They're creeping in everywhere. Have you seen them? Snuck in between the Minis, Vauxhalls and Escorts in your neighborhood traffic jam you're bound to spot the odd infiltration of Datsun, Toyota or Mazda, all gleaming and replendent with their EuroAmerican styling and plastic upholstery motifs.

But, at the moment, you don't see many tuned versions around, although folk like Janspeed, Old Working Service Stn, and C&T market a somewhat limited variety of bolt on goodies. Now there's a new name on the scene, one Spike Anderson of Race Head Services which is a one-man tuning venture nestling in the sleepy bosom of Harburyᵂ, a few miles out of Leamington Spa. Before going it on this own Spike was chargehand in the head shop at Broadspeedᵂ.

How did the Datsun bit come about? Well Spike bought a 1200 Coup for his own personal consumption, and after trolling around in it for a while, realised that both the visual and mechanical specifications could benefit from a little work.

The 1200 Coupé is, as it stands, quite a smart little box with fairly cute lines and an OK basic spec. However, it does perch rather high on the ground (especially at the back) and the 69bhp at 6000rpm from the 1171cc engine, while not being Big Yawn, is no exciter of red-corpuscles. So the idea was to transform a nice but uninspiring machine into a reasonably quick, useable, and nice-looking streetcar. Emphasis here on the word useable please. Useable, Ta.

The standard engine is an alloy 4-cyl OHV unit with a bore of 73mm and stroke of 70mm. In fact, it's the same engine as fitted to the 120A Cherry Coupé, but fitted fore-aft instead of transversely. Compression ratio is 9.0:1, and carburetion is by a weirdie Jap twin-choke.

Suspension has McPherson struts and an anti-roll bar gracing the front, and half-elliptic leaf springs with solid axle dangling at the rear. Whees are steel pressings with strange 155 x 12 [Dunlop] SP3's made from an apparently hard Oriental compound at the Japanese Goodyear factory.

Ah, but it ain't like that now. First thing Spike did was whip off the 8-port head and ports and see what was what. No, it didn't have slant ports. What it did have was a specification which really lent itselft to some really deep tuning. But that's for the future. For this stage of tune Spike limited the work to gas-flowing and careful seating of the valves, aiming for good operating efficiency. The Jap carb was slung on the shelf and replaced by a brace of 1-1/4 in SU's on Janspeed inlet manifold, that Salisbury firm also supplying the special exhaust manifold.

While this was going on, Carl Shenton of Specfab C  S in Pershore was making busy with the suspension. The original struts and a roll bar were left as standard, but shorter and uprated front coil springs were fitted. At the rear Spax adjustable shockers were used with flattened and uprated springs.

Normandale Products of Long Itchington (really!) were responsible for the striped and streamlined paint job, adding blue to the original gold.

So, with the car sporting all the bits and pieces already mentioned, attention was paid to the wheels, Spike plumping for attractive 5J Midland Mettalics.

The engine proved to be extremely tractable in use and nippy as could be expected with this stage of tune. Looking at the figures without any qualifying statement I imagine that many people would feel a shade disappointed. But cold statistics can be misleading and can't possibly carry over the sheer useability of the Samuri. Top gear pulls cleanly from 1000 rpm, a characteristic more representative of a 1600cc engine than the mere 1171cc of the Datsun, and M-way cruising is fine at an amiable 80-85 mph. The figures obtained on our test track suggest that something might have been a bit amiss carb-wise, and in fact Spike later found that one of the SU needles had dropped.

Handling is very good indeed, despite those strange tyres which are really poxy in the wet although not too bad in the dry. The rear Spax are on ultra-hard settings, which are just great on a marble-smooth surface but could do with softening for normal road use. Driving at restrained speed the car corners fairly neutrally, but on bends fast and long enough to discourage a 'chucking' technique understeer dominates. However, the you're pressing on a bit, a sharp lift of the right foot causes the tail to swing out quickly but predictable, and the car can be set up for tighter corners by flicking the nose in to the apex while simultaneously stomping the accelerator pedal.

Well that's just about what it is and what it does, but how much does it cost? On your own Datsun 1200 Coupé the whole conversion of engine, suspension, wheels and paint job would cost £264.50 fitted, or Spike can supply a brand new car, fully converted, for £1415.50 as opposed to £1151 for the basic car, or fully taxed with registration plates, etc, for £140.50.

The engine modification alone cost £91.50, suspension £58, wheels (including swapping tyres) £50 and paint job (including 'Samuri' signwriting) £65. All these are available separately, but for the full whack you can have yourselft a nice and useable Datsun.■

PERFORMANCE
                1200 Coupé     Samuri
0-30 mph          4.4 secs    4.6 secs
0-40 mph          6.6 secs    7.1 secs
0-50 mph          9.7 secs    9.8 secs
0-60 mph         14.1 secs   12.8 secs
0-70 mph         20.3 secs   17.1 secs
0-80 mph         30.5 secs   22.7 secs
Standing ¼ mile  19.7 secs   19.0 secs

Speed in gears: 1st — 22 mph, 2nd — 41,
3rd — 68, 4th — 98 mph at 5250 rpm.
Gearshifts at 5500 rpm.