Who am I?
My name is Philip Erickson and I am 54 years old, other than that I don't have
any idea who I am.
My love of Datsun roadsters started in the late 60s.
My first car was a 56 Alfa Sprint that I bought as a basket case 1965.
After I assembled it, one of my neighbors brought his 2000 over and asked if I
knew anything about SOLEXES as he had just had them installed on his 68 and it
ran like ..... His name was Loni Spun and he was doing pretty good at the
local autoXs. The solexes, cam and oil pan were a present from Balboa Datsun
for winning his AutoX class. I tuned his solexes and did most of the
mechanical work as Loni was a great driver ( a base musician), but was just
learning about mechanics. First we added 5.12 LSD and a rear sway bar I
fabricated from a Volvo front bar. After a few more wins, the engine was
ported and polished, with a cam good to 8000 and 6lb flywheel. In that
configuration, the car was good for TTOD if the course was not too tight. We
also ran it at the local Drags (Carlsbad). It regularly turned in the high
12s. Very fast and a fun street car. The car was repo-ed, Loni graduated and
moved to Long Beach. Eventually going on to SCCA racing in several 2000s. He
never did very good, but I loved the cars.
I moved on, building an EP 914 and several FVs which were driven by my friend
Ira in the local region of SCCA.
30 years later...I bought my first roadster. Now I have two. My first, a 69
SRL, now has solexes, comp. pan, sway bar and springs, mid-close box, and 3.9
LSD, early dash with auto meter gauges, no side or vent windows,spoiler, seats
from I don't know what, and the 15" wheels from my second roadster. My other
roadster is a 67.5 SPL with an FJ20. I polished my Libras and installed them
on the FJ car to make her look stock from the outside. I have just install an
SDS to control the EFI and Spark (crank-fire) and hope to have her tuned soon.
I also want to change the fuel pump to an in-tank style. Like many of you,
too many project and not enough time, but also, fishing gets in the way. Hope
to see some of you at Turfside, if the weather is bad, otherwise I am going
fishing.
Phil
Philip Erickson
/// datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net mailing list
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|