Old Volkswagens- hauling right!

[Bill in Pittsburgh]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

for the yoof amongst us who may not be familiar with the 1960s Datsun Roadsters, here's a late 1600, the 2000 was almost identical but had a bigger 2L motor that was 150HP, and a 5 speed, and used to win all KINDA SCCA racing.

John

The 2000 is one of two cars I never owned but in hindsight feel remiss. Beyond towing track tires to the track, I would have never considered towing anything else, least an RV.
Thank you for the reminder.

[Dudley]

My son's roadster is the 69 2000 and he picked it up from a metal scrap yard 12 years ago. He stripped it to the frame and did almost all the work himself except for the carb rebuild. He learned tig welding, metal machining, powder coating, painting and everything in between. He got it back on the road a few months back and he credits it to saving his sanity as he has been working at home since march 2020. He is a software engineer at Apple. He has to get a different muffler as you will hear him coming. What is it worth? he values it at about $5000 , total cost WAY too much but as sanity check, priceless! I would love to see what he would do to a fiberglass trailer! I taught him well!

[Bill in Pittsburgh]

[QUOTE=Dudley;831988]My son's roadster is the 69 2000 and he picked it up from a metal scrap yard 12 years ago. He stripped it to the frame and did almost all the work himself except for the carb rebuild. He learned tig welding, metal machining, powder coating, painting and everything in between. He got it back on the road a few months back and he credits it to saving his sanity as he has been working at home since march 2020. He is a software engineer at Apple. He has to get a different muffler as you will hear him coming. What is it worth? he values it at about $5000 , total cost WAY too much but as sanity check, priceless! I would love to see what he would do to a fiberglass trailer! I taught him well![/QUOTE

Dudley
Glad to hear your son is developing skills we learned as youngsters and thought that all or most boys would develop these skills. But few do today.
And $5000 K! Every nice 2000 I have seen in the last hand-full of years went for nearly 10 times that amount.
I campaigned a 73 124 Abarth and owned it for 40 years. Bought it for $3.8 K and sold it for more than 10 times that amount. Today it would be nearly 20 times that amount.
Kudos to your son. Now to find a good race driving school to learn how to drive it at it's limits.

[Dudley]

no problem there, he used to have a 350z nismo and did a few track days with it.

[Steve Hague]

A 1969 Datsun SPL 311 (1600 Roadster) was my first car. It was silver, just like your picture. Brings back a slew of memories. Can you believe a buddy and I packed our SCUBA tanks, gear, wet suits, tent, sleeping bags, cooler, etc. and drove from Indiana to Florida for a week of diving. It was spring break 1973 and really appreciated the 30+ MPG in the middle of the gas crisis when prices went from 35 cents to 75 cents per gallon as I recall.

[Bill in Pittsburgh]

Originally Posted by Steve Hague

A 1969 Datsun SPL 311 (1600 Roadster) was my first car. It was silver, just like your picture. Brings back a slew of memories. Can you believe a buddy and I packed our SCUBA tanks, gear, wet suits, tent, sleeping bags, cooler, etc. and drove from Indiana to Florida for a week of diving. It was spring break 1973 and really appreciated the 30+ MPG in the middle of the gas crisis when prices went from 35 cents to 75 cents per gallon as I recall.

Another goodie I had was a 1960 O.S.C.A. that just could never beat the times of those 1600 roadsters in solo events (even when I perceived those 1600's to be in the hands of lessor drivers). Notice, I did say perceived, so was it the car or the driver? Nor did I ever get 30+ miles to the gallon.