1978 Datsun 280z
History of this car
This car was purchased by me in May of 2002, from the original owners (father and son) who lived between California and Nevada during the time of ownership. Since the purchase, a lot has been done to the car to make it both street and track worthy. My main focus was on safety and reliability, not performance upgrades. My intent with this car was for track-day events and general “street-fun”. It was never a daily driver for me, mainly sitting in the garage and coming out on weekends for the occasional twisty back road drive.
To the best of my knowledge this car has still has all of its original parts (drive-train), but I have replaced many parts in the years I have owned it.
Mechanical fitness of this car
The engine starts and runs perfectly. No hesitation, not sputtering, no smoke. I have spent a lot of hours ensuring that the engine is in good working order. While I have adjusted valve lash, I have not opened the motor any further than that. Just about anything else EXTERNAL of the motor has been replaced or is in perfect working order (wires, plugs, smog equipment, vacuum lines, fuel lines, filters, etc). It is a stock motor with no internal upgrades.
The entire front and rear suspensions were completely rebuilt in 2004. Every component was removed, cleaned by hand, repainted, and re-assembled (by me). New Tokico struts and springs were added along with a full polyurethane bushing set, including mustache bar and steering coupler. Steering rack was inspected and cleaned to ensure its good working order (tie-rods and ball joints replaced). All brake parts that could be replaced were (rotors, calipers, pads/shoes, cylinders, master-cylinder, hoses, etc).
In late 2009, I took the ‘short’ drive up to Yellowstone Ntnl Park. It was a 1500 mile round trip in 4 days and it performed flawlessly. It was the first long road trip I have ever done in this car and the first time I was able to calculate the fuel consumption; 28 MPG over the 1500 miles… not bad for a 30+ year old car.
Work that has been done to the car
· Rebuilt 5-speed transmission (2002)
· Replaced drive shaft and UV joints (2002)
· Replaced water pump (2010)
· Replaced fan clutch (2010)
· Replaced starter
· Replaced all 6 fuel injectors (2007)
· All engine vacuum lines replaced (2007)
· New coil (2007)
· New PCV valve (2007)
· New AFM boots (2007)
· Replaced entire exhaust system from the Catalytic Convert (new Cat too) back with 2.5″ pipe to a Flowmaster (2002)
· New brake master cylinder and all four brake hoses (2004)
· New clutch master cylinder(2004)
· New brake cylinders (2004)
· New front calipers and rotors (2004)
· New HAWK HP racing pads (2004)
· New Tie rods and ball joints (2004)
· New Spindle Pins (2004)
· New Tokico HP Springs, 2” lowered (2004)
· New Tokico HP Struts (2004)
· Added Camber adjustable strut “tops” allowing 1.5 degrees of negative camber (2004)
· Full Polyurethane bushings (2004)
· Four new BFG Traction T/A tires (2009)
· Added “Turbine” style wheels (painted gunmetal black) 14″ x 7.5″
· Removed both front and rear bumpers
In 2016 the Datsun was given to my son for graduating high school.
