1971 Datsun 510 - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] well another episode of Jay Leno's Garage today we're gonna be discussing one of the most iconic sports sedans of the early 70s the Doutzen 510 sadly this car is not mine this belongs to a good friend of mine who I work with on The Tonight Show his name is Greg Ellie and he's the prop master a lot of days I go hey is Greg here with the props no he's out working on his car you know so okay but then I go out and go oh the car is pretty cool so that's all right you can don't worry about that you can you can the show can suffer we want to get this car finished and as you can see it's just been a tremendous product project Greg come on in this is Greg Ellie hi Greg how you doing boss I wonder what you're doing out in the parking lot when you're supposed to be working yeah that's okay but now it's it's well worth it boy it looks beautiful thank you it looks beautiful this is a 71 510 510 sedan did a ground-up restoration on it it was just a hollow shell in a guy's backyard when I found it there was nothing but a wiring setting oh no no engine nothing no nothing there was nothing in it so I had to start all from scratch and it had been years since I'd had a Datsun so I've kind of forgotten some of those things but they came back quickly and Troy ermis racing and Tracy California helped me do all the suspension and the engine work and he did a wonderful job I did all the cosmetics and came out really nice it was fast oh they're wonderful cars one of my my second car actually my first was a 34 Ford when my second was a Datsun 1600 roadster and I was amazed at the build quality and how fast it was especially compared to some of the mgs and triumph sitting around it was a fantastic sports car but this one this was this is then like Paul Newman all those guys right yes yes Paul Way got a big poster in my house of Paul Newman racing one of these with two wheels off the ground going around the corner it's due Betty you didn't finish the car when he came I know I just started it the last time we had e1 and the thing that made these cool was this was independent suspension wasn't it yes sir yeah there weren't many cars in this price range back in the day that had independent it was real special I mean it was like it moms of God these cars and nobody really realized it for a little while and then they realize how well they handled and they race so well that they began and you know it's so funny you don't realize how small it is because even a mini now seems huge to me compared to original mini and this is really a nice sized car it's really not much bigger than a sports car would be and you got the full roll cage in it and we'll go through it in a minute but let's just let's just take it in how much lower is it then stock Oh probably about three inches and a half inches and of course the wheels and tires bring it down a little bit well I mean it really sits nicely and I like to thank you kept the original Datsun steering wheel yeah that's a 71 240 Z wheel actually all the original ones are all plastic in the center and only two spokes and I wanted something a little more sporty and I'd bolted right in you know the rumor and I don't know this is true or not but the rumor was Datsun before it changed to Nissan it was Nissan in Japan and maybe some of our some of our viewers can tell me if this is true or not but I was always told that they weren't sure how the Datsun would play in America of a Nissan would play in America and the early cars were somewhat primitive they weren't really built for the Americans super highways so they used the name Datsun to just kind of test the water and once once it became established the 240z came along then they went back to the brand name of Nissan now I have no idea that's true it's one of those rumors I've heard so write in the comments section tell me if you if you've heard the same thing I'd be curious but so there's a lot of young guys don't know what the name Datsun means anyway yes that's true look at what so what yeah but this is the car that really made it in America I remember Bob sharp racing out of Connecticut huge yeah Lime Rock and all those seeing these things turn around beating all the European cars very very exciting you'll still see them at the Monterey classic sorry yeah but nicely done I like the fact that you've kept the body stock at what color is that it's a 2009 Toyota FJ cruisers the ones that are blue and white on the top this is the blue and I really like it's called voodoo blue ovooed ooh blue yes very cool let's look under the hood okay what a nice job got to get in here to open the living now this is the fun part I like that that's kind of cool yeah it's kind of the stuck thing but because of my tower brace I had one of the springs and stuff I love this finish here tell me about this because a lot of guys just do this in body color but I like what you've done here yeah after we media blasted I decided not to paint it in there because it always gets messed up there's nothing in this is easily serviceable this is General Motors spider paint for trunks oh and we just cleaned it all out used their primer and I put it on real heavy I put about four coats on there iron it's just holding up what really looks great I like to look at that you know I love this period of car because the engine compartments are so simple distributor is right here carburetors are right here everything now is covered with great sheets of plastic and what and you can't get to anything yeah yeah it's so serviceable custom radiator here yeah champion radiator makes these for Datsun 510 s now Oh God because nobody did and they're makes a big difference and this is obviously an aftermarket pieces yes yeah that came from Troy as well and this just pops out as well yeah camber plates coil over shocks in the front right and it's 280zx front struts and cartridges and then a spoil over suspension on top of that yeah and we had to move it out of the way for a room because the brothers on this intake er a little longer than most of the others and what was the stock engine size in the 1600 1600 we got the horsepower back went in 96 96 and what are you getting now well this is twenty-three hundred CCS now and it's getting about a hundred and fifty three horsepower but a hundred and sixty and torque wrenches are really cool very nice and what holds great what is it way you know honestly I've never had it on the scale yeah they're very light yeah yeah with that fuel pressure there yeah fuel pressure here we plumbed it up from a fuel cell in the rear and the pumps in the back comes up here I could adjust the fuel pressure if need being of course keep an eye on it just so everything