On April 26 we attended the 27th Annual Datsun Roadster Show in Solvang, CA. Traditionally we drive our Datsuns under their own power for the 300-mile trek down south but this year I wanted to bring my family too. With a little help from Z Car Garage, the roadster was loaded on a trailer behind Joe E’s 342whp Titan. The modified Nissan truck towed the roadster effortlessly while keeping the family comfortable–Thanks guys! Another tradition for us is camping in nearby Buellton, where several fellow roadster owners also set up their tents:

 

Just across the street from our campsite was the Friday night meet & greet at Mendenhall’s Museum of gas station pumps. This venue is quite amazing and a surprising number of roadsters made a showing despite the rain showers.

 

The Saturday morning car show of course is the main attraction. This is the largest gathering of Datsun Roadsters in the US with this year’s unofficial count of 102 cars on display in beautiful downtown Solvang. The show itself is open to the public so tourists, shoppers, adventurers etc. can all enjoy the weather and good times.

 

On to the cars! Here are some highlights from the day…there were only a handful of 1967 2000 roadsters this year. Some of these cars are considered the “cream of the crop” with full restorations or OEM levels of detail like Mike Young’s SRL #266. Ted H fullfilled his dream of owning a restored 1967 2000 and recently acquired #585 from Socal. His purchase included a road trip that looped through Arizona and Solvang before heading home in Seattle… this is one 2000 that will be driven!

 

Speaking of attention to detail, Bob C’s SRL #218 was exactly how we would build my dream 2000. Bob came all the way from Arkansas to show off his restoration, proudly completed by himself! We love the “little” touches like chrome-ringed gauges and rear surround,  authentic ARE LeMans wheels, and EMPi steering wheel. Black on red is a sweet combo:

 

A variety of wheels could be found including the ubiquitous Rota Rb and Panasport designs. Several cars sported Watanabes and WORKs. Jeff T’s 1600 had some bright red z32 calipers nicely framed by VTO LeMans tributes.

 

Solvang showcases everything from highly modified  to pristine stock examples of roadsters.  Alvin R’s 1965 SPL and a similar red interior’d ’66 SPL were great examples of stock roadsters, right down to their stock steel wheels:

Several engine swaps caught my eye this year. Mike A’s ’68 SPL won 1st place in modified 1600s. Mike did an S14 SR20DE swap last year and put over 50k miles of hard driving including drift/grip sessions and long road trips. He even came up from Socal several times for shows and a Fun Run! Pics from last Solvang:

 

Looking for more power but wanting to stay NA he created an SR20VE by using a FWD head from a Nissan Primera. Using Nissan’s version of VTEC, this VVL combination is good for 200hp NA. Here she is now!

 

He even took it up a notch by adding ITBs, a gorgeous S20-style exhaust header and that super exotic 20V valve cover. The sound once VVL hits is sweet!

 

I keep coming back to Marshal S’ GM 3.4L V6 powered roadster. It sports custom headers and Megasquirt EFI. The WORK Equip wheels complement the self-sprayed paint and the interior has nice touches like CF trim. Look for dyno numbers soon as we tune his roadster!

 

This bezerk low-windsheild and super-flared roadster had an insane 370whp turbocharged single cam KA24 drivetrain. The entire car was modified for road racing with a custom front splitter and massive flares housing 17×9.5 wide Rota RB-Rs in back:

 

Best paint would be hard to decide but I really liked Ken P’s BMW Technoviolet, Shannon D’s Estoril Blue, and Kyle’s Audi silver:

 

Our friend Ron Carter won 1st place in the Race Car class with his red ’67 2000 (#305). Ron reports that he continues to compete actively this year with an appearance at the Coronado Speed Festival. Chuck G from Las Vegas scored the ultimate “barn” find:  a historically significant race roadster with extensive spares. He plans to restore it to its former glory:

 

The Solvang show also welcomes Japanese classics that are not roadsters. Lots of cool trucks, Z-cars and 510s joined in on the fun:

 

Roadster Ambassador Scott Fisher showed his ’67 SPL. Scott’s 30k mile road trip started just before Solvang 2013 and captivated audiences with his photo-documentary of the adventure. He also has a great sense of humor:

 

Pete Brock even made an appearance and presented his choice for the Best of Show award! Just hearing him say that “Mr. K would love to see these cars” definitely stirred some emotions for all of us.

 

Big thanks to the SOCAL roadster owners club for hosting the 27th Annual show, we had a blast!
Lots of pictures in the gallery after the jump!

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***ATTENTION DATSUN FANS***
There are TWO exciting Datsun events this weekend!
Saturday, 4/30    
The Solvang Datsun Roadster Show is being held in beautiful downtown Solvang, CA.

Sunday, 5/1
A record number of Datsuns will be racing at Laguna Seca with HSR on Sunday, 5/1

If you are a Datsun fan and love vintage racing come out to Laguna Seca this weekend! On  5/1 the Historic Sportscar Racing group is bringing an exciting event with plenty of historic race cars and several notable Datsun racers! If you can’t make the Solvang Datsun Roadster Show (held on Saturday) this is another way to get your Datsun fix! We will do our best to attend on Sunday afternoon where the Datsuns are running in group 3. We also want to be there to cheer on our favorite Datsun Roadster racer, Ron Carter!

