BRE Datsun 510 T/A Package Street Car Listed at $65k!

Some of you might remember this car from several months ago when it was listed on eBay and sold for a top bid of $13,000. The story went that this was essentially the prototype vehicle for a proposed Datsun factory program to offer a BRE Trans-Am lookalike street car turnkey from the dealer. The first seller recounted that the program never really got off the ground and people who wanted to customize their 510s instead went through BRE/Interpart independently. He was apparently the liason between BRE and Nissan in trying to launch this program.

This may be the only legitimate factory-produced BRE 510 street car, and as such, it's a pretty significant vehicle. The car itself has a number of tasty modifications, including a purportedly factory limited slip, "BRE suspension package", 5-speed gearbox, and a host of BRE accessories and badging from the period. We really like that it's presented with original factory marketing materials and other memorabilia.


When presented originally, the car was needing some putting together and dusty from sitting in storage practically since new. After all, it shows just shy of 8000 miles on its odometer! It looks like absolutely nothing has been done to the car since last time it was presented on eBay, except the price has gone up by about 600%...kind of amusing after reading on JNC's blog today about Datsun 510 futures.

We're curious to see what happens with this one, as it seems to be a sign of things to come.

Find it here on eBay, offered as a pair with a strange yellow 240Z, for $65,000 with reserve not met. Buy It Now for $79k!

Japanese Nostalgic Car Magazine is Here!

Spoke today with our friend Ben Hsu of Japanese Nostalgic Car. He delightfully informed me that his highly anticipated magazine, appropriately named Japanese Nostalgic Car, has been printed and will mail out tomorrow to subscibers.

This is a huge accomplishment: the first print magazine in America devoted solely to classic Japanese cars. We've signed up and look forward to seeing the first issue. Well done guys!

Lakes Speedster - Datsun motor looks like Offy 6

This sweet salt-flats style speedster rod just popped up on Jalopnik, and what looks like at first glance to be a period Miller/Offy straight six is actually a Datsun 260z lump! Jim Pendleton of Texas is responsible for the build, and did a spectacular job. Read more /see more photos on Jalopnik.



The Datsun motor posing as an Offy really sets it off - nice detail work Jim... This represents the next frontier - making modern motors look vintage in period style builds. Along those same lines is this Model A Ford powered by a twincam Cosworth four that looks the part.

Z side by size

I have to say the new NISMO Z takes the 350z up a notch, and makes it feel more tuned and more special than the regular car. The drooped nose and giant front splitter gives the Z a more aggressive stance, while the back aero package takes a little more getting used to. However, when compared to the original, it’s apparent how much safety equipment and modern crash standards influence the sheer size of modern automobiles. The new Z feels fairly compact inside, in some ways even more so than the original – but on the outside it’s apparent there’s a lot of stuff packed underneath the skin. Roughly 3320 lbs of stuff versus 2300 lbs on the original.

Prius Tree Hugger: Gives "Green" New Meaning

Obama bumper sticker, bike rack....that tree just couldn't resist. Only one thing missing: where's the Apple sticker?

The Motoring J Style MR2: A Study in Carnage

If you follow this blog you're probably aware of our exploits at the 24 Hours of LeMons in some of Japan's finest machines of the last several decades. We thought it might be inspirational to shed light on how a vehicle comes to be a participant at this fine motor race, with the goal of properly documenting carnage.

We found our MR2 while perusing craigslist one day last January. It lived on the mean streets of Berkeley with a rather optimistic asking price of $700.00. We arrived in the Lexus LS460 press car (hardly a good choice to roll up in when you're buying a $500 car), and succeeded in parking far away so that the owner would not realize we arrived in a $70,000 Lexus. That way, we thought, he'd be more susceptible to our bargaining tactics. We found the owner (pictured above, right), in the middle of a major street in Berkeley preparing his two cars for sale: The MR2, which simply had "$700" written in shoe polish in the back window, and a much worse '95 Mustang V6 Convertible (salvage title), which he was painting in high-quality Krylon flat black for that sinister "aggressive" look.

We drove the car around the block, and despite a truly horrible clunking sound in the right front suspension, decided it was worth buying. After offering $350, we settled on $450 and (cautiously) drove the car home.


