510 Race Car Build

[Thomas Perkins]

4 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

You can see my burn barrel in the background. @Thomas Perkins

   Cool.Just like mine.

[Ooph!]

5 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Here's a pic. Crappy car, waiting to go through the ringer and get spit out shiny and new.

 

 

 

The 40 years since have taken a toll

[510T]

Needs more Canned Heat!

 

 

[thisismatt]

Will the box flares fit in your burn barrel, or do you need me to ship you a bigger one (barrel)?

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I believe that black car is Don Nimi's car before it went red/blue Nissan colors.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Check out these pics from the weekend.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

[five1oh]

On 9/12/2023 at 10:26 AM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Here's a pic. Crappy car, waiting to go through the ringer and get spit out shiny and new.

 

About damn time.  Thank you. Epicness planned.

[Rustbin]

On 9/12/2023 at 10:26 AM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Here's a pic. Crappy car, waiting to go through the ringer and get spit out shiny and new.

 

Looks like a better starting point than mine.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

10 hours ago, Rustbin said:

Looks like a better starting point than mine.

The car is absolutely rust free, except a tiny bit of red showing where the paint has peeled from the box flares (where they connect to the body). The driver side rocker panel is a bit damaged as well as the top of the radiator support where someone tried to pull it with a tractor.

[Lockleaf]

Hey Stoff, congrats on getting back in to the Datsun game.  Did you finish that British race car you were working on?  Was it an MG?  I don't recall exactly.

Anyway, that 4.38 diff you are looking for, was that one of the 720 front diffs?  I have one or two front diff laying around, so if its a 720 option, let me know, I will go find them and figure out what I have.  If I have the right thing, we can figure out getting it to you.  All this is assuming you haven't found one yet of course.

[iceman510]

The 4.38 was available in 720 4x4 front diffs, as I acquired one years ago.  Mike I'm sure can tell us exactly which years/models.  You may have one.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

22 hours ago, Lockleaf said:

Hey Stoff, congrats on getting back in to the Datsun game.  Did you finish that British race car you were working on?  Was it an MG?  I don't recall exactly.

Anyway, that 4.38 diff you are looking for, was that one of the 720 front diffs?  I have one or two front diff laying around, so if its a 720 option, let me know, I will go find them and figure out what I have.  If I have the right thing, we can figure out getting it to you.  All this is assuming you haven't found one yet of course.

Yes, a 720 front diff. Could be 4.10 or 4.38.

 

I am still working on the Sprite project car. It's actually come quite a long way considering the condition it was in. It's on four wheels now and pretty close to ride height. With a mockup motor in it, I was able to build the header and get started on the exhaust. We brought it with us to Sears Point last month to get some feedback from the MG guys. who had mostly good things to say. I've ordered competition adjustable shocks, and we have a spare race  motor for the black car which I can use for the time being. I maybe able to have it ready to run by next spring.

 

I'll give you guys a bit of a photobomb, the pics in no particular order.

 

[datzenmike]

Pre '83 4x4s were 4.375 then switched to 4:11s with the Z24 engine. For a few months the early '83 a 3.90 was used. Can't nail this down if optional or not. 3.90 would be very sluggish.

 

The '87-'89 WD21 Pathfinder with Z24i had a 4.625 R-180 front differential. After this R-180 were not used as the engines were KA and VG powered and an R-200 was used.

 

Truck and Pathfinder rear case covers won't have mountings for the 510's mustache bar. It has a single eyelet cast into it.

 

The '85-'88 CA20E powered S12 had a 4.11 R-180 in the rear. The CA18ET was a 4.11 in R-200 and the VG powered S12 was 3.90 in R-200.

[Lockleaf]

Cool photo bomb.  That photo with the pup in the drivers seat is great, and I'm not even a dog person.  Pretty sure that pic will kill my buddy though.  He's a huge race nut and car guy both :D.

I will check out my random front diff collection this weekend, see what I have.  I'll let you know.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

That's Maggie, our new heeler pup. She loves the shop.

