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Guilty Pleasure: Datsun 810

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Guilty Pleasure: Datsun 810

Murilee Martin

2 2,018 views Sep 14, 2011

Datsun 810

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Everybody loves the old Z cars, but what about the Malaise Era Datsun sedan and wagon with an extremely Z-ish engine and chassis?

You still see the occasional 1981-84 "810 Maxima" on the street these days, sporting the confusing "Datsun by Nissan" badging of the era, but I'm talking about the 1977-80 810s here.

I haven't seen an 810, in or out of the junkyard, for at least a decade.

Datsun 810

Enlarge Photo

Sure, a very nice '78 810 wagon took Hooniverse Wagon Wednesday honors last year, but this car may well be one of the only 810 survivors left in the country.

Anyway, wagons like this have managed to achieve a modicum of cool, if only for the same nostalgia-laced reasons that Freakies cereal now seems cool.

I'd like an 810 wagon, sure, but what I really want is an 810 coupe. It's a homely, odd-looking machine, with approximately 0.04% of the build quality of the Nissans that came a decade later, and its 120-horsepower 2.4-liter six didn't get its 2,800 pounds moving very quickly... but it's a weird Japanese sporty car that nobody bought, and I'd be proud to drive one. I wouldn't even wear a paper bag over my head while doing so.

Datsun 810

Enlarge Photo

But damn that grille is hideous! Endearingly so, by my no-doubt-twisted reckoning.

By the time Nissan was building these things, the US-market Z car had the L28 engine and the 810 got the smaller L24 out of the earlier 240Z.

It would be fun to drop the 180-horse L28ET out of a Late Malaise 280ZX Turbo into an 810 hardtop coupe. Someday...

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tsunlover Posted: 9/19/2011 3:52pm PDT

OK, I admit, we had two! I had a maroon 77 and after a while got my wife a white 78. They were just as ugly as any Buicks of that era, and many others. But, you could put adults in the backseat, when not many imports could. But that engine, with its 240Z sounds and vibrations, can't be beat. I still remember those things 30+ years later. I guess they were reasonable successors to the two 510's I had, a 72 and a 73!

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Ed Fernandez Posted: 4/13/2013 11:33pm PDT

Good article! I got a '77 Datsun 810 for sale with 89,400 original miles. You can see it here: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/3705114230.html

We loved it from the start. I've owned a 240Z and 280Z with some serious horsepower. The '77 810 Coupe can definitely keep up with those cars. It amazes me how much power the 810 has.

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