So just how strong will the Datsun showing be? At least TWENTY 510s, Zs, and Roadsters! Come on out to ‘Seca and watch these Datsun vintage racers mix it up with exotics and other wicked metal 🙂

The 24th Annual Solvang Datsun Roadster Classic will be held in beautiful downtown Solvang CA. This year we will once again be showcasing some of the most beautiful and rare Datsun Roadsters around, along with classic JDM’s from the 60’s and 70’s. We plan on having as usual, attendees from around the world, along with Classic Datsun Rides from across the country! Admission is free to the general public. Car Registration and information can be found on our website located at www.solvangshow.com

When: Saturday, April 30 2011
Where: Downtown Park – Solvang CA
Time: 9am-3pm
Car Classes: Datsun Roadster, 510’s, Z’s, JDM’s

The drive from Solvang to our hotel in the LA area was fairly uneventful except for the hour of inexplicable traffic that we sat in for no apparent reason on a Saturday afternoon.  After we checked into the hotel we went out for some dinner at a sports bar so that we could watch the San Jose Sharks game, they won in OT.  Most of us then decided to turn in so that we could be rested for the show on Sunday.

We checked out bright and early and made our way to one of the quaint little towns that speckle the LA area, if you know where to look, to get some breakfast.  With our tanks full we venture on.  When we finally arrive at the venue we are not surprised to see what seems like hundreds of cars in line waiting to get in.  Good thing we ate.  After a good forty-five minutes of inching forward (some of it just coasting down hill with the cars off) we arrived at the front gate.  Every car in sight was a Z.  All years, every possible combination of mods, mild to wild paint jobs, you name it and a Z had it.  This was like a pilgrimage that had reached its destination.

The entire event report and a ton of photos are after the “read more.”  So click and read more.

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This is a two part series because we attended two different shows on the same trip.  I simply have too many pictures for one huge post.  This first installment includes the drive from Z Car Garage in San Jose, CA to Solvang, CA where the annual Roadster show is held.

This year we decided to take our new 370z on it’s first road trip along with the recently completed 1982 Datsun 280zx 2+2 non-turbo restoration car.  Both cars were still receiving their finishing touches right before the trip so we were anxious to get them on the road to see how they would perform.  The ZCG 370z had taken on some massive changes in an effort to enter it in the Modified 370z class at MSA, all of the modifications can be found HERE.  The 280zx restoration is a completely different story.  This is a car that has been taken back to completely stock in almost every area and better than stock in all the others, and it was up to me to get it through the weekend in one piece and maybe even bring home a trophy for the owners.

We left the shop pretty much right on time, strange for us, and got on our way with a group of six cars: the ZCG 370z, the 280zx restoration, two nicely modified 350Zs, and two 240Zs that have been shown love in all the right places.  Three old and three new, good to go.  The weather was perfect on the ride down and all the cars performed flawlessly all the way to Solvang.

A restored 1982 280zx 2+2 non-turbo isn’t what you would expect to take on a road trip of this sort, especially if you know anything about Z Car Garage.  We love turbos, torque, horsepower, high revs, and the smell of an uncorked exhaust on 100 octane.  This car is about none of those things.  First, the car is totally stock. Stock engine, stock suspension, stock brakes, everything.  So it goes without saying that it won’t be setting any sort of records around Nürburgring.  Second: Included in the stock parts list is a 3-speed automatic transmission, great.  This puts the (rev limited) max speed  of this car somewhere in the range of 105-110 mph, not that I could really tell at that point because the speedo is limited to 80.  How in the world am I going to keep up with all of these other modified cars.

In reality I had nothing to fear.  Everyone in our caravan was quite responsible on the way down and it allowed me to relax a little and enjoy breaking in the 280zx.  This car is a roadtripper’s dream!  It drives so comfortably that you have no trouble seeing why these cars were so popular when they came out, they truly were one of the nicest cars on the road.  On to Solvang.

The Solvang show is one of the largest gatherings of Datsun Roadsters in the country and you can always expect a few crazy innovations every year.  2009 was the year of the turbo’d Roadster.  There were turbos bolted onto everything from the stock U series engine all the way to the newest SR20DET engines out of S15 Silvias that were never even brought to the case.

Many of you know that Z Car Garage had a hand in restoring and modifying one of our good friend’s Roadsters and placing a modern SR20 engine in it some years ago.  I am happy to report that he once again brought home a 1st place trophy in the “Modified 1600” class.  Congrats Alvin!!!

The best of show honors went to the Michael Spreadbury built SR20DET monster of a car.  As always he and the Spriso crew have brought new technology and innovative engineering solutions to the Roadster world.  Nice job gentlemen.

Back to the trip…
After walking around the show for awhile and talking to some of you loyal readers we headed into town to grab some local grub.  Eye spy with my little eye a Nissan R32 GT-R, the real deal.  I walk up to the car and instantly recognize it as a car that I have seen at a few events in years past at Laguna Seca.  We take pictures and move on with a smile after seeing a beautiful GT-R.  Next on our rare car sightings list is a late fifties Ford Fairlane with the RARE “Skyliner” retractable hardtop option.  The owner was even nice enough to put it trough its paces for us.  Very cool, and the engineering alone is worth the price of admission.

We then gather our group of now four cars, the 240Zs were going to stay awhile longer, and we get on the road towards LA and our hotel for the night.   MSA 2009 is waiting for us on the other side of dawn….

Part 2 is coming soon….  click on the ‘read more’ below to see all of the pictures.

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