The car was horribly rusted out, so bad, in fact, that there wasn't enough of the driver's floor left to bolt in a roll bar. Of course, we didn't find this out until after we dragged it home and ripped out the carpets. Well, nobody said it was going to be easy. The photo above shows master mechanic Mack of the Motoring J Style Racing Team trying to diagnose the loud clunking noises in the right front. I'm not really sure what he did, but it got quieter and we deemed the car "safe to race".


I'm going spare you all of the boring mechanical parts and maddening problems we encountered in trying to get this former East Coast car into race-ready condition. It was a real pain in the ass and I don't want to relive it now. Painting it was fun, and as you can see we assembled a large army of rattle-can wielding LeMons enthusiasts to help us with this task...


....which took us a long-ass time! Note to self: when you use grey primer, it takes a few hundred coats of flourescent yellow and green paint to cover it all. We painted, and painted, and painted until our index fingers were frozen to the Krylon nozzle and we had ruined several formerly-presentable outfits.


No, that's not our car. This is another LeMons devotee who shall remain nameless. He showed up in his MR2 to help us with our little artistic masterpiece. We quickly surrounded his car and demanded numerous parts be taken off, at which point he smartly backed up as quickly as possible and got the hell out of there. Look closely and you can see him looking over his shoulder trying to get out of this predicament as quickly as possible. Life went on.



There are few things in life more satisfying than a freshly painted race car. Isn't she a sexy beast?


Even better with numbers on! Finally at the track: Altamont, July 2007 before the MR2's first race. She wouldn't look like this for long.


And we're off! A little traffic, no big deal...


12th place finish and not too bad damage to show for it!


Race #2: October 2007 24 Hours of LeMons, Altamont


Moments like this gave some cause for concern...


But mostly we just chugged along without any mechanical issues, everyone driving well, always in the top 5...like a fine wine, she was getting better with time.


Then our man Jordan rammed a Honda Prelude with about a 30mph closing speed, causing grave damage to our front end and seriously rearranging the rear end of the Honda Prelude. Oddly enough, the Prelude guys got the sour end of that deal and lost precious time in the pits repairing their car. Prelude guys, if you're reading this, I'm still sorry about that.

We thought the race was over. Surprisingly, the MR2 has pretty good frontal crash protection (and I'm the one to know, I tested one before at the age of 16). Despite a gouged radiator core, the car seemed to be holding its water and continuing despite a few bent panels.


Looking pretty worse for wear here. This is in the last 30 minutes of the race. Amazingly, we finished 4th! More amazingly, we drove the car home on the public freeway.

Photo Credit: Jalopnik

Post Race Carnage:



And if you don't think we're stupid enough already, we're bringing this car BACK for the 24 Hours of LeMons on May 10-11, 2008, at our old stomping grounds, the riotous Altamont Motorsports Park in lovely Tracy, California. Come see us!

Toyota and Isuzu Sportwagons Rocked the 1971 Tokyo Show

In 1971 Toyota hit the Tokyo Show with the RV1, “Recreational vehicle 1” was Toyota’s first attempt at a sportwagon.

The concept featured a small trailer filled with an inflatable camp-hut that would expand to 13 feet in diameter and 6.5 feet high to sleep 4-5 people, and 500-watt portable generator to run an electric air pump for inflating the hut. The lid of the trailer also turned into a small boat, complete with small outboard motor.


The Celica based chassis made do with a 105hp inline-4 from the Corolla. The design featured a narrow tailgate (between the elaborate taillamp assemblies with 30 lights in total, and unique gullwing opening rear hatches. Nissan must have studied this showcar in detail for their Pulsar NX “Sportback” option. Needless to say, the RV1 never saw production, but the idea of the sportwagon was never forgotten in a host of liftbacks and hatchback designs.


Also at the ’71 Tokyo Motor Show was a sportwagon from Isuzu based on the Bellett. At the time it was called clean and European – and looks like a cross between a Lotus Eclat and a Gremlin. Based on the Bellett GT chassis, and fitted with a 1.8 liter dual carb’d twincam, the Isuzu was more sporty than the Toyota RV1 across the show on Toyota’s stand. At the time it was compared to the Volvo ES – a 2+2 with some luggage space. Like the RV1, the Bellett sportwagon never made it to the production line.