Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Here is my tribute to Raul and his white 67.5 SPL. I've known Raul for over a decade and I always wanted to share the history of this car as it has been a very adventurous(like it's owner) car. It recently got back on the road after many years of hibernation and sports the U20 drivetrain from my roadster! Without further ado: The White Car

Purchased ~2001. Red leather seats, black carpet, white roll bar and stock R16 with a 5-speed! tranny. Raul quickly installed Comp front springs and bigger sway bar. It was a very tight, comfortable roadster.


One of our first fun runs was up to Mt. Hamilton with a bunch of others from Modesto/Livermore. Raul, Gerardo, and yes, that's your 311s.org founder Steve Allen on the right!

Rockin' the Panasports from my roadster...switching wheels was fun!


Raul loved driving the white car and took really long trips including Yosemite. The car was even featured in a Hemmings Magazine article on vintage import roadsters:

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Raul and I did more cruising together all over the Bay Area:


The white car somehow ended up in my garage from time to time

On my birthday in 2002 we did an epic fun run organized by Steve Allen up near Santa Rosa. I drove my '67.5 SPL/U20 and Raul took the white car, here he is on the Golden Gate:

We drove the piss out of our cars, unfortunately I broke my comp oil pan trying to straddle a rock. Being the good friend that he is Raul drove all the way back to San Jose to bring his trailer up to Santa Rosa, after Steve kindly bailed me out:


This of course led to my SR20 swap but I wanted the U20 to stay in the family so Raul got it:

The U20 was built by Bill Collins of Modesto, hot rodded a bit with a B-cam:

Since my car was down Raul was always kind enough to let me drive one of his roadsters. In 2003 he let me drive the white car to Solvang while he took his RHD '66. We threw my softop on it:

Did the Poker Run in it:

Later in October of '03 I organized a Fun Run to Pescadero Beach and again he let me enjoy the white car. I will never forget this fun run. The 5-speed/R16 combo was so rewarding:


In 2004, Raul treated the white car to a new exhaust system, similar to what I had on my roadster. We proceeded to terrorize the neighborhood:

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I had got my SR20 swap finished and was finally driving my roadster again when I heard from Raul, he was starting to swap the U20 into the white car! I lent him a hand but unfortunately we did not get it running because of electrical issues. I didn't hear from Raul in years, life gets in the way sometimes.
Fast forward to 2012...we got in touch and I suggested that Rob at ZCarGarage take a look at it. It needed some freshening from sitting for years but he nursed it back to health. He popped the cam cover and said the engine looked like it had barely any wear on it and whoever did the build did it properly…whew!





So nearly 10 years after I had this motor in my roadster and I got to go for a spin in the white car and see, hear and feel that glorious U20! Check it out:
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I can't tell you how cool this was for me, and waiting to see the smile on Raul's face once he drove it was going to be priceless.

So here is the U20 in my car 10 years ago:

Here it is in the white car today:

And the best part is that Raul is Enjoying the Ride again, here he is on a recent fun run:
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Good to have you back Raul!

A very nice tribute you have done Alvin. And it is one nice looking white car. I like stock wheels and the pana sports it would be hard to choose. Thanks for sharing Alvin.

Enjoyed!! (nice old dodge too!)

Great story. I for one am curious to know how Steve Allen got involved in roadsters, and how it led to this great forum.

That is an awesome read, thanks for creating it.l

A nice example of Datsun pals in action.

Linda

Wow, that was great! And he scratches second gear with the might R motor! The U sounded great too... You could really hear the growl with the hood off! Roadster buds, the way it should be. Good times my friends, good times!

Excellent story Alvin and my nomination for the post of the year!

Wow.......This is awesome Alvin...It's incredible that you still have these pictures.

Thank You for the tribute on the white roadster and of course for getting me back into my love for the roadsters...

10 years with less hair and a bit grayer on the sides... I'm back!!!!!

Great to see a lot of the old school returning. Dan Z. was just over today and I told him to check out this thread.

Cheers
James

Excellent write-up. Great cars and great people go hand and hand. I love this site!!

Very nice tribute to Raul's white 67.5. I will start a separate thread on how and when I got into Datsun Roadsters and why I started 311s.org.

Steve

Nice write up, it's fun to see the roadster community in action and get a the story behind some of the people and the cars on here.

Stay tune...Alvin's nostalgic pics have inspired me to look for old photos of the white roadster when I first found it.

We might as well start at the beginning..How did I get into Datsun Roadsters?

It actually started on Ebay of all places..
I was just laid off from 2 jobs in the same week, worked 17 years at a big electronics company and 2 years at a start up..Yes you heard it correctly, Monday my employer of 17 years decided to outsource my job and by Friday my other job of 2 years decided to lay me off as well.
Well what's a single guy to do with all of his severance money? Go buy more cars..buwaaahaaa..
I was already heavily into muscle cars, mainly Mopars, but I was browsing on Ebay for more cars and I happen to see a car that I have not seen before. It's a Datsun convertible? I put a bid on the auction and waited, but while I was waiting for the auction to end. I looked up datsun roadsters on the internet. Well low and behold all of these clubs started popping up and I kept reading about fun runs and solvang and the owners seems to enjoy driving their cars. I also noticed a club in my area.
I was intrigued more initially by the social scene of the datsun roadsters. I had bought a sunbeam alpine about a year before and it was night end day comparison..I didn't even know if there was another sunbeam alpine in the state of California. It's as if sunbeam owners didn't use a computer.

So I won the auction for the Roadster...whoooo hoooo.
I contacted the owner and had a friend of mine drove me to meet him in San Francisco to finish the transaction. But when I got there the roadster's windshield was torn apart and the glass was broken.
He said he just broke it before I got there..Anyways long story short we both decided not to finish the transaction and parted ways..But dammit by then..I was reallllllllllllly!!!!!!!wanting a roadster....
I was totally going crazy wanting to own one...

Here is the picture of the roadster that I almost bought..



I was constantly looking on the internet for pictures of roadsters.
Checking out the classifieds of Datsun Roadster Club's website.
And that is where I found the ad for the white roadster.
It was posted in the Nowroc website, but the car was in southern california.
So I contacted the owner to checkout the car.

Paint was still fairly new.


It was sporting a 2000 grill.


Interior was done in deep red Connelly leather and the carpeting is 100% wool..



Chrome still looks decent..


The engine hasn't run in a about a year since the break in time on the newly rebuilt motor.



Well I fell in loved with her. So the owner and I reached a deal.


I called a tow truck and had the roadster towed to a shop that I found in Long Beach by accident.


I drove by a shop that looks like it had some old cars in the parking lot. I went in and talked to the owner and he assured me that he knows how to work on old cars.




I had a trip planned to go to Maui that weekend so I left her to the shop, hoping that she will be treated well. A few days and $842.80 later, she lives!!!!!!!
When I got back from vacation, my then girlfriend and I picked her up and found a really cool place to store her..

She worked for Nissan Corporate in Gardena at the time and we were able to store it there while I figure the roadster out.
Every month I would visit and drive her around Long Beach area..



Here she is at the Queen Mary, I think even before the JCCS show materialized..




Ok..it's late and I'm tired so I will continue tomorrow...