duties initially until Lloyd retired when he became dealer principle of his own dealership. Rick Evans took his spot in the car. Because Conference rules allowed all sorts of mods in Improved classed, we took liberties with control arm mounting points and even added a wing to the deck lid. (a Cessna 152 flap). I don't know if the wing really did anything, but itcertainly made people talk about it. In 1971, Datsun wanted a proper 510 to contest the Canadian Championship, so Northwest built a new car for Do to drive. As Keith pointed out, the Express was sold to Andy Field and put back into legal B Sedan form. Just prior to the Runoffs in October, Datsun provided us with a tricked out 1600cc motor from their racing department in Japan. When tested at Westwood, it was found to be too peaky (narrow power band high up in rev range but little bottom end torque. As all the acceleration at Westwood is uphill, the engine was deemed uncompetitive. So the week preceeding the race, a torque producing 1600 was built up by Mike and thrown in the car. We hoped for rain as we knew we could not beat the 2002 BMW of Loren St. Lawrence in the dry. Our secret weapon was a set of Firestone R106 rain tires that the company has left for us after some wet weather testing done at Westwood. Our wishes were granted; Loren and Norm Matovich (in his quick Fiat 124) spun out at the hairpin fighting for the lead and let Don motor on to take the chequered flag. In the same race, Peter Mitchell, a Datsun employee who had bought into NorthWest, won the D Production class in an ex Shell 4000 2000 Roadster. I, like Andy Field, had also boought a Datsun 510 from Don Lamont and was introduced by him into the world of sports car and sedan racing, initially by joining the Royal City Sports Car Club. I do have some old press clippings from those days that I will attempt to dig up and post. (I also did the team's press releases.)

Brian DeLong
Once owner of: 4 510s; 1 1200, 4 240Zs
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bertvorgon
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by bertvorgon »

Thanks for that Brian!

Always great when the history gets revisited.

I remember when Andy dyno'd the Killer Colt in the Northwest shop, way back, then I did my Honda station wagon.
"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
nordance
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by nordance »

As a PS, that was Datsun's first National B Sedan championship in North America , happening , I believe, on October 2 1971, preceeding their later SCCA win at Atlanta with John Morton and the BRE team.
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bertvorgon
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by bertvorgon »

Morning World!

I make this post to answer a question from “GRINDER”, about the year that the Portland pictures were taken.
In the early 80’s a bunch of us from Specialty did the haul down to Portland (and Seattle at SIR), to watch the BIG professional races, something that was quite rare for Westwood at the time, although we did have a Trans Am race and Formula Atlantic here.

It did not take long to drag out my first log book, where I made mention of the trip to Portland, to see that race in question.

We did go to one of the G.I.Joe’s Datsun GranPrix in 1982, which I was a bit confused about, as to Paul Newman’s presence. My log book confirmed it was JULY 28th, 1985 that the pictures I posted were taken, and, another interesting comment, which is legendary in the Specialty circle.

My boss at the time went to the Yukon for a business trip and left me the use of the Company Chevy Celebrity, he said; “Live it up!” So….me, Andy and Tracey crossed the Border and in 3 hours and 20 minutes…..we were AT THE PORTLAND TRACK! I pegged the Chevy at 100 MPH for virtually the whole way!

Can you imagine doing that now……NOT ME…..It was dark, NO traffic, NO police.

To confirm everything I looked at the results from that event in 1985, Paul Newman placed 8th in the #33 car. I tried finding a poster from that event but only found the 1982 event, which Paul was not at.

In 1982 we stayed for the whole weekend, which is when that poster is from.

That weekend was noteworthy as we decided to go to the MALIBU GRAN PRIX track, to pound in some serious amount of laps. The track of course had the “FASTEST LAP” posted, which if you beat it gave you a whole bunch of free laps. I was beginning to be at the height of my SOLO craft, so I wired the course very quickly, putting a half second on the so called FTD.

Well, as I am going to claim my free laps, the buggers get their local hotshoe employee, who drags out what looks like a frigg’in shifter cart..NOT what we are driving and sets down another half second on me. It was late at night, the pavement was HOT, as only you can imagine if you have been to Portland in the summer. I said that is not fair but they blew me off and that I had already spent a ton of that green stuff, called it a night.

That also happened one year at the Malibu track in Kelowna, where another 2 of our Solo people blew the day’s track record off the map.


One of our trips to Seattle was not without some craziness when one of the characters that hung around Specialty at the time (V-6 Powered 510), headed down with us in his Jeep. If you care or want to, ask me about that trip and the off-duty State Trooper who went apoplectic during our drive on the #405 section of highway. Let’s just say we all had to bail from the highway and hide behind a Kmart for awhile.

Needless to say we had lots of adventures buried in those trips.

Really not part of this time period, but, my most amazing encounter, one very early morning, was at SIR. I had driven my 510 down to watch the Formula 5000 race, and as most of you know, I’m an early riser, so was at the track and parked near the fence by 6:00 AM. As I got to the fence, who should come walking along……MARK DONAHUE….GOD was before me. We passed a few minutes of pleasantries; I wished him luck in the race and off walking back to the pits he went. I still have an original copy of the book he co-wrote, read it if you get a chance.

Porsche, Penske, and Donohue quickly started the development of the 917-30, complete with a reworked aerodynamic "Paris" body and a 5.4-liter turbocharged flat-12 engine whose output could be adjusted from about 1,100 to 1,500 bhp by turning a boost knob in the cockpit. During the development of this motor, the German Porsche engineers often asked Donohue if the motor finally had enough power. He answered, "It will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear."

Those cars were monsters!
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Poster from 1982 Race
Poster from 1982 Race
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Malibu 1982
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"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
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bertvorgon
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Re: Old racecar pictures

Post by bertvorgon »

Also tucked into my first log book was this picture of my car at Knox, Turn 7, taken in the early 90's I think. I actually don't really have that many pictures of my car in action.
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"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty" - Peter Egan

Keith Law
1973 2 Door Slalom/hill climb/road race / canyon carver /Giant Killer 510
1971 Vintage 13' BOLER trailer
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