A true CC
I was looking for an antique shop in town. Although I missed it by a block, I discovered something far more interesting: a 1972 Datsun 510 station wagon, in all its greenness.
I was very tempted by the 510 in 1972. Bob Sharp Motors, in Georgetown, CT, was just down the road from me. They’d set up a 510 for you with lowered suspension, mags, radials and engine mods (if you wanted them), and then finance the whole package.
A vinyl top for the Brougham crowd
It’s, uh, green
As many of you may have noticed, this car is slammed, but it does have air shocks to raise itself should your fillings began to shake loose. The guy’s wife will actually ride in the car with him for short distances.
I like the wheels as well. They are Rotas, a direct rip-off of Panasports, which were Minilite rip-offs made in the Philippines. They look great and are affordable.
Old-style sunroof
The owner has also installed a sunroof similar to one he once had on a Beetle.
Check out the radio block-off plate
He’s my kind of guy–no radio or “infotainment” system here. The little red duber under the block-off plate is a decal for attendance at the Japanese Classic Car Show held annually in Long Beach, CA.
L16 engine with only 83,000 mi
This car is from Seattle, so it’s rust-free. The owner picked it up in 2002 with about 75,000 miles on the ticker, and has owned it since. The cold air intake is owner-fabricated, and aside from new heater hoses and plug wires, the engine is untouched.
And yes, this is a daily driver.
Is it just my monitor, or does about every panel on the car appear to be a slightly different shade of that bright green? Cool car, though. I really like the idea of the sunroof.
It’s your eyes, JP.
I see it on the second and third photo. I think it’s uneven lighting/shadows from nearby buildings.
As a friend of the owner and have driven and worked on this wonderful car, I can verify a couple things. It does have a slight color difference because shortly after he bought it some lady backed into the front of the car, so some body work and paint had to be redone.
Other than that (retch!) vinyl roof, it’s beautiful.
I Don’t mind a vinyl roof but absolutely hate them for what they do to the metal underneath. On a wagon though. No. 510s look great in bright colours which is why mine stayed the “Butterscotch” yellow. So many things can be done to these cars by just shopping around the Nissan parts bin that’s it’s rare to find one with the original drivetrain in tact. I myself am a swapper/modifier of 510s. Love the wagons.
Love the color! I wish mine had been that color — or any color except that ugly bland orange. 4 of the five wheels look good, the exception being the one facing the driver’s seat.
Yes – Datsun once made a good looking car that put it on the verge of BMW-ish status. But then came the Malaise Era and Datsun designers turned away from the classic stylings of the 510 to give us holy-what-the-hell-is-that-ugly-thing looks of the B-210, the 200 SX, and the Godfather of Japanese Malaise-Era Funky Looks, the F-10.
What was in their sake? Must have been some kind of mushroom because Datsun had to end up changing their name to Nissan in the States in order to get the Market to forget their 1970s and 1980s cars.
So, let’s pretend Datsun gave us the 510, then pretend nothing was offered except the Z until the Nissan Altima appeared. OK? That’s better!
Can you came another manufacturer that offered such a class ride like the 510, then followed up with something like the F-10? It would be like Ford discontinuing the Falcon in order to give us an Ami 8, right?
Yes, at one time, Datsun sold a class ride like this. There is a reason a 510 is to be treasured by Datsun/Nissan fans.
As we’ve talked about here before, I think a big issue for Nissan and other Japanese automakers in the ’70s was the divide between home market tastes and those of export markets.
In the ’60s, there was a tendency to follow the Europeans and it hadn’t been that long since several of the Japanese automakers were actually producing licensed European designs. (Nissan built the Austin A40 for the a while in the ’50s and Hino made or adapted Renault designs under license into the ’60s.) At that point, the home market also wasn’t very big — even in the mid-60s, I think there were fewer cars registered in all of Japan than there were in Los Angeles County.
By the ’70s, the domestic market was really exploding and developing its own tastes, which were sometimes quite different than those of American or European buyers. The trick for Japanese automakers was that roughly half of production (sometimes more, sometimes less) was going for export, so I think there was a real tension between what would play at home and what would work overseas. Nissan’s senior management, for the most part, had always been wary about the export business, so they swung pretty hard for the domestic market.
