Words: Wooley // Photos: Anh Nguyen
Whether you’re an import veteran, or whether you’re looking for your first enthusiast-inspired car… choosing a platform for a new build can be a daunting task. What do you settle on? What’s going to fit your character and your style? How is to going to define, or re-define you? Do you have the strength to define, or redefine it? What are the benefits, seductions, and timeless wins of a certain chassis? Do they outweigh the drawbacks? Is a specific car going to be a lemon, a let-down, a total rust bucket, a mistake, a money pit? Or will it be the perfect fit… with the power to ignite a life-long love affair, and turn you into a die-hard supporter. Somewhere along the line… you have to stop asking these endless, answerless questions. Instead – you have to make a decision, follow your gut & your heart… and just take the damn leap. This is basic car guy stuff – 101. ‘Basic’ car guy stuff that is really – anything but basic. And the kind of stuff that the rest of the world will never be able to fully understand or relate to.
With this Datsun 510, John found his groove in a sleek and slender… banana wagon.!? ‘A flying Twinkie’ – as John puts it. A 40-year-old block-car with the sex appeal of… a rice cake. A car that gets mistaken for the one Clark Griswald drove in National Lampoon’s Vacation. Then – to add a little more challenge to it, John made sure the car had a long history of previous owners with questionable mechanical abilities that kept awful records of their work.
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Words: Wooley // Photos: Anh Nguyen
