Datsun Fairlady Roadster.
I owned one of these about 27 years ago. The car I bought was an inppropriate blue. Before doing a full bare metal respray I prepped the car over many weeks and painted it a Ferrari shade, Super Maranello red.
The car slid on corners when I pushed hard so I fitted a set of alloy mags. With the help of a friend and her workshop, (Katrina, where are you now?), we re-drilled the axle-stud holes to suit the wider rims. Now the car hugged the curves.
I also fabricated a new black, vinyl soft-top as the old one leaked. I unpicked the original, used the panels as a template and sewed it up using a domestic machine (many broken and bent needles later.)
When the car was finished I drove 1,375 kms from Sydney to Adelaide with my dog Sophie for the F1 Grand Prix. I watched from trackside as one of the greatest drivers of modern times, Ayrton Senna, raced the likes of Riccardo Patrese, Nigel Mansell, Gerhard Berger, Damon Hill, Nelson Piquet, and Michael Schumacher.
The ‘91 Grand Prix was stopped after 14 laps, Senna one of only 8 drivers who finished in the treacherous conditions. I could barely see from the sidelines, how the hell did they do it travelling at 300kmph? (Sadly, Senna died in an accident a few years later at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix).
The little roadster never missed a beat on the return trip..
Datsun make some tough, reliable engines and I’ve had a few. (More stories to come…Cal Nyx's Ford)
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