Vehicle Sighting - 1969ish Datsun 1000

Did the hubcaps have holes or slots in them? Kids would put small rocks in so they would rattle around as you took off.


I might be thinking of the Datsun pickup.
 
Amazing to see that old of a Datsun car; super rare!
Datsuns we’re all great cars, but they rusted away sooo fast! Even in the early 1980’s when I started to notice cars, you hardly ever saw them.
I went on a drive with a neighbour to take his Datsun 510 to the junkyard in the early 1980’s, and I remember just how little metal there was left around us…
 
I bought a new Datsun 510 (1600) in '71, my 4th new car. It would go 100 mph indicated, took a while to figure out how much speedo error there was. Eventually figured it out with highway mile markers (no gps in those days ) top speed 98. It was a pretty good car for the times, I had it in Alaska where salt/sand on the roads was normal a good part of the year, not too much rust. I bought a Vega a few years later, the biggest car mistake I ever made. Rusted apart within a couple years.
 
I remember the 1200 - it succeeded the 1000, and was in turn superseded by the B210.

That same fellow, John, fried the engine and replaced it one out of a wrecked 1200. Not the original engine's fault - he said he'd looked in rearview mirror and saw a trail of oil on the ground. Oops! He stopped right away, but it was too late. The drain plug had fallen out.
My sister and her hubbie had a Datsun 1200 Deluxe and then my Mom bought a 74 Datsun B210. I remember the B210 had a 1288 cc engine with 75 HP. It would rev like crazy and sounded great. Being so small you always had the impression it was going way faster than it actually was. By 82 the rust was perforating the fenders. There was an accumulation of sand and dirt inside the fender like it was designed to rust.
 
I like it! I can't recall if the 1000 was sold in the US, but it likely was. The slightly later 1200 (B110?) was sold here and were fairly common. $2.00 worth of $.34/gal fuel would take you very far. Not Interstate machines with the short geared differential, but good enough for the world at 60 mph or less.

Eons ago I had a '67 Ford Cortina GT that a previous owner had increased the engine compression and installed a Lotus Cortina 4.7 rear diff. It would embarrass more than few sports cars for 2 gears or a city block.
 
I remember the 1200 - it succeeded the 1000, and was in turn superseded by the B210.

That same fellow, John, fried the engine and replaced it one out of a wrecked 1200. Not the original engine's fault - he said he'd looked in rearview mirror and saw a trail of oil on the ground. Oops! He stopped right away, but it was too late. The drain plug had fallen out.
My parents bought a 73 2 door 1200 with a manual. I learned how to drive in that car. It was great for driving around on Sat nite, could go all nite on about 1.50 worth of gas. It had decent acceleration in 2nd and 3rd gear for the times. I drag raced a buddy that had a Chevette auto and I whipped him.
 
I remember the nice growl the engine had at 3500 rpm and above when it’s massive 75 ft lbs of torque kicked in. Unfortunately they did 0-60 in 14 seconds , too slow for modern on-ramps. The gas mileage however, is still hard to beat. At 1800 lbs there was no safety equipment except seat belts. But we loved them!


FC45330B-CEBE-4188-94D2-72A580FFE1B7.png
F5AD3C74-1784-4CA3-8B40-35A13757D54D.png
 
Last edited:
The upright side glass should do a lot for giving it a more open feel.

we had a ‘77 b210 automatic. It was an energy crisis car. I heard the MT versions were really nice to have, but as a kid in high school in the late 80s, man I didn’t care for it, mostly because it felt like a death trap! There was no metal around you! The engine was unbelievably solid and the car overall was super reliable and easy on gas.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20220611-090239.jpg
    Screenshot_20220611-090239.jpg
    69.1 KB · Views: 11
Back
Top