Quote: "The car was then bought by myself and Steven Blair as a complete rolling shell with flares intact in original works colours."

That wouldn't be Steve Cox, from the "Rally Prep" days at Taren Point. If so, good to hear you are still about and interested in the Datsun game. I run into Steve Blair every now and then on the road, but no so much recently. The one car I do remember quite well was the Bluebird with the Z-18, it was quite the machine.

cheers
benny

Hi Steve,

I did get my years wrong when I first posted, I appologise for that and have spoken to a lot of people about these cars since, you are correct there was only one car brought out for the 1977 'cross,a grp 4 version, however there was a grp2 and gr4 version in the country for the '76, both remained here, a total of three cars. I've been unable to find out if the grp2 car, the only one that I know still exists, was locally prepped by Howard Marsden's team, or prepped in Japan. The '76 grp4 car was driven by Yoshio Iwashita in both the '76 and '77 events, he DNFed in the '76 event on the first day with a blown motor, and destroyed the car in a massive roll on the third day of the '77 event. Mehta went on to finish 7th wasn't it? There were differences in the '76 & '77 Grp4 cars, I don't know what they were though.

The car that is being toted as Mehta's car in Vic at the moment is my old car, I'm one of the BMSC members you mentioned, and it most certainly is not Mehta's car, I have rung the current owner and asked him to stop advertising it as such. I can only assume that Mehta's car has been destroyed by now, it's been off the radar for 20 years or so. I did try to find Mehta's car, but the trail went cold after Rallyprep sold it. If you can offer me new info I'll start looking again, the cars should be restored and used.

When I first bought my car it was in Eden, I tracked down the fellow from Bega who campaigned it at the same time Rallyprep was running their car and had several long conversations with him. The Gentleman from Bega, I can PM you his name for verification if you like, made the comment to me that "Marsden took all the good gear out before he sold it." What remained was an L-16 works bottom end, H190 and an S2000 option1 box.

I took the decission to get the car as close to the Grp4 specs as I could while remaining within the PRC rules at the time. I had several discussions, with CAMS about putting the flares, which had never been on that car for historic events and was met with a flat no, it also meant that there was no hope of getting clearance to run a twin cam head, if I could find one and front extension housing for the gearbox. So I sold the car and walked away in disgust.

My car was white up until 2002, the paint scheme in the photo on here was just because I could, that photo was taken at the bottom of mineshaft just after a 180B had rolled down the mineshaft, which is why I was going so bloody slow.

Steve would you mind having a beer with me next time I'm in Sydney, I'd like to pick your brain about Mehta's car, I'd like to try to find it though I'm not sure I want to go through that again. Though it would be nice to see it out in the classic events again.

I do regret selling the car.

Dave

Hi Steve and Dave

I have a big interest in rally cars and especially the history of this 120y as a couple of years back the current owner thought about selling it and then decided to keep it.
The only thing i am confused about is that Steve story re the car seems to end with Dave buying it yet Dave you seem to be positive that it isn't Mehta's car ?

Steve what is the tell tale signs of whether this car is really your old car as i would like to have a closer look at it at the next rally

cheers

Joe (melbourne)

Joe,

I had a further discussion with the other Steve from Rallyprep late last year at the Classic Ouback Trial. The main identifying feature you are looking for on Mehta's car is the body number is over stamped, Steve Cox can give you the details. My car wasn't which leads me to believe it was prepped here.

I'm happy to discuss it with you. I believe an ex Nissan works man, who now does Shock absorber improvements identified it as Mehta's car by some damage at the front of the righthand rear spring hanger. That damage was not there when I sold the car, I spoke to the guy who bought it off me and it had developed cracks in that area, which he welded.Good luck with it, but it is not Mehta's car

Dave

steve
we have the car at home it had rally prep signage all over it and it was last tuned by arthur at sefton about 15years ago

I know of a LZ14 in Aus that would be just the ticket in this car.

Nope, it doesn't have the round lights, some of the South african ones did, I'll post a brochure of the rear lights soon

nice, first time ive seen a pb210 sedan as well. what engine does it have in it?

This ones an L-14 stroked and bored to 2L.

Standard they came with all the same options as the coupes in Japan

How did you get it to Australia, because it was not sold there, right? . Is there panels(body) available for the PB that you know? I would like to get the front apron, hood, as to install a front grille , to make a B210 become a PB210. I love both cars, I like my B210, but can always get onother B210 and transform it, I want to do that, I will, first, I got to collect the parts needed.
Nice car, I like it.
Jaime.
______________________________

HI THERE.
I am the owner of this datsun.
I bought it for parts, because he doesnt have docs.

He is originaly from south africa.

he has a14s engine with 54kw at 6000rpm
and 100nm at 4000rpm

Americo pinho
Portugal
Srpinho@hotmail.com
http://www.megagaleria.com/pictures/Pic_1469_10.jpg
http://www.megagaleria.com/pictures/Pic_1469_5.jpg

Hi Americo,

Nice B210. Did you buy it from Davie, or is it one of the other two race cars?

Is yours an Excellent (originally equipped with L14 or L16 engine)?

Hi
These car came from south africa to portugal.
and he is an datsun 140y executive.
http://www.megagaleria.com/pictures/Pic_1469_5.jpg

and he is equiped with an A14s.

But i

yes it's all starting to make sense to me:

this is a southern cross rally car but imported from south africa not japan?

the portuguese have some connection to south africa, that's why there miraculously seems to be a couple kgb210 coupes in portugal

btw, the tail lights on this car would not be six "circles" but rather the bizarre "multi-rectangles" as befitting the l-series equipped sedans both in japan and za

btw2, the za l-series equipped models are not marketed as "excellent" like the jdm models

The car in the photo is a japanese import to Australia,though I no longer own it. It now lives in the Australian state of Victoria, where it has been fully restored by the new owner. It is still used in historic events.

The car was one of three brought to Australia for the Southern Cross Rallies of 1975 and 1976.

B 210 is a 1200 A series engine
HB210 the H denotes A-series 1400 engine
PB 210 the P denotes L-series engine

KHB 210 is the coupe with an A-series 1400
KPB 210 is the coupe version of the L-series

HB(L) 210 A-14 L/H Drive
PB(L) 210 L-14 L/H drive

GB 210 L-16 R/H drive

I'm not sure if their like were rallied in Portugal, but the three brought here were built to do the Southern Cross events, the car in the photo is the las one left. One was destroyed during the 1976 event, the other 2 remained here in the hands of Nissan Australia where they were campaigned for a further 12 months, after that they were supposed to go back to Japan, but for some reason they didn't. I lost the trail of the 3rd car, Sheka Mehta's 1976 car, in 1991 and have been unable to find it since, I have to assume it has been destroyed.

right. that makes more sense that the southern cross rally cars came from japan not za

the violet sss 710's may have also come to oz in the same manner

Yes as with the PB210's the P710's were never released in Australia. I do know of a few private imports, but not many. Most of the 710's brought out to do the Southern Cross were left here for one season then shipped back to Japan.

Remember that the Group 4 homologation of the 710 had Independant Rear Suspension.

Oh yeah the Grp 4 versions of the P 710's and PB 210's were rallied with LZ engines, the twin cam L series that was originally developed for the PB110 L14.

The LZ14 had something around 260bhp, but the gear chain that drove the cams was week. By the mid 1980's these engines were being used in Formula Pacific race cars, and demand outstripped supply. It was the reason that I was trying to find the 1976 Grp 4 car, but I did manage to find out that the head went to Indonesia on top of a 2.4 bottom end. The rest of the car was still being rallied here until the late 1980's and was sold off in 1991. I missed it by several weeks.