Why is the Pacific Coast the Holy Grail?

[OG lil E]

Hey all,

 

I've only been here a few months, but I've learned alot and my Datsun fire is growing brighter every day. I've never started a thread before, but today I had something pop into my head I thought I would ask you Datsun gurus about.

 

I've noticed that a good portion of the members here are from Washington state and Oregon, as well as California. I can understand the Datsun's popularity in Cali, as the Californians are always the trendsetters and usually seem to figure out what is cool before the rest of the country. BUT, the interest in the great Northwest intrigues me. I see everyone's posts about Datsun sightings up there, and there seems to always be Datsuns on Craigslist from there, too. In the classifieds there are alot of "I'm selling a _______ Datsun" or "my friend is selling a ________ Datsun" posts from that area as well. Also, the most knowledgeable members (for the most part) seem to be from that area. This area is definitely where the most Datsun enthusiasm comes from.

 

Why is the Datsun's popularity so strong up there? Did they sell more Datsuns in that region than anywhere else with maybe the exception being California? How is it that so many of them have survived up there?

 

I can understand the fact that the climate is way more favorable than say the northern Atlantic coast, where the winters are brutal and the use of salt on the roads has brought many Datsuns to an early end. But still, these Datsuns are now considered classics and are growing rarer by the day, yet they still manage to seem fairly plentiful up that way. I think it is strangely cool!

 

I've lived in the Denver area my whole life, and I can remember seeing an occasional Datsun every now and then, but if I recall correctly, they were never really that common here--with the exception of Z cars. It seems like once the 720 was introduced, that's when they started popping up here. The earlier stuff seems to be very rare around these parts. Datsun sightings here are far and few in between.

 

Is it just the luck of this Ratsun site that all the Northwesterners (and the Cali guys too) have found each other and gather here? Or did alot of you know each other before and keep in touch through the site?

 

I'm just curious. I guess this is really a silly thread, but I think it's neat (and I guess a strange coincidence) that so many of you guys (and gals) are fairly close to each other making often group gatherings very possible.

 

So, let's hear everyone's theories. I think it will be interesting to see what everyone thinks about the mysterious love and survival of the Datsun on the west coast and the Pacific Northwest. E

[jefe de jefes]

I have thought the same.......

 

 

 

Maybe the west coast had the closest ports to ship to?:confused:

[moparvwfreak]

what i have found is that here, washington, oregon cali whatnot, we dont use as much salt on our roads in the winter. that in turn means less rust in teh older cars. at least thats what i understand. we may not have the quantity that other places in the country have but we have the QUALITY that other places dont. i own a few older cars. and granted they ahve some rust. my Datsun is proof of that, floors are rotted out but not much else.. but i also own a 90 Mercury Grand Marquis. it came from Wisconsin. yup you uessed it. TOTAL RUST BUCKET! runs great, looks like ass. i have already patched the 14 panels, frame is rusty to hell, and the under hood stuff is rusty as well. unlike my datsun which spent, as far as i can tell, its entire lifehere.

[ppeters914]

I have thought the same.......

 

Maybe the west coast had the closest ports to ship to?:confused:

 

Give that man a see-gar.

[LAYEDOUTB2K]

 

Maybe the west coast had the closest ports to ship to?:confused:

 

 

i was pretty sure that was the it. it is a lot cheaper to dock the boats on the west coast and sell a majority of them over here while only shipping some of them across the country.

[fisch]

I think it is more weather/salt related. There are a TON of classic Volvos and Saabs in that upper left corner too. And they would have come through the ports on this side of the country I think.

 

Y'all are in the golden area!

 

As to why there are so many northwesterners here, sure the population has much to do withit. Also this site was the brain child of a few NWDE.org dudes(North West Datsun Enthusiests.) so alot of the migration happened from there.

[datzenmike]

Our roots go back to the NWDE site. The club was quite small and quiet but hosted a forum where many of us met.