If you look at the ’70s Nissans in the context of other JDM cars, they look pretty normal — not very attractive, by Western standards, but not that radically different from the Japanese cars with which they were designed to compete.
Never owned a 510 — although I did happily hoon a ’71 240Z for many years, and also a snappy little red ’72 1200 Coupe (until the tinworm got it). But I always thought the 510 the best four-banger of its day. Nobody in their right mind who did a test-drive on one of these could ever choose a Pinto or a Vega. I drove some early-70s Corollas too, and they were also fine little machines for their time (again, until the tinworm got them). But the perfectly proportioned “Bluebird” shape has a rare balance about it: it just “sits” nicely (even without being slammed), and gives the overall impression of confidence without boastfulness. Angular but not belligerently so. Styled but not overstyled. Adequately powered but economical and reliable. Built to quality-control standards that Detroit wasn’t yet even fantasizing about, let alone attempting. And capable of being turned into a pretty terrific rally car. In short, this was one model that the Nissan folks got totally right… to an extent the company might never achieve again.
Growing up, our ageing next-door neighbor bought a ’71 510 two-door in red, with the four-speed. It was probably the first Japanese car on our street. He loved it, and kept it for six or seven years before trading it in on an (ungainly-looking, mechanically inferior) Datsun B210. I’m sure the old gent spent his final years wishing he could’ve undone that deal and got his 510 back.
I had same problem as Leon (below). Site would let me edit after posting, but no Browse option for adding photo.
Anyway, here’s pic of a hotter version of my elderly neighbor’s ’71 two-door. In retrospect, I wish he’d offered it to me when he traded it in on his B210. Compared to most of the crap I was driving back then, a gently used, manual-tranny 510 would’ve been a great improvement. At least once I got the pipe-tobacco smell out of the cabin.
You can’t add a picture to post while editing a comment; just the first time you post it. But you can go back and edit the text afterwards.
“You can’t add a picture to post while editing a comment; just the first time you post.”
I see, said the blind man. I thought I had done so in the past, but I guess not. In that case, there have been no site problems for me lately.
I like green painted cars as they break up the monotony of Beige cars.
Here is a pic of my daily driver
It is a 2012 Ford Fiesta in Lime Green with a manual trans
Pic
sorry but this damn website keeps telling me I posted the damn post already and will not let me post a pic
Test: Working for me.
The site is having slowness issues. Sometimes it will not pop back to the original post after adding a comment. Just ignore that.
And you can’t add a picture when trying to edit a post; just the first time around.
Best colour scheme ever, to go with some straight lines and decent crome, have my long gone Bavaria.
The Bluebird is stunning, one of the best stylings of its time, would prefer them to a BMW 02 any time, especially as a wagon. Too bad the long roof also meant no IRS.
Love it! I know Panasports are considered more “legit” than Rotas, but as I understand the big-daddy of banana spoke wheels these days are Watanabe – a Japanese original unlike the English Minilites.
I like this car,I’ve a pretty good memory for cars but just don’t recall ever seeing one when new in the UK.Datsun styling took a step back with the later models.
I always liked the appearance and styling of the 510–I don’t know if they were copying BMW but the general proportions are about the same. Very attractive cars in a form follows function way. Then Datsun went and got weird and ugly with the B-210 and their lineup in the later part of the ’70s. This one is in really good condition–virtually every one I saw in the later ’70’s and early ’80s was suffering from terminal rust.
Nice find Kevin! Plenty of 510 Bluebird sedans still around here, but the wagons were and are very rare – I suspect they were only available as fully built-up imports whereas the sedans would have been assembled locally. The wagon’s rear-three-quarter always reminds me of the Mk II Ford Cortina estate around the tail-lights and tailgate:
That car is just yummy. The color, the stance, the wheels, the fact that it’s a wagon.
Me likey.
Nice car I’m not sure I’d cut a big hole in the roof of a Datsun 1600 they arent very strong but hey it looks cool.