dw1603

I thought I had it straight away, in the 70's I worked at a Datsun dealership here in the UK. One day, a strange looking black 4 door turned up, it belonged to a guy who lived in Norway and had engine and transmission problems. The repair costs in Norway could have exceeded the value of the car, so his brother, a customer of ours suggested that he bring it with him on a family visit and let us have a go at it. It was a 65 or 66 Datsun 2000 Six, with a J20 ohv 6 and a three on the tree manual box. Neither the car, the engine nor the trans had ever been sold in the UK market so it made the job kind of interesting, but what the hey, we never looked at the instructions anyway. After a lot of research, we worked out that the engine and gearbox were closely related to the J15 4 cylinder with 4 speed manual in the recently released 620 pick up truck, so we were able to identify and order most of the parts from Datsun UK. The head gasket wasn't easily available though, I think that came from one of the Scandinavian countries, or maybe the Netherlands. The alternative was a six week sea voyage from Japan. The car was successfully repaired and the owner was delighted. I've never seen another one which is a pity as it was quite impressive. We got it to idle smoothly at about 200 rpm (just to see if it could) and it had loads of torque. Anyway, back to the plot, as soon as I saw #194, I thought, yep, that's the one, went online to confirm it and.......... Oh, I'm wrong! The car I was involved with was a Nissan 130 Cedric Personal Six, the subject, we now know is the preceding model, the Nissan Cedric series 31. So hard? Yes, interesting? Yes, educational? Definitely! Keep up the good work, it is appreciated. Dave

Well it's not what I thought it was and my second attempt is wrong too. More effort required.

That was my favourite song when I was about 7 years old.

My sincerest apologies to everyone, especially those who took the trouble to research this subject. l am such a smarta*se that didn't even occur to me that the competition was still open before boasting about my car owning (part owning in this case) history. Particular apologies to Ken who came up with an interesting variation on the usual theme. Dave (dw1603) Merry Christmas to all

I've heard that Bill Mitchell had a Mako Shark on his office wall during the development of the Corvette C2. Do you think that Herr Hoffmann had a Monkfish on his wall?

I briefly had a half share in a 1953 Healey 100, unfortunately not this one.

This thing is horribly fascinating and strangely attractive. The British "Bond Minicar" used very similar Ingredients but put them together differently. It drove (and steered) pointy end first and was moderately successful, they sold nearly 25,000 of them over eighteen years. You could drive one on a bike licence, which probably helped but it was still regarded with contempt by "proper" motorists.

Well I could have got it right except I put down the wrong answer! Even with a better image to work from, I reckon I still would have gone for real. That is an impressive model.

It isn't the highest resolution image I've ever seen, but I'm confident that it is real.

Hi Harry I guessed that it must be a bit of a trial finding new subjects every week. Well I really enjoyed it while it lasted and spent absolute hours on fascinating (and frequently frustrating) research. Some times I recognised it straight off, other times there were enough clues to point me in the right direction, occasionally I just got lucky, but I never resorted to photo search. Thank you for a lot of fun and mental exercise, I will miss the weekly challenge. Dave

Just looked up your previous Morgan build (beautiful!) so I now know it has the Ford Kent engine in it. I also looked up price and availability of the Morgan, the Porsche and the Gunze Sangyo Beetle, wow! it looks as if I've set myself a challenge there. Dave

Hi Geoff, I'm not sure if that helped, I now have two more candidates for my "Gotta buy it" list. I've seen your Porsche before and was totally knocked out by it, really looking forward to the finished item. Much as I love the 356, I always had a yearning for a Porsche powered Beatle. Now I'm thinking, what if there were a decent oval window VW kit? hmmmm..... Whoops just added another kit to that list. Time to stop dreaming and start building I guess. As a matter of interest, what engine does the Morgan come with? Dave

Groan! Come back Ken, all is forgiven.

Last time we had a subject that looked this real, I thought it must be a model but I was wrong. This time I'll go with real, watch me get it wrong again!

This is probably its best angle!

Well everything about it looks real, so based on that, I've voted model.

No good, I've got to stop looking now, that psychedelic back ground is melting my brain!

We used to do that in the UK too, up until the early 70's as I remember. You still hear them referred to as wing mirrors* today, even though they have been door mounted for the last 40 years. *fender or guard depending on which of the former colonies you hail from ?

Lotus 7 S2, another all time favourite of mine, I'm envious. I think it is fair to describe the Classic as sedate, the stock 1340 made about 55 bhp. The Lotus used a Cosworth tuned version good for around 85 bhp from a 1340 and over 100 bhp for the 1500. Doesn't sound like very much, but I remember a 997cc S2 as exciting and twin cam S3 (130 bhp) as frightening. The Lotus was never about horsepower though.

You are right, I didn't mail you (or anyone else) i definitely composed the message, must have forgotten to hit "send". That's a shame as the Capri is one of my all time favourites. I never got round to buying one while they were common but I did briefly own a two door Classic. That still had the original 1340 engine complete with a grumbly crankshaft, I intended to put a 1500 in it but never did. Swapped it for a Mk2 Zodiac with no brakes. Those were the days!

You missed me off the list! (dw1603)

My thoughts exactly, Model

Hi Harry, Just tried to PM you, but the system isn't cooperating. I hope your eye concerns are not too serious and that you will be back in action soon. If you need some replacement eyeballs, you could probably have mine, coz I ain't using them! Did some damage to the undercarriage of my caravan whilst on vacation and in an attempt to save £20 (about 30 bucks) I went to a steel supplier to get a piece of 45 mm box section. They didn't have any, but they did have a big yellow flatbed truck that I reversed my SUV into. About £600 damage altogether. Some days it would be better to stay in bed! Best wishes Harry, thinking of you and hoping to see you back soon. Dave

Wow, today I have internet access! (I'll never take broadband for granted again) I think this is real. Regards, Dave.