Autocrossing a Datsun Pickup?

A friend of mine wants to start autocrossing, but he drives a Datsun minitruck. It's late 70s-early 80s, and completely stock.

Will it flip over and kill people?

(sort of related) Will SCCA let it run?

I started auto-xing in a '94 Toyota 2wd pickup. Go for it!

Either pull a leaf or have the leaves de-arched out back and crank the torsions down up front. 710's handle pretty well for a truck, even at stock height.

Just like in the other Nissan truck thread, I'm going to say head over to InfamousNissan.com and read through the suspension section. You have to sort through airbag setups, but there are plenty of people over there that try to make them handle, and several that autocross.

Just don't cut the back of the bed off and run into a Ford Taurus :p.

Yes, it will kill him.

He should give it to me so I can dispose of it correctly.

There's a guy on nicoclub that does it

Just swap out the drivetrain and suspension from a Miata and you should be good

CGLockRacer wrote: I started auto-xing in a '94 Toyota 2wd pickup. Go for it!

there was a guy up at RIT with one of these. It was quick.

I never thought about putting a Miata under mine, I always wanted to put a FWD drivetrain in the bed tho!

saw a converted to electric small pick-up truck autocross once, torque, torque, torque

A few years back a guy showed up a Philly SCCA event in an old S10 with some kind of V8 swap shoehorned in there (IIRC), full suspension, etc. It was fast, but he couldn't keep that thing straight for the life of him, lol...

Dude in the Atlanta Region (Randy I think) started running his Dodge Dakota R/T (tow vehicle) this year after he sold his El Camino...

Guy in SCR used to AX a lowered King Cab 710 pickup with a fair amount of success. He lowered his by cranking the front torsion bars down and adding lowering blocks in the back.

Don't change anything until he's raced a few times, he may not like Auto-X.

Dan

Back in the 1980s we had a guy run our local series in the same truck Tommy refers to. Big tires is all I remember about it. No threat of flipping as the center of gravity on those old mini trucks isn't that high. I owned one though, and they are acceleration dogs.

Dan, I wasn't going to even tell him to change anything until he tries it a few times.

BTW, the kid has a couple of cool cars. I met him because he wears GRM shirts a few times a week.

I think that I am the kid Tom is referring to

Thanks for all the help everyone, I am not sure about the racing pedigree of a 620, but I am looking forward to trying out some Autocross.

Huh, it's funny how talking about somebody will get them to stop being a lurker!

Welcome to the insanity Shooter.

I've run my Dakota several times. They handle way better lowered with X-brace, or some kind of stiffening.

Unless he has super-sticky tires or hits some kind of ledge, I see that sliding and not rolling.

I'd say go for it.