What a weekend! On Saturday we enjoyed a day in Solvang, Ca for the 25th Annual Datsun Roadster Show. If you have never been to this small town just outside of Santa Barbara it is really worth visiting. There is something for everyone here: shopping, food, wine-tasting, outdoor activities, and the last weekend of every April a huge gathering of Datsuns 🙂 We drove our roadster from San Jose to the show and arrived just in time to park with everyone else. Half of the street was already filled with cars!
This year’s show brought Datsun owners from all over the country and even the Netherlands! There were 87 cars including roadsters, 510s, Zs and others from showroom-stock examples to wildly modified beasts. Here are a few show highlights from a roadster-owner’s point of view; it’s not hard to see that we love our cars and there is a dedicated following to keep them on the road!
Eric S. from Oregon won Best of Show with his SR20DET-powered Datsun 2000. From the clean aesthetic choices to the striking red interior this is a phenomenal roadster that everyone admired:
Engine swaps from modern vehicles are common into roadsters. Although Nissan drivetrains are popular leave it to Datsun roadster owners to buck the trend. Here is a beautiful freshly painted roadster with a complete Chevy V6 . This car was entered in the highly competitive “Diamond in the Rough” category alongside a fully restored rolling frame!
This yellow and black “Scoville” striped roadster belongs to Mitch J. and it sports a crate engine SR20 and a complete low-windsheild dash swap!
People. It’s what makes the Roadster Show so much fun. Datsun folks in general are cool people. We help each other out. Ron E. drove this 1970 SRL to kick-off the donation/raffle effort to help our friend Victor Laury …you can still donate and have a chance to win this roadster by looking HERE
The JDM category for non-roadsters was very eclectic with cars like this amazing turbo-diesel powered Datsun truck and 710 coupe:
Race cars including the Frank Monise BRE roadster and our favorite Datsun racer Ron Carter were on display:
Some of my favorite roadsters at the show included local owner Mike B. with his silver ‘67.5 1600 and David P. with his turquoise ‘67.5 2000. Both went home with awards!
The car show display and voting ended at 3pm and everyone started lining up the cars for a group photo. The scene was a mix of engines revving, exhaust fumes, shouting and clearing tourists out of the way of cars reversing, but it all came together. Yes, even the rolling chassis made it’s way into the photo!
The show was capped off with a BBQ dinner/raffle and an awards ceremony held at a pleasant park just outside of downtown Solvang. The raffle was filled with great prizes including a new set of VTO LeMans wheels. Although we didn’t win the raffle our little Datsun Roadster won Best In Class for “1600 Modified”…we think it’s the new ZCG hardtop and fancy 1500 grille 🙂
Big thanks to show organizers Jeff and Gabby for making this a memorable 25th anniverasary show! Stay tuned for more roadster love as we feature two cars from Oregon that recently visited ZCarGarage…
Don’t forget to check the gallery (at the bottom) for LOTS of pictures(thanks to Scott G for contributing!)
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