Have you ever seen the 1983 Classic film by John Carpenter called “Christine” which was about this old classic red car that came alive to kill people? Well, this isn’t really that same story of killing people and instead a personification/story of a small sedan vehicle that never wanted to hurt anything except competition. Regardless if you have seen that classic movie or not this car has a story in my life that later semi resonated as such. When I was growing up my Father had a Datsun 510 and back then there was a limited amount of options for motor swaps and his was a L18 he put in. Back then you could upgrade your 510 with parts variations from Datsun 240Zs which was the more sporty roadster version. The Datsun 510 was very popular because of the basic design and affordable introduction. Many would consider the 510 as the very first Japanese Import Tuner racer car. This was also in a time when only nicer cars like the BMW came with Rear Wheel Drive and Independent suspension accompanied by sports car chassis design. The Datsun 510 was the anomaly that created some of the early terminology of calling a sports car a “sleeper” which is a term for a daily grocery courier car in disguise because it’s sports car skeleton underneath was hidden by the base model shell and hiding an engine that can perform at the touch of the throttle. Now that you know what these little 21xxlb one-step-above a clown car/race cars history is, let me explain why I think they are so cool. As mentioned my Dad who was a teenage parent that had a 510 along with his friends. Even to this day West Seattle car scene people still tell stories of “The flat Black 510 boys” which was when large groups of 510 owners, now called Generation X age groups would race 510s around WS. They all spray painted their 510’s flat black to avoid cops being able to decipher who was who when they would scatter from neighborhood races. Kid stuff, but kids having fun stuff. My Dad wasn’t apart of those groups and not super into 510’s he just happened to have one briefly amongst other friends but still the 510s had this special place in my heart to me as I remember seeing them and pointing them out to my Dad. I would grow up into my teenage years always seeing 510’s at car shows or local import tuner magazines in the local 7-11s. As kids we all knew of the history and importance of the Datsun 510 as a small sleeper race car. The US versions of these debuted 1968-1973 which only the 1968′ being a 1 year out of the series meaning that in 1968 certain features only came on that one specific year of production while the rest all had exactly the same options and ALL were same body style. Back in 1998 I acquired a poop brown Datsun 510 I found from some internet website back when you had to type the entire web address into the old school dial up computers search engine. Thus I located this crusty 510 in Portland Oregon and with the help of my Grandfather I got this relic history piece back to West Seattle. It never would stay running very well and was missing many important crucial interior parts. The floors were rusted out and surface rust was around the entire car. The engine would smoke and sputter bad when it would only run for maybe 10 mins total. The brakes barely worked and the metal sounded zip tied together as it would rattle when I would attempt to drive it around the block only to push it back home. Glad it was such a light car. I loved it and dreamed of rebuilding it to do massive burnouts and race my friends down California Ave. I envisioned lots of work done with my own hands to restore that little poop crusty 510 back to life. However as fate would have it it died one too many times and sat in my Grandparents driveway for weeks into months. Soon my Uncle Jim bought my Grandparents house and moved them into assisted living apartments. My Uncle Jim was one of the uncles that actually had a 510 himself amongst my Dad and his friends back in the late 1980’s. Either way he didn’t understand my dedication to that poop crust bucket and had asked me to move the car to the street and off his newly owned property so it could not be an eye sore. My uncle Jim was doing extensive remodeling to the house and I understand the space was needed. Jim was very mechanically inclined but after a couple attempts on the rusty 510 I think he just gave up interest in a car and probably felt I should have sold it. I pushed the car out front of the driveway onto the street. I would still visit the 510 after school and ride my BMX bike over to it. I couldn’t get it running due to my lack of knowledge at the time which was around 9th grade of high school. I did however wire up a CD player inside and would listen to music in the car until the windows fogged up. Eventually I came to work on it and it was gone. Apparently someone possibly one of the neighbors had it towed since it was looking like a heap of wasted childhood dreams. I remember the impound fees were too much and I already lost faith in being a 510 owner so I just turned in