Datsun 510 Sedan
The Datsun PL-510 (from 1968 to 1973) has often been called the poor-man's BMW, and many people believe that the 510's design was inspired by old 70's BMWs (particularly the BMW 2002) with their round lights and box-shaped bodies. However, this idea is unfounded - the Datsun 510 was released a year before the BMW 2002.The Datsun 510 released to the US market came originally with the carbureted 1.6L L-Series motor, 96 horse power, front disc brakes, 4-wheel independent suspension, rear wheel drive, and either a 4-speed manual or a 3-speed automatic transmission, and both the 4-door, 2-door, and wagon models. It gets about 20mpg.
One triumph of the early Nissan/Datsun cars is that many of the parts are interchangable - engines, transmissions, suspension setups, etc., were all similar enough to swap with minor modifications. This allowed the Datsun 510 to be easily upgraded from the 1.6L engine to the 2.0L L20b motor, and to go from the 4-speed manual transmission to the more versitile 5-speed transmissions made available for the later Datsun Z-cars.
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