I earned the money slaving at a TGI Friday's for at least a year. I remember my dad wouldn't let me have my license--so there the car sat in the street in front of the house for at least 3 months before I could even drive it. He made me wait until I was 17, although I bought it when I was 16. That was agony!
My friends all thought it was not such a cool car, but I thought it was PIMP. Unique at the very least. It was decked out with some mags, and a sunroof which were already aboard. I also blacked out the grill. The 1300cc engine was rather small - but I custom fabricated a top draft weber carb and that little thing screamed. My friends had a '71 Datsun 1200 and another had a BMW 1600. I guess we were the only kids into tuning J cars and small sedans at the time (about 1981). We would race up and down Highway 9 (twisty mountain road) after school every day. We'd also have races to Santa Cruz too over Highway 17. Great fun!
I wish I would've kept the car, but I eventually blew the headgasket and sold it to some Indian guys for $400 after dumping some Bars Leak into the engine. DANG! I shoulda put a SSS engine in there and lowered it out! It's way cooler looking than a boxy 510. Now the PL411 is one of the rarest Datsuns around. In fact, I've never seen another one on the road since then. I've seen a beat up Bluebird station wagon, though.
After the 411, I got a real man's Datsun. The 1971 Datsun 240Z - probably the finest sports coupe ever made in its era. It was black and with gold spoke rims. It looked very similar to this one:
I miss the ride, but I got into trouble with too many speeding tickets.
When I'm rich and famous, I'm gonna employ Taro to do a ground up restoration of a '71 or '72 240Z. Waddya say, ol' boy?
BTW, Taro, do you have any photos of your restored Z? I'd like to see your handywork!