is nicely laid out fuse boxes right there I like to factor this like this painted rather than crowd powder-coated all the yeah that looks great instead of doing a chrome I just got tired of crow yeah yeah no that looks great something different no no it's really terrific let's open the trunk oh look at that nice fuel cell in there yeah we put in a 10 going fuel cell can you move the battery Optima battery to the trunk mm-hmm how many gallons is that 10 gallons so 10 gallon tank okay and it has a sending unit in it and a bubble so if you turn over it won't run right now then then 8 in the USA we like to do that yeah those are great spills nice sheet metal workers it's amazing how light these cars are it's really something when I put the doors on it I did it by myself yeah yes and I imagine most of them probably rusted out these one guy actually I'm surprised you kept the back seat in it because you really can't get in the back you really can't but you know it was more of a looks thing I didn't want the noise I really insulated the floors I inside the doors and inside the fenders and everything to keep the noise out because they were kind of noisy and with this exhaust system it makes it a little worse that's the 5-speed in there yes 280zx 5-speed from an 83 to 86 are close-ratio 5-speed 2 which is nice oh that's good yeah yeah they fit in with their the 286 flywheel and everything in the back is all 280zx as well 4:11 rear gear oh yeah with a limited-slip posi very oversized you joints and everything in the back so I like it when people use the sort of mother brand name mother ship parts with the little one you know like I like GM cars and GM motors and whenever I see a Ford with a Chevy engine just seems odd to me I like the fact that the you keep the brand all the way these son and Datsun had so many pieces that were interchangeable it's amazing how you can just go from one car to another yeah yeah and pull pieces like kick plates a Datsun on the move well yeah oh it's really nicely done oh thank these are called VTO wheels they're made by a company VTO wheels in phoenix arizona and they just came out when I finished the car I had a set of American Racing Leary's on here and I didn't want to use them because really old you know there 45 year old wheels right I saw these I couldn't resist I had to have them they're really beautiful and of course they help with the low profile tires yeah it's a beautiful car and the nice thing is you can still find these pretty reasonable mm-hmm you know and they haven't gone crazy yet and it's a true Japanese collector car this is this car has become almost as much as an icon it's a 240z among people who know these things yeah and oh I think it's just fantastic whenever Greg driving into work I always kind of paused him and look out the window well that's fired up and take you for a ride well you forgot how light these cars were back in the day you know you lose the steel door guard the airbags and all that stuff and god it feels like it doesn't weigh anything turbos are nice but an ass naturally aspirated engine just has that immediacy you know 150 hundred 60 horsepower doesn't sound like a lot but it's not the hot spots how much weight you're pushing and this thing doesn't weigh this thing is probably what 2,000 pounds 2,100 maybe 21 something like that so boy it's it's really lively it's a lot of fun to drive you know there's a whole generation of young car guys that think 3000 pounds is light for a car and you know the Lotus Elan these five tens the b2 tens conduct steering is just so direct so light he's got the upgraded brakes on it and I like that it's all nice on that I don't know I liked the purity of that keeps it kind of kind of cool yeah pulls nicely even in third horsepower sells cars torque wins races I gotta say it looks like a sleeper but not really you know the lowered suspension the blue paint it really pops going down the road and that's a great looking wheels aren't they as soon as I saw my Hannah Davis [Music] you got nice long legs I love that long : third gear you can see why these are so much fun to race you know this is a classic example of getting in on the ground floor what soon will be a collector car if you want to buy one of these now in any condition I almost guarantee you never lose money on it because each will always be collectible I always liked this style of sedan I liked it in the 2002 the tii BMWs I just like this straight sedan with the post for virginity here you know they just look cool especially like Gregg's where the car has been lowered slightly and you got the paint and I love the the painted bumpers instead of the chrome you got a classic design with kind of updated styling cues very very cool I love driving this thing [Music] you know this thing is so light it's so much fun to drive let's take it up on the freeway [Music] 7075 you're barely turning 3000rpm I think when you go to 450 sixes breaks out you know as much as people rave about the 3-series BMW a lot of these modern cars they're really not more fun to drive than these this is just so light and nimble and the fact that you build it yourself that's what kind of makes it exciting you know it's kind of fun to work on a car do a modification go out test it come back you know test that's what Greg is done he built this whole thing himself and it's pretty impressive you know if you see any of these five tens around grab them because they like I say these are gonna be the 57 Chevys of the future and they'll be going for big dough so Greg thanks a lot thanks for that we didn't do a burnout because he's watching babies not here we'll take it out and do it burnout next week you

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 3,100,326

Rating: 4.9130964 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Automotive, Cars, Garage, horsepower, Jay, Leno, mods, custom car, Speed, Fast, modded cars, mechanic, fastest car, Jay Leno's Garage, cars, exotic cars, interview, custom, Leno car, funny, Leno funny, car show, Rare, Motorcycles, racing, jay leno interview, auto, drive, power, fast, amazing, cool, the cars, vehicle

Id: YwhwwrkYMpc

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/Viceroy_Fizzlebottom]

I really want a 510.

[u/ryayy]

this makes me so very jealous of jay... he has so many really nice cars

[u/Wip3out]

That car is beautiful!

[u/samurilincoln]

Well, it's official, I know what I'm painting my 510; now to find one in the Midwest that hasn't rusted out.

[u/hotsavoryaujus]

My brother in law just recently got his hands on a Datsun 510 wagon. He had plans to restore it but didn't have the time and ending up selling it. :(

[u/NotSeriousAtAll]

You can down vote me to hell but that is one ugly car!