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Race Car Technology

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I used to wrench on the #76 car, a Datsun B-210

It was an SCCA GT3 car with a 1.4 l pushrod engine.

We dynoed each engine at Alderman Datsun who helped sponsor us that had an output of 175 horses as an average.
The bottom ends were pretty much stock but hand fitted and we used an allowed competition cylinder head with 4 Dellorto side draft carbs on them.



The dyno runs were to 10,000 RPM with the tell-tale tach often registering 11,000 after a track run.

This would have been around 1979 or so.
 
Nitro said:
View attachment 128062

I used to wrench on the #76 car, a Datsun B-210

It was an SCCA GT3 car with a 1.4 l pushrod engine.

We dynoed each engine at Alderman Datsun who helped sponsor us that had an output of 175 horses as an average.
The bottom ends were pretty much stock but hand fitted and we used an allowed competition cylinder head with 4 Dellorto side draft carbs on them.



The dyno runs were to 10,000 RPM with the tell-tale tach often registering 11,000 after a track run.

This would have been around 1979 or so.
Click to expand...
This image was captured at Road Atlanta during the national runoffs,
 
I was just a cocky 19 year old punk at the time who was being groomed for roadracing.
My employer for a brief spell owned and drove the Datsun.
I ended up as a drag racer because I was already deeply involved in street matches
 
Nitro said:
View attachment 128062

I used to wrench on the #76 car, a Datsun B-210
Click to expand...
I've never seen one of these before. We had other Datsuns but not them. They look similar to what I know as the Datsun 120Y. I've seen some of them with ridiculously large engines used for street car drag races.

ebay935000.jpg



What I remember of the Datsuns - Cramped and awkward driving position, problems with starter motor solenoids and water pumps.
 
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When we were at the nationals, we had full support from Datsun.

If you needed a part, all you had to do was ask for it.
 
For a couple of decades there was a lot of colaboration between Holden Australia and Datsun/Nissan and you could drop Holden V6s straight in to the Nissan vehicles. They got used a fair bit in racing here, late 80s and through the 90s.
 
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My '66 Chevy Caprice after I installed the ten point rollcage.

The car is being built to NHRA Super Street specs which is a 10.90 second quarter mile.
I stopped at Super Street to avoid having to do chassis certs each year to run it.
 
Weight reduction program:
1571188542547-4fbb59b9-2224-4c6f-81a5-7cf939e7074f.jpg

Trunk area tubular body mounts that double as fuel cell attach points

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All of the inner fender pans and the core support are now tubular as well.
That is a Howe aluminum radiator out of a nascar rig.

The goal it to hit 3200 pounds down from her original curb weight of 4100
(3200 is Fox body Rustang territory)
 
Nitro said:
The goal it to hit 3200 pounds down from her original curb weight of 4100
(3200 is Fox body Rustang territory)
Click to expand...
I noticed in the first picture how high it was sitting on it's suspension. I assume that'll be lowered later.
 
1571187754361-69d12104-59c4-4a14-bc8b-d180de773db5.jpg

Sitting with the front racing skinnys on it and a rear tire fairing concept on the quarter panel.

The front binders are Wilwood calipers squeezing Firebird rear rotors and the rear brakes are front calipers and rotors off a GrandAm
 
Outdated said:
I noticed in the first picture how high it was sitting on it's suspension. I assume that'll be lowered later.
Click to expand...
No drivetrain it it.
Power will be a 427 built to 900 horse specs but run at 800 to keep it alive.

I have a lot of time and money invested it it.
 
It's going to be a wonderful looking beast when it's finished. Cars just had more style back then.

And I don't know what made me think of it, but there's a brand of suspension here called Old Man Emu. The name never really made sense to me because if you've ever seen an emu running they're not the most graceful of creatures.
 
I have owned it for 36 years now.

Originally she was a 283 car with a 2 speed powerglide transmission.
It got a cosmetic restoration the first time and was a cool Sunday driver.
After I spun a bearing in the 283, I built a 327 and put a turbo 350 trans in it with a 3800 stall B&M torque converter up against a 4:10 posi rear.

Then I broke the rear crossmember by beating on it.

The transmission is goon to the moon built with no wave washers in the clutch packs and no vacuum modulator.
It shifts at full line pressure now
 
It sounds like it's had a hard life. It deserves the attention it's getting now, I think.

Turbo 400 was a very popular trans here because it was almost a perfect fit in the standard Holden bellhousing. The trouble was that it was almost perfect, but not quite. There was a tiny bit of play in it and I saw quite a few cars that would regularly strip the studs off of the bellhousing.
 
Outdated said:
It's going to be a wonderful looking beast when it's finished. Cars just had more style back then.

And I don't know what made me think of it, but there's a brand of suspension here called Old Man Emu. The name never really made sense to me because if you've ever seen an emu running they're not the most graceful of creatures.
Click to expand...
I was going to do a perfecto restoration on it after I did the frameoff for the repair, but didn't really want a showcar.
We rewelded the frame after sandblasting it then applied black epoxy on it.
The ten point cage kit was supplied by S&W Racecars out of eastern Pennsylvania.

They helped Grumpy Jenkins with some of his builds too.
 
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Outdated said:
It sounds like it's had a hard life. It deserves the attention it's getting now, I think.

Turbo 400 was a very popular trans here because it was almost a perfect fit in the standard Holden bellhousing. The trouble was that it was almost perfect, but not quite. There was a tiny bit of play in it and I saw quite a few cars that would regularly strip the studs off of the bellhousing.
Click to expand...
400s are garbage.
They were intended to be a smooth shifting unit in a luxury car.

The rotating mass is a disadvantage too.
 
Nitro said:
I was going to do a perfecto restoration on it after I did the frameoff for the repair, but didn't really want a showcar.
Click to expand...
I reckon it's still going to end up looking pretty hot.
 
Outdated said:
It sounds like it's had a hard life. It deserves the attention it's getting now, I think.

Turbo 400 was a very popular trans here because it was almost a perfect fit in the standard Holden bellhousing. The trouble was that it was almost perfect, but not quite. There was a tiny bit of play in it and I saw quite a few cars that would regularly strip the studs off of the bellhousing.
Click to expand...
It didn't have a bad life, it was being stress tested :p
 
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