Its starting again...

[Blue Supra]

Team Stanza is kicking off this year!

Well the history is probably the best place to start with the old girl

- 1978 Datsun Stanza. Inherited from my mum many moons ago. Since then a few changed hace happened to the car. Starting slow with the wheels. 13" Kidney mags from a 200B. After that came a breathing upgrade in the form of headers and a 2" lukey exhaust system. The first major change. Replacing all the bushes throughout the entire suspension with Nolathane bushes. An immediate handling improvement was noticed with everything feel sharper.

Still the standard suspension from (then) 25 years ago was worn and sloppy. Lowered shocks and springs were fitted. Whilst this enhanced the look of the car it certainly didnt help its handling with the car leaning down and scrubbing the wheel arches at the slightest corner and after an extremely frustrating day at the hill climb... whiteline sway bars front and rear were fitted which IMO is the single best bang for your buck upgrade ive dont to any car. I still wasnt perfectly happy with the suspension though so after some tweaking Eibach springs were sourced (from of all things...) a BMW 7 series! they worked beautifully in the back of the car giving it the characteristics i was looking for.

After checking the diff oil during a normal service, i noticed a certain lack of oil... after topping it up the noise from my diff was ridiculous and obviously needed replacing. A new Stanza rear axle was sourced from a local wrecker (since closed ) and fitted, amazingly the car performed much better with a tight diff, who wouldve though?

After my 2nd track day and various driving expeiences the head gasket failed and the engine crapped out. It was repaired but the engine never fully recovered i felt. Things started getting more track oriented when a race seat was custom fitted to the car involving transmission tunnel chopping to get the seat flush on the floor so i could fit with my helmet on. I maintain that its the comfiest seat in the world After another hill climb and some more road exploits the old war horse started dropping water. Then a LOT of water to point where i was carrying 5L of water with me everywhere i went. It was on the day that the old engine (with 299500 kays on it) gave up the ghost for good that i bought my S14 200SX. Then plan was originally to leave the 200 as standard (or close to it) and finish doing up the Stanza as my track car. Unfortunately the modifying bug bit hard and the Stanza sat neglected for 2 years. (Well, I at least had a decent cover over it.)

Time rolls on and here we are, I no longer have my 200SX and ive bought a Fairlane with the specific purpose of towing my Stanza around.

So whats in store for the future i hear you all gasping?!?!

Currently i have sitting in a shed.

- SSS Stanza 5 speed gearbox
- 2 x 45 Dellorto Carbs
- 1 x L Series engine twin dellorto manifold
- 1 x dis assembled L18 engine
- 1 x 6 point sparco harness
- 4 x A032R Semi slick tyres

The only neglected point at the moment is the brakes, clearly important for circuits but not so important for hill climbing where you rarely use them. Theyll get an upgrade eventually though.

The plan is a completely new rebuilt forged engine and gearbox, im shooting for 115HP(ish) atw. Which doesnt sound a lot but from a 70s engine in a car weighing under 900kgs its sufficient for some fun Obviously the tyres go on and harness gets mounted. Still debating the neccesity of a roll cage.

So yeh, things are rolling along. Im hoping to have her running by mid year (ish) and get her out to the hill climb by the end of the year. So fingers crossed. Ill take pics along the way but for now a refresher of what the yellow beast looks like

[whiteballz]

I remember this one. I still have "the great escape" short video you and your canadian friend made in it dude..You should youtube it

Hope it all pulls together. Surely a cage would enhance the chassis ten-fold? thus making it a wise decision?

[Blue Supra]

The catch with the cage is if i want to race it el-proper. It needs to be CAMS approved right. A CAMS approved cage has to have the middle bar "x" many centimetres behind the drivers head. But because of how tall i am and how far back my seat is, that bar would be pretty much right next to the rear bar anyway. Make sense? So yeh, not sure how to proceed there.

[clutch-monkey]

is it bolt in or welded?

[fpv_gtho]

Foam fill the chassis rails. Ive got no idea what i'm talking about, it just sounds like a good idea.

[SlickHolden]

The catch with the cage is if i want to race it el-proper. It needs to be CAMS approved right. A CAMS approved cage has to have the middle bar "x" many centimetres behind the drivers head. But because of how tall i am and how far back my seat is, that bar would be pretty much right next to the rear bar anyway. Make sense? So yeh, not sure how to proceed there.

That's because you sit in the back seat hightower.

[clutch-monkey]

Foam fill the chassis rails. Ive got no idea what i'm talking about, it just sounds like a good idea.

lol

That's because you sit in the back seat hightower.

rofl, i'd hate to see him try this with a mini

simon you keeping this road registered?

[SlickHolden]

Hate to see him in a smart car. I'd hate to see me in one too.

[Blue Supra]

Negative on the road rego'd. It would be a bolt in cage prolly.

I fit quite well in a smart car, theyre much roomier then they look

[clutch-monkey]

aw half the fun is having it on the road oh well, probably cheaper this way!
i'll be interested in how much the rollcage costs, and how the design works out

[SlickHolden]

Negative on the road rego'd. It would be a bolt in cage prolly.

I fit quite well in a smart car, theyre much roomier then they look

I must get them wrong, When picking up the berlina there was one there i didn't see a seat Do they have a wheelbase of 200mm or is it just squashed like that from the accident.

[Blue Supra]

Cage is faaaaaaaaaaar away from happening. I just want to turn the key and have it run

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Srsly. Change the wheels. they look not so great

Other than that, the Canary is rockz0r!

[pimento]

Datsun of fury! Very cool, I approve. I was once involved with trying to set up a.. I think it was a 200K.. for bush racing, but it never happened. Shame..

[Falcon500]

I wouldent bother with delortos they work great on holden motors but thats about it seriosuly go the webbers we had no end of difficulty using delortos on our datsuns.