the title to GT Towing on Harbor Ave signing over all interest to the tow company. Many years would pass and many cars would pass in my possession. Classics to imports to motorcycles to modern new stuff. I would even consider myself a collector now as I have 4 classic car insurance policies with Hagerty. As the years passed since my high school 510 dreams were shattered I decided to look for these little fuckers again off and on for almost two decades. Finally in 2020 I just told myself if I really wanted one why don’t I really hunt one down. Initially I wanted a classic Datsun Orange 4 door 510. The Orange is liked by some but the 4 door isn’t the favorite for most 510 enthusiast as they prefer 2 doors for being lightest and MORE sporty versions. The wagon option was also available but that was more for a specific taste group. I probably viewed and lost out on maybe 5 different “good deal” 510’s throughout the 2020 search. I searched on the local websites and apps all the way across west coast. I was starting to think these things just slipped by my radar and even started to look at Lexus IS300s, and the BMW 3 series for other small rear wheel drive cars I could build. I reached out to a guy that I missed another good 510 deal on just to see if he knew of any sellers. This guy basically tells me that his buddy’s Dad owns one he is on the fence selling and it’s semi under construction with motor swap that isn’t completed but he will sell it as-is. The pictures he sent was of a baby blue 4 door 510 in solid shape but some minor surface rust in various places. All trim intact and body exclaimed it’s original paint. Original paint is always a very cool thing to have because classic vehicles are only original just once. This 510 was also a 1968 making it a 1 year car as mentioned before it has small details like suicide style windshield wipers and various trim differences. The paint showed flaws and the interior was weathered and displaying it’s age with some interior panels withered away. I went to go see the guy who owned it way out in Everett WA in the freezing cold. When I walked in to see it in person it was in a pop-up tent area with shop-style 2 post lift underneath where the 510 sat nestled about 2 feet from the ground. The owner was a football field wide dude with catchers MITs for hands, no neck and chest the size of 2 massive home plates. He spoke with a deep voice almost with the intensity of Randy Macho Man Savage a former WWF Wrestler which was a deep and raspy voice. You wondered how he fit his giant bear hands in between the tight places in the engine bay but he sure did. This specific 510 looked light baby blue and seasoned interior but under the hood was a SR20DE Fuel Injected motor that came from a Japanese vehicle that wasn’t available in the US markets. Japanese or JDM engines are desirable even today because they usually out perform US versions with more horsepower and better reliability with their performance. Apparently this 510 changed hands between Bear hands guy and also his two sons who first bought the car from Portland Oregon that they claim was from the 2nd owner. In PDX it was sitting on a street owned by an old lady who let it sit in the rain out front. These Datsun 510s were made of very thin sheet metal so they rusted out easily if left in the elements too long. I did a tour around this Baby Blue 510 not really wanting to like it even despite the Motor Swap because it wasn’t an orange one. The motor swap wouldn’t make the car scary fast but it would be able to get off it’s ass and spin the tires at any given moment. I came back to see this car two more times trying to gauge what I could offer him and what he would take for it. He shows me the work that was done to make that motor fit as well as what it needed to actually run and drive down the road. I make the deal with him and he tows the car to my house. The Christine movie reference all starts at this point in the story. The previous owner/Man Bear guy unhooks the 510 off the tow-dolly and starts it up. The 510 was missing it’s muffler with just a straight pipe so it was loud as a fuck. He inches it to my garage door quickly because at this time no radiator was inside it either. It rasped loud with each throttle response coming to silence when it was shut off. Almost immediately after the guy took the last of the cash he was owed for the car he switched moods. He first apologized for being such an asshole during the process and that he was really burnt out on working on the car to finish it. I told him I would call with questions and he made a look like he would rather not have that call. I did in fact have questions on what parts were installed and what specs they had so I would know where to buy parts as needed to finish the car. This basic text questions angered him because he said he was burnt out on the car and he soon stopped responding all together even when I offered to buy spare parts for it. The 510 had it’s issues but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some