Angelo Limnios’ Datsun has a story to tell. It involves two cars, a few transmissions, one worked 1200 cc engine, multiple trips to the boneyard, and about 160,000 miles of commute drudgery turned into daily entertainment. His 1973 Datsun 1200 is currently driven 25 miles each way from home base to work at NUMMI in Fremont, California. What started out as a weekend race car project has since become a workday commuter, and a rewarding hobby.
Datsun 1200 number one was t-boned with Angelo behind the wheel. While he ended up OK, the car was bent into history. Angelo was able to locate another Datsun 1200 shell with some racing heritage already built-in. Datsun number two had no engine or transmission, but was equipped with a roll cage. The t-boned Datsun gave up its engine, transmission, rear end, and everything else as Angelo got to work making one Datsun from two.
“I took everything from one account and put it into the other”, said Angelo.
Boneyard parts combined with local expertise make for modern durability. The engine in the t-boned Datsun already had about 80K on a rebuild that Angelo assembled with the help of Stirtz Automotive Machine in Oakland. The block had been bored and decked fresh, with a lumpy cam stabbed in for good measure. A worked oval port cylinder head met up with a set of dual SU-Hitachi clones rescued off a 1600cc Datsun at the boneyard. Stirtz also lightened up the stock flywheel, which spins a stock clutch in a junkyard 5-speed from a Datsun 210. The gear box was freshened up with bearings and seals from Pete’s Gear Shop in Hayward before installation.
To extract maximum amusement from the tiny pushrod mill, Angelo installed an MSD 6A-L ignition which gets its signal from a Pertronix points replacement in the original distributor. The dual-carburetors do what they’re supposed to thanks to real world tuning from an Innovate LC-1 wide-band O2 sensor and analog gauge. Angelo monitors air-fuel ratios on the fly, and makes adjustments based on real world driving experience. The result is an engine that now has 180K miles on it in a car that gets 35 miles per gallon in daily use.
Oddly enough the Datsun 1200 has never seen any sort of official racing competition. Angelo still climbs in over the roll cage, but cut one leg of the cross brace X to make things more commute friendly.
“After getting t-boned, you don’t mind climbing over roll cages anymore”, said Angelo.
What started out as a race car project ended up a reliable budget commuter with performance tendencies. Angelo had all intentions of autocross when he first started putting the car together, but one thing led to the next and he found himself driving the Datsun to work. Each upgrade and modification brings rewards from an ongoing project that is as much fun to wrench on as it is to drive.
“I enjoy tinkering with it. I like messing around with it. The bonus is I can get in it and drive it around.” said Angelo.
Angelo, that is an awesome little Datsun, and I can certainly appreciate folks who use their project cars for daily drivers. There is much more satisfaction to be had zipping around in your labor of love than watching it languish in the garage waiting for the next show, race or fair-weather cruise.
Nice one dude! The 2dr sedan is very rare in Australia, thats where I’m from.
I have a 1979 datsun 210 2 door coupe it has the A-14 motor and automatic tranny. I would like to know where I can buy parts for it so that I can make it a fine gem like yours. I also have an extra motor and tranny and rear end which is a 14-A, but can you tell me where I can locate parts for these cars? Both motors run very good, but I need electrical parts. Both have low mileage. If you can help me it would be a blessing. Thank You.