 

Until one far seeing individual, filled with Datsun spirit, tired of the same old same old, broke with the old ways and struck out on his own. With help of close friends he launched his own site and called it ratsun and proclaimed: 'All lovers of Datsun, hear me! If it's a home you seek, you shall find it here!' And when others found it, they saw that it was good. News of this new Datsun site spread and pilgrims of many countries came seeking it, joined and never left. And it came to pass that as NWDE grew smaller, ratsun grew, and grew.

Edited February 4, 2009 by datzenmike

[lynchfourtwenty]

yea i think those 2 things do come into play, 1 the salt doesnt screw stuff up, an 2 the ports are right here so shipping cars in is easy.. i live accross the river from a place where they port cars in.. i think there bein more datsuns here more of our fathers/uncles or whatever other family had to have had one at one point or another.. my grand parents had one, my step dad had a few, one of my buddys had one.. so it was kinda natural for me to be into them.. to me datsun is american as apple pie :fu: :lol:

[lynchfourtwenty]

Our roots go back to the NWDE site. The club was quite small and quiet but hosted a forum where many of us met.

 

Until one far seeing individual, with strong Datsun spirit, tired of the same old same old, broke with the old ways and struck out on his own. With help of close friends he launched his own site and called it ratsun and proclaimed: 'All lovers of Datsun, hear me! If it's a home you seek, you shall find it here!' And when others found it, they saw that it was good. News of this new Datsun site spread and pilgrims of many countries came seeking it, joined and never left. And it came to pass that as NWDE grew smaller, ratsun grew, and grew.

 

i love mikes stories, please continue mike :)

[]2eDeYe]

Yep, probably a mixture of both.

 

On somewhat topic, I hate that Seattle is considering salting. I use to love downtown in the snow. Never drive in the snow downtown again if they salt, I'm not ruining my rides.

They salted the parking lot at my work and I had to park somewhere else :rolleyes: bastards :fu:

[Nissan_Boy85]

I'm surprised this hasn't been said yet, so I will.

 

We're the closest to Asia! :lol: I must agree though, we probably got the most cause they haven't rusted away yet from road salts.

[Skib]

Origin Of Ratsun

:D

[datsunfish]

We had the closest and some of the largest shipping ports as well as the lack of road salting. Think how much it would cost to ship a load of dattos to montana for distribution versus the 5 mile trip to the dealers around seattle.

They never salted around here as it was believed that is was better for water quality/pollution to use sand over salt. They discovered the opposite to be true recently so we may be headed for some bullshit. This year was the first time I have seen a de icing product used around here but it wasnt salt.

[Phlebmaster]

Origin Of Ratsun

:D

 

 

Hahaha...I love that one. Thanks to Phatdave for the story :D

[bonvo]

less rust i think was the biggest thing then with cali you got to remember all the tree huggers wanted fuel economy so they could save money for there drug abuse :lol:

[lynchfourtwenty]

mmmmm drug abuse :lol: :fu:

[Skib]

less rust i think was the biggest thing then with cali you got to remember all the tree huggers wanted fuel economy so they could save money for there drug abuse :lol:

 

hey man, coke and LSD arnt cheap :fu:

[a.d._510_n_ok]

I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in Oklahoma where there was still a lot of bad feelings from WW2 toward Japanese and German products so they were not common here.

 

Two of my great uncles, Richard and Gene, used to get together on Saturdays at the local dump to shoot guns. Both were WW2 vets. Rich served in Europe and Gene served in Asia.

 

Rich drove nothing but Fords while Gene drove nothing but Chryslers. Sometime about 1976 Rich shocked the family by buying a brand new Datsun pick-up.

 

One Saturday he decided to take me with him on his weekly 'plinking' session with Gene. He picked me up and then we went to pick up Gene. Gene didn't know about Rich's new truck.

 

Rich pulled up in Gene's driveway and honked. Gene opened the door, looked disgusted and yelled, "Rich, what the hell are you driving!?!". Rich told him it was a Datsun and Gene said, "There ain't no way in hell I'm ridin' in a g*ddamned Jap truck!".