time and patience. With the help from a friend who also use to own a neighborhood auto shop helped me re-wire the entire car. This was to avoid any wiring complications with lights, electrical gauges, readings and computer ECU connections. I later discovered I had the matching JDM transmission and a Subaru LSD rear end which in simple terms means I have good gear ratios and posi-trac making burnouts and donut slides much easier. The 510 already had 4 wheel disc brakes and coil over suspension. The wheels are JDM HERO’s that were professional re-surfaced to give an alloy shine. I covered the middle flog lights with yellow film and bright yellow bulbs for the classic rally look. The exhaust is all hooked up with a turbo muffler giving it the same rasp with a tamed low RPM cruising curve. I tightened and had a friend re-weld the driver motor mount restoring it’s reliability. Basic tune up and new radiator with dual electric fans wired to their own relays and switch. The speedo is very hard to hook up given the 68′ 510 cluster and the modern 90’s transmission matchup. So a cool alternative was a GPS digital speedo that is the size of an iPhone 4 that I horizontally mounted to the right of the OE speedometer. RPMs are also very important so I mounted the tachometer to the column for quick monitoring. I tossed the weird front seat out and cleaned up the Original back seats best I could. I used shiny silver KilMat across all of the floor and ceiling. which is sound deadening to reduce road noise. I decided to leave the ceiling and pillars exposed of the ultra shiny silver matte. So when you look inside it looks like a space shuttle. I put new black carpet down with custom diamond plate floor mats that appear like the floor is all diamond plate. I installed some interior matching grey 1994 Nissan SE-R racing cloth bucket seats in that look period correct. The interior pedals are all silver metal to match the bullet proof interior theme. The shift knob is of a pretty lady waiting for me to shift her around by her head. I put a few expressive stickers on it but nothing to obstruct it’s already factory beauty. The license plate frame was purchased from a company called “Stealth Plates” which specializes in flipper plates like the James Bond 007 movies. So from a push of a button my License Plate flips to a bogus plate that says WS King on it. Perfect toll booths or evading a Smokey burnout patch. After I got the car all dialed in my friends had been stopping by drinking beers and hangin out in the garage as I worked on it. So one night I decided to pick them up and go for a first time cruise since I got it all road worthy. This was one of the best times in a vehicle I have ever had. Before I left the house I shined the car up before leaving, spending extra time spot waxing the entire car and cleaning each corner as if it had Barrett Jackson level paint on it. The 510 almost seemed to respond and shine more than ever. So much so that people asked if I clear coated over the flawed original paint. I said no but they were sure it was at least buffed before me from it’s intense gloss shine that it had. We all piled inside the 4 door drift machine. We all instantly started laughing because we felt like we all got into a cool little fast clown car. Someone in the back seat even mentioned how Mario Kart he felt inside. We took off fast avoiding bumps and dips in the road yet hugging corners on rails. Shifting to second gear from stop lights made the cars tires chirp because the left over power would transfer hard into the next gear. We all felt like we were experiencing different childhood memories of first discovering why the 510s were such cool cars. I talked about what good drift cars they make and then immediately I said hey fuck it let’s spin this little cock sucker right now. So right before I pulled into my driveway I spun the 510 into a fast donut that sounded deep throated and quick like the revolutions that a street bike can make with the sound that power produces. As the car broke free from grip and everyone tossed from various directions inside the cab I could feel the 510 proving itself. I switched the other direction mid donut tossing the passengers to the other direction while still keeping steady throttle spins. The headlights with yellow high beams on lit up every houses as the car spun around inside a cloud of smoke. As I decided the 510 proved itself enough, I gently left the track of circles I created and crawled the 510 pass some pot holes leading to my bat cave where I keep it. Everyone could not stop laughing from excitement including myself. Everyone who rode in the car had videos from different angles and posted clips on various platforms. One of the best compliments I read was “Damn, that 510 has some heart!”. That really resonated with me when I was cleaning the car up. In conclusion it’s a fun car and my own favorite compliment about the 510 is for it’s appearance and functionality and I would say this 1968 Datsun 510 is Honest and surprising.