Six years ago, when Michael McGregor was looking to pick up a little Datto, he struck gold when he went out on a limb. Having seen a totally stock-standard 1600 parked out the front of a house one day, he decided to knock on the front door to see if he could persuade the owner to sell it. This was a happy day, coz - as it turns out - the owner was just about to get rid of it anyway. Perfect timing! And who exactly was it that was selling the Datsun? The car's original owner - the proverbial little old granny. You know the story.
Anyhow, only 3 months into driving his newly acquired original 1600 (which he scored for a grand!), Michael decided he'd do it some favours. The first move was an obvious one - get the car re-sprayed in near-factory white in his Dad's paint'n'panel shop. Ah, that gave a big improvement over the 30-odd year old duco. And then came some much-needed suspension and brake work - a set of 3 inch lowered King springs, some Koni adjustable shocks, 240K front struts (and discs), 260Z wheels and a bit of a serving of Nolathane. Michael says this "did it" suspension wise. Not long after, the factory 1600cc L-series donk got an upgrading too, with some traditional tweak methods - like some extractors and twin SU carbies. Michael tells us these gave "a small but noticeable difference", but it was nowhere near enough. No sir. Not long after the new carbs went on, the factory 4-speed manual seized - which was probably more of a result of age rather than the huge amount of power going through it! This was replaced by a bolt-in 5-speeder from a 240K. Gotta love that Nissan parts interchangeability!
It was about now Michael himself shifted into top gear and got serious with shaking some life into the car. With the decision to pull the car from the road, a big 2.4 litre stroker L-series was dropped in, along with twin Webers, high compression pistons, a "cleaned up" head and a series 3 Bluebird dizzy. Not surprisingly, this motor gave a big boost in performance and it was nice an' torquey to drive. It put out a good note too. Fully sorted, the 2.4 went on to deliver a dyno certified 120hp at the rear wheels and pushed the car to a best quarter mile time of 14.4 seconds (also with an ex-240K R180 3.9 locker diff). Fourteens eh? Now we were starting to get somewhere!
However, before the car could even roll out of the garage with its new powerplant, the daggy 1600 interior had to get a big once-over. Michael bolted (not Michael Bolton!) in a pair of Series 6 Mazda RX-7 pews, laid new black carpet over the floor and hung some new hood lining. He also injected some flair with a set of RPM harnesses, Autometer tacho, oil pressure and water temp gauges, and an Alpine stereo system. Nothing too extroverted - just a nice all-round street package here. Michael was content to leave the 1600 like that for about 2½ years, but things quickly took a new direction when Queensland laws were changed to allowing legal fitment of a SR20 litre turbo. Hmmm... that sure looked like a better alternative to those fleeting ideas of adding a blower and injection to the ol' L-series!
Keen to move onto the next level of performance, Michael gave Robin Berado at PerFOURmance Motorsports the job of inserting an ex-S13 Silvia SR20DET - all 200-ish hp of it. This conversion included the whole kit an' caboodle - the SR's 5-speed gearbox (with a Jim Berry clutch combo thrown in), the factory ECU and Silvia ventilated front discs. These discs were stuck under the 1600's snout teamed with a pair of Hilux 4-potters, and the rear end was equally upgraded with Mitsubishi Starion discs and calipers. A different booster was a mandatory requirement as well. Michael didn't stuff around with making room to fit the SR's dinky little air-to-air intercooler though, instead he went for a top-notch custom "modular" front-mount unit/engine radiator (complete with a polished header tank). You can thank ARE's abilities in aluminium fabrication for this beautiful number (And note that the throttle body has been angled slightly to line up with the intercooler outlet).
Not surprisingly, a proper 3-inch mandrel bent exhaust system was then hung from the Datto's under-plan. Fabricated by Custom Exhaust, the system uses a high-flow cat, a straight-through muffler and HPC on very the front section of pipe. You might notice that HPC has also been applied to the plenum chamber, exhaust manifold and turbo heat shielding as well. It's nice looking gear. And speaking of shiny stuff, Michael also switched to a set of 15x6 ROH Gamblers, clad in 205 and 225/50 Falken GRB2s.
Back on the road, the current-tech SR gave quite a good improvement all-round - performance, flexibility and economy. In fact, with boost pressure turned up to 15 psi, the lightweight 1600 proved capable over scorching the quarter mile challenge in a mere 12.7 seconds (on slicks). And that was barely trying... Yep, about now, the Datsun was getting r-e-a-l-l-y bloody quick!
The sudden flood of late model technology kept acoming when Michael decided he'd keep on chasing power and opted to ditch the factory computer. In its place went a Haltech E6S brain, which allowed the removal of the stock airflow meter and gave much more tuning flexibility. On its own the Haltech didn't give a big lift in performance, but it did give a lot more scope for power for yet-to-come mods. Still, the quarter mile time dropped from a previous 12.7 to a 12.5 - on the same 15 psi boost. Oh, and that 12.5 second pass also earned Michael a trophy, having elected a 12.500 dial-up time... Talk about precision (or luck)!
The biggest change since the integration of the Haltech unit has been the move to a much larger Garrett GT25/30 ball-bearing turbocharger. This big windmill blows in a fair bit more induction air, so it's no surprise that the standard injectors started to max out at high boost levels. Still - up to that dangerous limit - the car went blisteringly hard. In fact, hard enough to break two half shafts and a gearbox before Michael even had the chance to remedy the injector situation! Another Nissan quick-fix was a 3.8:1 R200 LSD (outta 300ZX), plus a couple of billet axles incorporating Porsche outer and Nissan inner CV joints. Another imported gearbox solved the terminal gear crunching problem and, while we're at it, a custom 3-inch tailshaft was also bolted up.
Interestingly, that necessary additional fuel flow was delivered by high-flowing (not replacing) the stockie injectors - which, we're told, gave around 30% more capacity. With these suckers aimed into each port, ChipTorque re-mapped the ECU to deliver the right mixtures. The result - a plenty-of-Wheeties 256hp at the wheels (now on 20 psi boost). Now, with a big turbo and injectors pushing more of the good stuff into the SR's chambers, the relatively conservative looking 1600 cracked an Eleven - an 11.8 at 116 mph to be precise! This was quickly bettered with an amazing (and quite easily achieved) 11.4 at 120 mph at Willowbank - though, one annoying mechanical ugly was now starting to appear. All of a sudden, the high-powered 1600 chewed through three stub-axles one after the other - with one of those happening just after running the 11.4. It looked like the torque of the big turbo was a little too much to swallow...
So - now - Michael has changed to a locked (welded) diff centre in an attempt to keep the stubbies intact. With fingers crossed, he'll then have enough reliability to slip in a few more passes - and, no doubt, better his times. "I'm very happy" with the car enthuses Michael, "and there is certainly more left in it." His goal is to crack the 10s with his - still regularly street-driven! - 1600. This may mean having to slip in some forgies, some headwork and some other tricks, but it will happen.
You can count on that!
Contacts:
ChipTorque
+61 7 5596 4204
www.chiptorque.com.au
ARE (Aluminium Radiator Engineering)
+61 7 3856 5434
www.are.com.au
PerFOURmance Motorsports
www.pms.net.au
Jim's Clutch
+61 7 3891 6114
(Australian Competition Clutch Supplies)
|