Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Hello all,

As some of you may know I have been working on my lastest roadster for 4yrs now and it is almost over the finish line. This is my 3rd roadster and I picked this one up as a basket case which I had the great intentions of stripping and parting out to help my addiction of roadsters. But as time went by the boy racer got the better of me and made me turn a crappy blue car into a daily driver with power to spare.

This thing is purchased was parked up for a couple of years with no love shown to it before I got it and not much of the interior remained apart from a cracked dash waiting to catch on fire and a pair of busted seats. It was missing 90% of the bright work, no glass in either door or winders / quarter windows for that matter, but it did have a busted windscreen.

All I have to do now is wait for the engineer to write his roadworthy report and the department of transport to give the stamp of approval for my rego plates to be fitted.
Here is a couple of happy snaps of the almost finished car.

Hi Pete
Welcome to the best site on the net.im loving the look of your car.let me be the first to say its been transformed. Bumblebee.

Wow. That looks awesome. Nice work. How about some interior shots and a little more about what you did with the car.

Wow! Nice resurrection!

Wow. That looks awesome. Nice work. How about some interior shots and a little more about what you did with the car.

Ok here is some of the nitty & gritty on the oily and inside parts.

For the interior I have fitted a carpet set and interior panels purchased through one of the US vendors which fit very well and are finished nicely. The seats are out of the early verision Mazda Miata with inbuilt speakers.


The dash has been reskinned and new electronic gauges have been fitted inside the original gauge housings. Photos to come of the gauges.



The glove box has been binned and a new metal one was made to hold the original fuse box and the boost controller, oil, water temp and oil pressure gauge.



The heart of the machine is the CA18DET from the jap verision of the 180SX which I purchased a half cut locally and then stripped it down to the important parts only. The motor was then pulled apart and put back together with just a cleaning required. The motor was rebuilt at 100,xxxkms in japan and I got it at 110,xxxkms. The original T25 turbo has been flicked and a hybrid T25/28 installed as a highmount connected to a 2 1/2'' stainless steel custom exhaust. The fabricator spent over 50hrs on intercooler and exhaust piping to get it all to fit. The 180SX 5 speed is fitted and a new gearbox mount was made.





The original radiator has been replaced with the ebay special 3 core verision and the overflow tank has been relocated deeper in the engine bay below the blowoff valve.

The boot now contains the battery and windscreen washer bottle as the was no room in the engine bay for anything.



The intercooler is fitted just behind the grill and can only been notice once you look straight on.



Once the bonnet is closed you don't see any differance from standard apart from the seats and the 3'' exhaust pipe out the back.



Currently the motor has only been tuned to 5500rpm and standard turbo boost which put out 206hp at the wheels in 4th gear doing 154km/h. Once I get the car registered it will be re-tuned to its max potential of 7500rpm and 17psi of boost which should produce about 300hp at the wheels.

Beautiful work. Any videos?

Again, WOW!
Audio/video of this beast in action would be appreciated.
I'll bet it's got one heck of a different exhaust note!

What a labor of love! I'm am glad you didn't part it out! Great work.

I will get it out this weekend if the sun is shining as it needs a wash and get a video or two. The exhaust has a slightly different note and at 4000rpm it hits 93db's which maybe a problem with the boys in blue.
Thanks for all the comments.

You have some other roadsters as well, I gather? Got any pics of those? Any before pictures of the yellow one?

This is now my third roadster that I have owned. The first 2 have been since sold and my wife has said one is enough.

This is what I started with after the strip down.





but the job was made much easier after I built one of these.



I will working on getting a members ride up this weekend with photos from start to were it is now.

Here is a quick walk around.
Camera did not pick up the exhaust note so it may be time to buy a video camera.

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Very very cool Pete and i love the VL turbo badge on the petrol tank.and you have one nice shed.

that is super nice. i heard the engine exhaust fine, and it sounds wicked.

Thanks for posting - it looks great!