Too long ago to compare. Overall fairly easy to drive. I had no success back then with a locked diff. Being the smaller 145 diff, I'd break an axle after a lap or two. Now with the ute diff you or Paul fitted (?) it seems unbreakable. Feels good compared to what I recall of the open diff I had.

We've been doing a lot of remedial work. The rose joints and brackets of the sway bar were breaking up so there's been welding, new rod ends and misalignment washers machined and fitted. The clamps for the rear leaf springs also broke at our last run so that's been replaced. And this afternoon we found out why the brakes weren't doing their job. The pistons were jamming up. New calipers will be fitted tomorrow as the current ones are beyond repair and need to be sleeved if possible.

Main efforts at the moment are to get it to handle properly with the wider wheels and tyres we fitted. We've cut and welded the guards back and refitted the flares to higher positions.

Got an event this Sat after which we'll probably think about how we can re-configure the suspension. I have some ideas to explore with camber control and roll axis.

Tom's also sorting out a go-pro or equiv so hopefully we'll have some more videos soon.

Anyway that's about it so until next time, cheers.

Hi Daniel (& Tom),
Good to hear. Nice photos too. I'm interested to know how different it feels now compared to when you sold it. I've no idea what has changed since then apart from getting older and the things we changed ourselves.

The new rubber should've made a big difference. From memory, the 14's on the car were 2007 or 2008 vintage.
Are there any new movies?
DC.

Was a good day shortened at 3pm by a sloppy rotor button. Yep still got points. This car is old tech.

My first drive of it since I sold it in 1992 and it was fun. Tom improved 1.5secs on his previous time with a 49.6 and I was .5 slower.

One thing we need to sort out before its next run, is rear bump and body roll. The tyres rub on the guards which affects roll stiffness as the car gets towards full lean.

So until next time, cheers.

Hi Daniel,

We are heading out to Marulan tomorrow for another test day. We've managed to fit some wider rubber so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. Lots of photos, video and feedback to follow..

Danny

Hello Danny & Tom,
Great to see the ol' girl in action again.

FYI: I watched the youtube videos. For what is worth, it sounds exactly the same to my ear with your engine in it. Also, that's a very interesting comparison with the Aussie Car. I had been curious to see the difference between the super-light AC with motor bike engine and sequential close ratio box, versus the 1000. Interesting...

BTW Mick still has a 1200 coupe with my new race-prepped A15 in it that was in my road car at the time you saw it. We should get a bunch of datsuns back on the track.

"Or do you want to buy it back again after we're finished with it" - Sorry Paul. We got dibs on that!! Its in the contract...

Daniel.

Hi Paul. At his stage we're not sure but probably just track days, s/s and regularity for starters. So much has changed with IPRA since '91/92. Back then flares weren't allowed and suspension mods was a lot more restricted. I see also that 55 profile tyres are now ok too.

Getting it back after '92 is like picking up with an old g/f. The passion is being rekindled. And watching Tom driving it around the track with my old engine was a lot of fun for me too. He was 6 when I last campaigned it.

As for Steve, he's still a great mate and wants to get his 1000 coupe onto the track too, so yeah, you should come and join us as well. Or do you want to buy it back again after we're finished with it

Cheers
Danny

PS Thanks for the cheesecloth tip. We'll give it a go.

I had that problem with a Sunny with an L18, it's a pain as the hotter it got, the more crap would come of the block & clog the radiator, which would cause it to get hot(ter). After paying money to unclog the radiator 2 times, I found a simple filter made from cheesecloth that went into the inlet of the radiator. This caught all the rubbish coming out of the motor, including what looked like metal swarf. I originally got it from a radiator shop at Granville, but now get it from Adrad at 70 Long St Smithfield. Much more usable than the Tefbar filter that other people use.

PS that looks like Steve's front drive, good to see he's still around. What series' are you planning to run? I'd love to see her run, & could probably put something together to compete, too. Still got the Sunny Coupe with the L18, could swap the engine to an L20B with a Stumpy box, & a 4.6 H190.
PPS Can I come & do burnouts in Steve's driveway, too?(all sorts of funny things are supposed to go here to indicate I'm joking).

Here's a couple of videos. One from our first test drive on a friends driveway, only 1st and a little bit of 2nd gear were used.

The second video is a couple of laps at Marulan driver training centre. It was my first time driving the car and also first time at that track. The engine felt strong but we had to pack it up early due to a blocked radiator causing overheating.

https://youtu.be/GWdhEGEGd7k

https://youtu.be/FBLcMFeJi5E