 

The floor of the Sprite was out of the car for a long time, and I wanted to make sure all the fab work inside the car was done before the floor went back in. Being able to get to the underside of things was so much easier while it was out. I took some time to punch some go-fast holes in the interior panels and structure. Hindsight, I should have done more...

 

Oh, and there were 480 spot welds in that floor panel. 480 that I had to drill out when I salvaged it from the donor car. 480 welds that I had to drill out of the car you see here. Then 480 holes to plug weld and grind smooth.

 

I appreciate the effort on the diffs guys. As far as what application, I thought I read that there was a difference between king cab and standard cab trucks.

[Diabolic kustoms]

So no box flares? We need to make box flares great again..lol

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I want to run them, but at this point, it's a hard no. Unless I want to run with the SP and IMSA cars.

[Diabolic kustoms]

If I could find a nice set I would run them on my street car just for kicks

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Don Nimi's GT3 510 had the nicest box flares I've ever seen. I can't remember if they were custom or off the shelf.

[paradime]

I'll take the Sharp and BRE look all day and every way. I understand period race use and attraction to big flares, but this is where I'd never go with a 510. Sure it gets more rubber on the ground, but the added friction eats power. With a 180hp, 1,700 lb. short wheel base car on 8.5" modern race slicks, is more rubber really an advantage? Call me a Puritan fuddy duddy, but I think it destroys the visual harmony of the 510 design, and homogenizes it with every other IMSA sport compact sedan in the field. At that point, it's hard to tell it from a Toyota. Oh, hell no.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

There comes a point at which the car becomes wider than it is long.

 

Couple of anecdotes - My friend Darius had (think he still has) a red box flared 510 back in the day, with a built 2300 and wiiiiide wheels. The car was so twitchy at speed that it was frightening to drive. I attributed this to the length vs width of the wheelbase and track. GT cars of the time could only achieve 135 mph. That is the fastest I've ever seen or heard of for a 510. The shape of the car, combined with the scale of the track/wheelbase limits the top speed.

[thisismatt]

Love the stock body lines, but if I had to flare I'd like a square edged steal flare like a few guys have done

[Lockleaf]

I plan to run VW MK1 golf/jetta kind of metal flares on my 510 when I get back to it.  I don't know they really add much in the way of actually larger tire fitment, but I really like steel flares, and those fit the existing 510 lines nicely I think.  I have also seen them on a bmw 2002 and they looked really good.

This is in now way a suggestion that they would be useful on this build.  they just look nice.

[paradime]

2 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

There comes a point at which the car becomes wider than it is long.

 

Couple of anecdotes - My friend Darius had (think he still has) a red box flared 510 back in the day, with a built 2300 and wiiiiide wheels. The car was so twitchy at speed that it was frightening to drive. I attributed this to the length vs width of the wheelbase and track. GT cars of the time could only achieve 135 mph. That is the fastest I've ever seen or heard of for a 510. The shape of the car, combined with the scale of the track/wheelbase limits the top speed.

 

I spent some time scouring the internet looking for a recorded top speed for the SCCA B sedans, but found nothing. A B210 with an A13 clocked 121 mph. I would imagine that has a lot to do with the aerodynamic body shape of the fastback though. As you pointed out, the 510 has a drag coefficient of a brick limiting it's top speed. Beyond the flares, the GT cars also had the advantage of serious aero upgrades over the SCCA cars little front scoop.

 

A few anecdotes of my own and zero judgement of flares beyond my personal taste - Even with 378 whp, using a GPS speedo my SR20 swapped 510 topped out at just under 140 mph. That said, other than the ungodly sound bouncing off the rev limiter, at double the speed and inputs happening MUCH faster, it tracked straight every bit as stable as freeway speeds. I would also imagine that had a lot to do with Jeff's rack & pinion kit. I don't think I'd want to try that with the spring loaded steering box though, even with bracing and +7 degrees positive camber on the struts. As for handling, at my age, enough is more than enough. With 120 compound 190s front and 215s rear, its cornering is sure footed and absolutely violent. I don't want to think about what race slicks would be like. I'd likely need a diaper and a neck brace.

 

All said, I'll admit that in my youth racing autocross I deeply coveted them boxes.