1973 Datsun 240Z - Jay Leno's Garage

properly, it will kill you, that seems fair. I think so, yeah, so it's a good parallel for a track car. If you don't prepare a bad chef, you should die, yes, because he cares about not eating it. oh sorry oh sorry excuse me oh excuse me yes I did have a burger like that okay very cool this F how do you say fuzi the fuzi the fuzzi fuzi that's good it had a little T there and you remove the spare tire, obviously, yeah, for the weight of course I still kept the lockable gas cap, very good original tank, actually original tank, but it's reconditioned, yes, reconditioned, we strengthened it so it doesn't leak now something I'm curious about tell me about the wheels four lugs because I know with the 1150 hp and 6 mhm they were fine, are you a little worried that you don't need a fifth one, but the Rays, uh, these te37? uh te37 vs what does vintage mean um you know they provide these four lug wheels um so we got lucky and you know Ray you know they reached out and said they would love to be a part of this it's hard to find a four sure isig Tire like that yeah let's open it up the hood and let's take a look at the engine absolutely ooh ah boy, that's a nice install isn't it?

Looks stocked and look how much room there is, you know there was a guy in the 7 I think he called them beetles, he put 327 Chevys in these, a little front engine heavy, but they were interesting, very nice, what kind of horsepower does that make you? to think we just died yesterday and we're putting 240 245 on the wheels, oh that's cool. and thanks for being honest, you know, some people tell me that putting in around 800 no, you're not gaining 800, you know, 24250 is a huge amount of horsepower for a light vehicle. I think you are exaggerating. I think it was 233.

I don't think it was 24, yeah he lied a little and I love the headers, did someone make them special for you or those, yeah they did, they're not off the market, C boy, they're very well made , very good? Really nice high tech, so what have we done to the engine itself? We made pistons, cams, something or enough stock. We actually did everything right because we had to remove the turbos and, uh, we know we added individual throttle bodies that we had. you know, custom headers, um race Cam and then we just do the other pistons um it was quite a challenge to squeeze all of this out of this engine without the turbos because this engine was originally designed with turbos, but it's nice that you can work on it. there's all kinds of space, you know, that's the most important thing with modern cars, you open the hood and you can't see anything, you know, like, you can see, you see the ground here, you see exactly what's happening and then, yeah it's something is leaking, you'll find out, this panel pops up to take out the battery, sure, yeah, very cool, we tried to keep that light there, there was yeah, yeah, this one the 240 had this little work light as a GL light, but like that is. it kept falling off so we didn't do it the holes are still there we might try to put them back up someday ok yeah I've always liked the Japanese advertising app from the late 60's early 70's when they were trying to attract to the American market and appeared as Japanese girls in Beetle boots with guitars and boys.

I mean, it had a little bit of everything, all kinds of images of what they thought American kids would like and they were right, it really was them. you're really funny it was a fun time very cool and how many transmission speeds five five speed yeah what transmission is rb25 okay yeah because the rb26 was all wheel drive so to be real when we got it from rb25, i mean, even. the fasteners Jay, if you look at the fasteners from the engine, yeah, I mean, the reason I call this, you know, the social media car is you know there are so many 240 enthusiasts around the world that, ya You know, would you send me that? know emails and message me and we'd love to contribute like the fastener kit yeah from somewhere you know from the Bay Area and this 240 enthusiast well that's cool about the old car hobby you know everyone just They want to help people. yeah, and it's fun because you like it, we'll do a Ferrari or Lamborghini, all those kinds of cars, you'll get half a million views, didn't a B210 sedan come up? 2 million, you know, because that's what most people have, that's what they relate to, you know, and it's great, I mean, people love this stuff and it's easy to work on it and you have your oh I see it's very well done there yeah we have custom caster uh cber plates for um. shock absorbers I want to show you my favorite part of the car, yeah, this, you know, they have these little um type compartments that would put well, oh right, you know where the tool kit would be, so we had everyone that. contri Ed to the sign on the car so you know I think this car really represents this community, you know, this town that came together to build the car, it takes a town to build a car, yeah, I don't remember who said that, but that is what it was yeah yeah somehow A kid got in there somehow but original was it takes a village to build a car yeah and a Dyno and a bunch of other things but very well done can we take it for a ride?

It's absolutely brilliant, let's do it better. than a radio, yes, there is no substitute for light weight, how do you put F qus right now? What's that? So you're putting F. I say you put it in fifteen and the Qui. What kind of power did the twin turbo produce in this? I think it was like 330 it's so hard to get used to those Fender mirrors uh it's so hard to get used to those Fender mirrors I know yeah and you can't adjust them yeah I gotta get out do it come back in get out you know it's Well.

Full size car, plenty of leg room, yes. It may be a pair of pants you don't fit into. Sounds very good, yes. People fell in love with this car. People fell in love with this car. You know it well, you know it because it is achievable, yes. You know, it's not like a million dollar Lamborghini or something that nobody could own, yeah, I mean, that's the fun thing about these kinds of projects, people look at the gardens and say, "oh, and they can copy some of the things you made and put them in their car I know it's loud but I don't find it that loud you know it's not like it's exploding and banging you know it's all like a soundtrack you hear every grain no, what a cool car this is, it's time to reflect for a minute This is an Asian reflection, but you know I love this mix of Asian cars with American hot rods You have guys from Dubai contributing.

You know, this is something great about social media, something that gets people excited. from all over the world, you know, I mean, it's really cool, I mean, there's little bits of everything, there must be half a dozen countries involved in this absolutely and it's really cool, I think it's really exciting, you know. , as I said before. There's nothing like having fun with something you built yourself because then, oh, it needs this, it needs that, we probably need a little more boost on that brake, yeah, it takes some real pedal pressure to stop this, which is fine for the street, but I think you're running, man, you're going to be on it, you know, so it's probably a little thing I would do, but I mean, the engine sounds unbreakable, it just sounds like a clock, it just moves forward. up and down, without popping, without hitting and not. sucking air through the intake and making popping noises or something, I mean, it's really nice and I don't find the noise intrusive.

I wouldn't have a date with this car and what did your wife think of this? she's not traveling in this car smells it's too loud smells it's too loud my hair oh there's no vanity mirror no no there's no vanity mirror there you go okay now you're in trouble okay I'm going to go I'm going to stop her right there because I know that He's going to want to go home or something, but you know, I didn't even put this thing in fifth gear, he loves to accelerate so much, uh, everything on the three-way highway, in third and fourth, let's take it.

Upstairs, we'll take it, see how it sails. People like it when I say we'll take it, do our little thing with the RAM, check the gears and then come back, come on, that was it. Well, yeah, let's see that 60 M per hour in fifth gear is about 2700, not bad, well, it was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it, you know, like I said before, it's a lot of fun to drive something that someone built themselves and you see it. the little things you need a little more brake a little more brake you need a big leg to hit that brake I don't think you can lock these wheels with a different master cylinder good job it's really a lot of fun and the fact that it's a global effort which is really cool, yeah, so you and what's your next project, think about building a 1974 Ford Maverick. 1974 Ford M.

I don't know what to tell you, it's a great car. I'd go with this one, it's a yes, yes, the Maverick is an interesting car, it's an interesting car, I'm sure you have a good reason, it's like that chicken and that squat thing, but hey, thanks a lot for doing this , it was really good, it was a lot of fun, it was fun to meet each other. your team and it's cool when a bunch of car guys get together and build something like this it's a lot of fun to drive and you're going to take it to the track uh yeah we'll see how it goes thanks again thanks Jay.