Through DownshiftAus I recently made another trip to Sydney to help run and cover one of their meets. Whilst down there we decided to get some rad coverage of some cool cars and amazing workshops.

At the Downshift meet at Fairfield showgrounds, this very nice Datsun 510 rolled in. It was very well presented just by seeing it from a distance, let alone when I walked over and saw what was under the bonnet .

The owner Nathan purchased the car over 5 years ago all original from an elderly lady that bought the car brand new. Nathan’s built the car to where it stands now over that time with the help of his old man and a few of his mates.

It sits nicely perched on Enkei Apache IIs.

From the outside, just rolling past, you could be forgiven for assuming it’s just a tastefully modified 510 on wheels. I mean, even the plates say it’s NA. It’s not until you take a second glance that you notice something not so factory.

The intercooler sitting behind the factory grill is discreet, however it put a smile on my face that there was obviously more to this car than meets the eye.

Nathan being an auto sparky rewired the full carby himself, including a Haltech sprint 500 and HID headlights.

The car is packing a red top Nissan SR20. One of the most important mods in SRs are rocker arm stoppers that sit in the head alongside stock cams, however Nathan has some Tomei cams ready to go in. Fuel is delivered by 550cc Nismo injectors. Air is forced in with a Garrett 2871R turbo, pushing through a custom built intercooler, into the GReddy style inlet manifold, through the engine, out the stainless exhaust manifold, and then vented through the 3 inch mandrel bent exhaust with high flow cat and Hi Tech muffler. To control boost the car is fitted with a Turbosmart boost tee, and a Veeport Turbosmart BOV. All the radiator, turbo piping, rocker and cooler overflow bottles are custom made. To fuel the car is a Bosch 44 main pump, carter lift pump and surge tank.

The car runs an SR 5-speed, custom tailshaft, WRX R180 LSD, CV shaft, rear axles and a heavy duty clutch. The interior is fitted with a Sparco steering wheel, Sparco recliners, Autometer gauges in carbon fiber surrounds and Dynamat.

Sitting behind those beautiful Enkeis on the front are R32 slotted and cross drilled brake rotors, the rear being from an R31. Also from the R31 lineage are the front coilovers with adjustable camber tops. The rears are adjustable with camber and toe.

Currently making 190kw on 12 psi, future plans for Nathan’s 510 include Tomei cams, ready to go in for a proper tune on 20psi, aiming for 250rwkw. Also new rear wheels (same style) with more offset and more low all round.

I can’t imagine even with a cool 190kw currently that the width of those rear tyres allow much traction as it is!

Cheers to Nathan for letting us feature his awesome 1969 Datsun 510.

-Dan.