ww's Datsun Maxima Diesel: Readers Rides:

What you see below is a virtually un-blemished 1982 Datsun Maxima Diesel! I’ve been looking for a runner for the last several years that would be a viable drivetrain transplant candidate for one of my 240Z’s! Think “Turbo charged, bio-diesel 240Z sports car!” and you’ll see where I’m going here. 40+mpg on veggie oil with ridiculous amounts of torque! This example was purchased by a 62 yr old woman for her husband who drove it infrequently for about 14 years until he passed away in 1995 when it was parked in the garage where it sat for the next 15 years… This thing was immaculately maintained by the local Nissan dealer and on the original owner’s passing, her son put the car up for sale on Craigslist where an intrepid Rob Fuller, of Z Car Garage in San Jose and my willing accomplice, noticed it and gave me a call. The car was in Novato, too far away for either Rob or myself to get some time off work to inspect it. Fortunately, a friend and another Z car fanatic, lived only a few blocks away from this time capsule and volunteered to go over and take a look at it. His report was as follows: “Holy crap, this thing is immaculate!”. At which point, we gave him the green light to get the car before some of the out of state vultures were able to snap it up and part it out for the diesel stroker crank on yet ANOTHER boring 3.1L stroked Z car… The plan is to add a turbo to the existing car, convert it to veggie oil, and drive it to the Japanese Classic Car Show in Irvine outside of LA this year. Once the turbo/veggie conversion is completed, we’ll swap the driveline into my “spare” 240Z chassis, toss the old diesel motor that’s already in there. This was the end of my original plan as the empty hulk would be sent to the crusher, but this car is in such good shape, I’ve decided to take the motor out of my 1983 280ZX Turbo and swap it back into the Maxima to make it a Turbo sedan that never needs to be smogged since it’s registered as a diesel! The car is missing one center cap and has some wear on the rear bumper where it looks like something was leaning on it for part of it’s 15 years in storage… And that’s it, I mean REALLY, those are the only things wrong with this car!