In July of 1976, as the Bicentennial was being celebrated around the country, I was a kid in junior high in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. I don't think I was reading car magazines at that point, and I definitely don't remember reading in Car and Driver or Road & Track about the new front-wheel drive Datsun, the F10. In fact, the first time I realized there was an F10 was when I saw the late "Queen Henry Charles" in the used car lot at Joe Gibson Ford in Greenville, Texas, in 1980.
Sitting in the Texas sun evidently caused a major outgassing of volatile organic compounds from the interior plastics, so I have an indelible memory of opening the door and sitting down in that red 1977 hatchback for the first time. The smell of the warm plastic is as clear in my mind as if it happened yesterday. Compared to the comparatively more primitive (and considerably oldleer and more worn) 1972 Toyota Corolla S5 I'd had previously, the F10 seemed nearly new and from a different era.
It's illuminating to read these contemporary reviews that point out that the F10 has "280Z handling for a B-210 price", or note that it's braking performance was on par with the all-new Porsche 924 tested in the same issues. Everybody was slow back then, and the F10 was, relatively speaking, not a terrible performer for the day.
And of course I had to laugh at the complaints about the shifter; Queen Henry Charles was definitely a "bag of gears" that you had to shift by precise lever placement and prayers to the appropriate deities. Tanya tried driving it once and gave up after a couple of miles in disgust. I thought I just had an extra-sloppy linkage, but evidently they all were like that to at least some extent. (Arnelle doesn't seem as bad as I remember Henry being, though.)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
F10 vs. F-10
Since the time the car arrived in the U.S., it seems like some people refer to the F10 as the "F-10". How did it get the hyphen when the badges on the car, the owner's manual and the service manual all have the name without a hyphen?
Well, the original sales brochure and print campaign for the car have it with the hyphen. That's undoubtedly the root of the confusion. Check it out:
Was it confusion caused by the brochure and ads being produced in the U.S. and the rest in Japan? Did Nissan change the name at the last minute, after the brochure had been printed and ads already placed in magazines? (Doubtful, given the lead times necessary to design and make trim parts for the cars.) Since this kind of thing is catnip for me, I'm going to keep looking for a definitive answer.
One possible explanation for how F-10 came about: The car the rest of the world got was the related but slightly smaller Cherry 120A F-II and 100A F-II. The F-II meant second generation, as the F10 followed the E10. It's not too big a stretch to imagine someone conflating F-II, F10 and, maybe, fighter plane nomenclature as well to come up with the hyphenated F-10.
Tires and wheels
According to my handy 1976 service manual, U.S.-bound F10s wore 155-80-13 tires on 4-1/2J wheels with a 40 mm offset. Hatchbacks came standard with 165-70-13s, but if I read the manual right you could evidently de-option to use the 155s. Why anybody would do that is a mystery to me. Of course, Arnelle arrived on 155s that were rock hard after sitting for some number of years of Arizona sun and squealed unmercifully around anything but the slowest corners.
Now, these two stock sizes are significantly different in diameter. According to the Miata.net tire calculator, the 165 is about 0.7 inches smaller, which yields a nearly 3% speedometer error. Presumably, Nissan figured they were okay as long as you weren't going any faster than the speedo says, so I'm guessing the calibration is for 155-80-13 tires. (Could they have had two different speedo gears? Yes, but I seriously doubt it. And if they'd calibrated for 165s the speed would read lower than actual with 155s, which is not the direction you want errors to go.)
The bolt pattern is the now uncommon 4 x 114.3 mm, or 4 x 4-1/2 inches. At one point, I onsidered a hub conversion to give myself more options, but decided instead to see what I could find. Minilites? Something interesting from the 70s?
While browsing eBay a few weeks ago, I found what I was looking for: A set of 15 x 6-1/2J wheels with dual 4 x 100 and 4 x 114.3 bolt patterns. These wheels, in fact:
They have a resolutely un-metric 38 mm offset, but that's close enough to 40 as to not matter. A set of four from Discount Tire Direct was under $300 with free shipping, so I jumped on them.
A quick test fit of a bare wheel on the rear worked fine, so I went over to the local America's Tire and bought a Kumho Ecsta AST in a 205-50-15 size. That's about a half inch larger in diameter, but it looks like there's room. I only bought the one though, to lessen my humiliation if I have to turn around and sell all this stuff because it won't fit ... nothing to do but get out the floor jack and see.
1/7/9 UPDATE: They fit on all four corners, completely filling the wheel wells, but with no interference with anything, at least on the Sportwagon. Pictures to follow when I get a chance, but if I had to do it over again I might look for 15x6 wheels instead. The speedo has no noticeable amount of error, but I think the extra unsprung weight is finishing off the 30-year-old CV joints ... I can hear them clicking on high-G turns. Maybe it was just their time.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
What a beauty
Take a look at this gorgeous 1976 Sportwagon, which sold on eBay for $3,250 about a week ago. It is practically the definition of mint and original, and best of all the seller has a website with a ton of pictures:
http://www.curtscashcorner.com/1976_datsun_f10.htm
For me, the picture of the engine bay not butchered by a dealer-installed A/C is the big prize, as are the shots of original-looking interior bits. Whoever bought this car, I hope you take care of it.
Pictures
Here are some pictures of "Arnelle", taken by the previous owner, Nissan Design's Bryan Thompson, before she had her driver's side crunched:
Bryan certainly knows how to make someone want to buy a car, doesn't he? It worked, although Arnelle is not as pristine up close as these pictures make her look.
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