 

Gene followed us to the dump (in his groovy brown and butterscotch Cordoba) and we started shooting. Gene just kept shooting dirty looks at the Datsun.

 

When Rich fetched his bring-back nazi luger from the Datsun, Gene finally lost it it and said, "Rich, yer drivin' a g*ddamn Jap truck and shootin' a nazi gun - what'n the hell did you even bother fightin' for!?!".

 

If they ever went shooting together after that I never knew about it.

[CharlieBucket]

what about the south? we dont use salt! there is still alot more japanese stuff in the west then way over here. speaking of salt, does anyone know if South Dakota salts the roads? my new crown spent 20 years there. it in decent shape rust wise for a 69.

[hughdogz]

^^ I tend to agree with that line of thinking.

 

I remember back in the 70's when we had our first gas crunch. I remember seeing footage of a '78 Celica being smashed to pieces in a Detroit automaker's parking lot. I looked on youtube, but I couldn't find the vid.

 

What I'm trying to say is that (at least in the midwest where I used to live) a lot of folks only liked Detroit Iron, and hated Japanese imports.

 

I guess we don't learn from history, since now we are buying up Prius' instead of big SUV's as of late.

 

It is wild, if I go back to Detroit or Chicago, there are predominantly U.S. cars (and factory "tuner" models I've never seen in the PacNW). Here in Portland, the new cars are mostly Subies, Audi / VW or those slow-ass hybrids.

 

It would be interesting to see how many Dattos were sold in each state, and how many are still on the road.

[Shonuff]

as the unofficial ratsun toyota member i gotta say, there is a shit ton of yota owners around here and a boat load of older yota's under trees, barns and in fields blocking datsuns from being seen on the hwy.

 

 

i would think that the huge asian community over on the left coast may of had something to do with it. and the lack of salt.

 

ed note: king county and the wsdot are now using 10% salt in the sand. this means major hwys and city streets. now if they just had more then 3 sand trucks it might make a difference.

 

 

 

back on subject, i think it also has to do with the reliability of these cars. there arnt many domestics or euro's that can sit for 10years. then a can of carb clean later are ready for DD duty.

 

 

or it could be something in the air, the jet stream brings over the smell of ramen and various chemicals. maybe we have been conditioned to like foreign stuff.

 

 

if there wernt yota's id drive a datsun. if no dattos, and no yota's id drive a subaru. if non of the above were availible id ride my sweet vintage bmx :fu:

[datzenmike]

Can you imagine a '70s ford Pinto, Bobcat, chevy Vega, Astra, plymouth Arrow sitting in a field for a year and a half and starting? For one thing if it's in a field it was probably worn out early and thrown away. I doubt you'll even find one.

 

I owned a Pinto briefly in the 70's. I seem to remember it has a 2.3 L but was s l o w!!! It drove like a big heavy car. In '76 I bought a B-210 and it practically F L E W! No comparison.

[Shonuff]

its funny you bring up a pinto...

 

 

 

they came with holley 32/36 rip offs, and we use those to upgrade our shit:lol:

[Icehouse]

I think it also has to do with how many jobs there are in the seattle area, think about Boeing, Microsoft, and all those big guys. They employ ton's of people, I would like to thank the lazy people out there. When the lazy people get a new car instead of doing all the work to sell it they just park it behind a shed or maybe next to another old car. 99% of the car's we find aren't parked because they stopped running or had a major problem. The owners got a new car or the "restore" they had planned never happened. One of the guys we got a 510 from was so amazed that we would actually pay for one of his old cars he tried to make us a deal for all the rest in his back yard :D It's funny, it was like his personal auto history back there :D

[djlotus]

I remember back in the 70's when we had our first gas crunch. I remember seeing footage of a '78 Celica being smashed to pieces in a Detroit automaker's parking lot. I looked on youtube, but I couldn't find the vid.

I've seen videos like that. I believe I saw them in social studies in high school. On a related note: http://jalopnik.com/5115556/hawaiian-chevy-dealer-attempts-to-crush-honda-with-suburban-fails