Is this going to be a street car or racer? For a street car go with torque set-up. If you are using it for a fast track then horsepower would be key. Keep in mind though the standard Datsun gearbox is ultra WIDE ratio so if you build a peaky motor the gearbox may let you down. Last check close ratio boxes were $1500 USA.

Tom Grossmann

Ok I will throw in what I know from my single seater racing experance. First off a bone jarring ride not only pounds your kidneys but it also kills the cornering speed on your car. I can't tell you how many student cars I get into at track days and almost immediately ask" do you have the shocks full stiff" A really stiff set-up will make the car very skatey - it will feel fast because it gives instant feedback but it will slide a lot earlier than a softer set-up. If the wheels are not be able to follow undulations in the road then the tires aren't on the ground so they are not building any grip. Further when you watch Indy car races or F1 and it rains the team soften the car up to build mechanical grip. A friend of mine is the leading Triumph GT 6 racer in the country and Kas Kastner who raced for Triumph is always telling him to run the car slightly softer than what feels racey. Same as if your car is so soft it bottoms if you car is to stiff it will efffectively bottom out when the wheel makes a sudden movement , so that wheel as no grip. For the sake of argument if you have four 7 inch wide tires you have 28 inches of tire on the ground , if one does nothing for a split second you have 21 inches of tire on the ground. If this occurs two or three times in a corner then obviuosly the car will go slower. If you have ever driven an unloaded full size pick up down a wash board gravel road you know what overly stiff suspension does.This is no different then setting your car up to oversteer. Oversteer is fun but it's slower than a car with a hint of understeer.(Alain Prost's words not mine)
Now with all that said buy good quality shocks , springs and a matched set of sway bars. You need to match all the suspension components to each other to get the most out of them. You can use parts form the wreckers as long as the work together. The C-sedan set up that is on this pages works very well and it is essentially what I use. 7/8 front bar , 1/2 rear with Tokico strut inserts and a set of old non-gas Koni adjustables. (The Koni shocks work well for fine tuning and Koni will still service them). I cannot remember the spring rates but the springs are straight out of the NISMO catolog. So remember bone jarring is just as bad as the car bottoming.

My $0.02 Tom Grossmann

The temp sender for my A-12 and A-12GX were identical.

Tom Grossmann, Las Vegas NV

I have a header for $100 , so if you buy the weber 32/36 and the header plus had a 2 inch exhaust. $300 will give you a noticible gain. If you take the head off and clean up the ports , don't remove metal but just clean up casting marks , and add a set of standard A-14 valves and GX valve springs you probably can get 80-85 horsepower and the motor will rev safely to 7500 RPM's. You should be able to do a decent motor for $450. Add another $150-200 to put in a GX spec cam and balance the motor.

Topm Grossmann

Well between my buddy and myself , the 1200 as been in the Family 24 years and the car was purchased from the original Old Lady owner. The car has done road trips all over Califronia and Nevada - plus been raced at Las Vegas Speedway , Willow springs , Buttonwillow, Laguna Seca and Sears Point. In all that time I've only had a bent radius rod and a cracked windshield , both from having to take to the dirt to avoid T-boning a spinning cars.
Now with that said part of the joy of 1200 ownership is the fact that you can flog these cars mercilessly and they eat it up. I count wrecking one on the street silly because there are so many track days availible.I would be upset if I stuffed my 1200 but I know this happens in racing. The car is road legal for tarmac rally and I would not risk it driving to fast on public roads becuase there is so much that can go wrong like a train or deer in the middle of the road.
Of course in the meantime I will still drive the wheels of it at Vinatge Road Races.


Tom Grossmann

Ok I should have added disclaimer; If a said Datsun lover reshapes their car in a blaze of glory than this is acceptable. A blaze of glory is defined as followed. Stuffing it at a hillclimb , track day or roadrace. also included would be rotating the horizon at a rally - I.E. a rollover.
Over driving your car and crashing on public roads is not a blaze of glory and here is why: At a competition event there will be witnesses who likely have a camera so all lunatic Datsun lovers can enjoy seeing you drive the wheels off the poor car. Also once you compete in a race or rally you will be so addicted that you will fix the car as quickly as possible.
Tom

You may have noticed in the for sale section I have an ad for a coupe. Here is the sad story: My older brother was in desperate need of a daily driver last year so I found him a 1200 that a racer buddy had intended to turn into an autocrosser. Well less than a year goes buy and like an idiot he lends it to his Alcoholic drug addicted alleged ex-girl friend who promptly uses it to find a place to get high and drives it into a pole.
ARRGGH the moral of the story is do let non-Datsun people have a perfectly good 1200 because they have no idea how hard these cars are to find.
So lets start a group called Datsuns annonymous:
Hi my name is Tom and I let an infidel have a perfectly good coupe brimming with hard to find trim parts and a straight hood.

Tom "I feel better now" Grossmann

When I worked at the Toyota Dearship many years ago we would do a strut pull. There is a tool that bolts to the hub via lug nuts and then a hydraulic ram clamps to the strut. This bends the strut outward at the bottom - negative camber. also you can notch the stud holes in the strut tower. It sounds like something is worn - check all the suspension componets you either have way to much toe in or positive camber.

Tom

71 1200 coupe for sale. It hit a pole dead center in front , still drives. Both fenders doors and side trim are still good - it even has the original rubber trim pieces running the length of the car, Solid running A12 and 4 speed , good glass and Jelly bean mags . what it needs; radiator core support,hood , radius rods. I have front suspension parts and radiator for a few extra bucks. Also body parts could be beaten back out.Come get it before I'm tempted to part it out.Car is in Las Vegas.

Call day 702-260-3162 or eve 702-453-2699 or you can e-mail tgrossmann@sigmagame.com

Tom Grossmann

There is nothing wrong with the hitachi carb , I even did the first couple of races with my 1200 with the stock Hitachi carb. You are not going to have a 100 HP motor with the carb but this is about as reasonable as trying to down a F-16 with a Piper Cub and a pistol.

Tom