RedDime

Hi Colton, Nice that the red 71 is still in good hands after all these years. I have pictures of you and the family driving away with trailer in tow up the hill in front of my house in Denver, CO. I think it was either summer of 96-97 cant remember. I had to sell her to pay for my divorce.... uh yeah I got the bad end of the stick. At least I got the other guys underwear that he left under my bed.... "intentionally"... she was "un-faithful" to say the least. Original motor that took me over a year to build is the one I sold to your dad in Colorado. It was an L20B (truck block, deburred, honed, oversized, racing pistons and rods were shotpined for strength) The head was an L18-SSS large port head I picked up at FarPerformance swap meet in Mountain View.... I had Comptech Engineering then in Sunnyvale do all the head work porting and polishing intake and exhaust and a modified Mild-Cam. I CC'd the head at Ham Fab in Saratoga, as we built racing Porches... tube frames, suspension, motors and wheels.. etc. ( I was a tech working at Ham-Fab and built it up with painstaking love... and the best engineering available at the time) Anything that rotated or moved was balanced and All the engine machining, balancing was done at Comptech and I assembled it all together, ALL new bolts washers, gaskets etc... a complete NEW build. MSD Egnition System, Jacobs Coil, I was able to reach 9k rpm fairly easily with the 44Mikuni's and had the dyno at 192 +- hp. Cost of the Engine build "only" L20B finnally completed was about 8K back in 1985-86. I bolted a 280z 5 speed right up with modificaitons to the throw arm for the clutch. Clutch being a racing cyntrithical clutch with stock Flywheel lightened (balanced) to about 11 lbs. Custom Drive shaft and a 2" exhaust with headers. I modified the suspension extensively while working at Ham-Fab. Datsun 610 struts cut down to 240z height, Heli-arc welded on adjustable coil-overs, 220 lb springs in front. 240z Tokiko 5 way adjustable struts, Tilton Camber Castor top plates ( which in "racing" the castor, is aft from stock position for high speed handling stability. I machined the Bump-Steer spacers, and added longer hardened bolts. Rotors and Calipers were from a 240z with a special offset machined piece to adapt the calipers to the 610 Strut ( why 610 strut is because it bolts right up to the 510 connecting arm with no modifications and the 240 z spindal is the same as a 610) 1" sway bar in front and with the Teflon bushings were superb..... if I do say so. I slotted rear end cross member to adjust for camber, Cut the stock springs and gave the correct ride height and spring. It was meant to be a sleeper with folding the inside of the wheel wells to get enough rubber under that beast... It looks like you may have had to roll them even more to get something between you and the road with that insane 6cylinder turbo build yo did... Bravo ... You made me proud to have had to sell her at such a fraction of what it was worth at the time to the right people... as I turned down several others at a higher price. I wanted my baby to go to someone like your dad and now you, that would appreciate all I did to my "faithful" Datsun. Your dad could't afford what I was asking but I let her go to the enthusiast that he was. So we met once a long time ago... and maybe we can again. Thanks for doing such a great job. Tim The original UFO sticker is still in the rear window.... nice. Though the MSD ignition sticker is no longer in the engine bay.