Datsun 120y coupe?

[jamiec]

I have been thinking one of these old Datsuns might have good aero shap well at least the roof line to the back of the car. Have a look at these pics and tell me if you think it should have good attached airflow from the front of the roof to the backend?



Thanks Jamie

[JRMichler]

The back looks good, but I'd check for attached flow over the hood first. If there is a big air swirl in the middle of the hood, it will benefit from some front end work. Such as a short bullet nose.

Is that the same car as the Datsun B210 that used to be sold in the States?

[Sven7]

Yeah it's the B210 here, Sunny in Japan. In fact, my desktop wallpaper is a purple B210 Excellent.

Rear end looks abnormally good for a 70's car but you'll need to redesign the front end if you hope for aerodynamics. This air dam would be a good start:


Vortexes off the sides may be a problem, though. Hard to know for sure though.

There's a guy on here that ecomodded a B210... screenname is blownb310. (In the US, the B310 generation was confusingly named "210". They did this with Bluebirds too...)

[Xist]

[D.O.G.]

I've watched a couple of these on ebay, but I don't need another project that I'll never finish.

The back looks good, the front would need a little bit of work if you're serious about aero.
The great thing about Datsun/Nissan is that there's plenty of options for engine, transmission and rear end swaps. I've seen it referred to as "Giant Lego".

[MetroMPG]

Xist - template looks about as close as a Prius/Insight.

The car sure looks like it has potential.

[freebeard]

IMHO the roofline profile is the only thing it has going for it. There's no taper in plan; and if the body below the beltline was flipped upside down and the roof reattached it would be an improvement, e.g., lower the stagnation point.

[aerohead]

I don't have that car in a true-length image,so It's hard to 'analyze' it,but I do have the 1976 Plymouth Arrow of which the roofline is similar and lacks very little aerodynamically.
*The Arrow returned 37 mpg HWY for Popular Science Magazine's road test.
*The X-Ray image revealed that the hoodline and nose could be lowered significantly and still contain all the original mechanicals.
*Hucho demonstrated that very little leading edge radii would allow for completely attached flow in the front and it would be a snap for the Datsun.
*With a 'cleanup' you ought to easily see low,to mid 40s mpg.
*I'd give it a thumbs up as a project car.

[freebeard]

Rake it. Nose down it will have better compliance to the Template.

How much are you willing to extend the length front or rear? I mean, if you had one. A bullet nose (carved back or added on), belly pan, rear diffuser/boattail, and work on the wheel wells would return dividends.

There's a pretty heavy shadow under the rain gutter on the A-pillar. Here's what the Porsche 911 folk do:

http://www.gerrelt.nl/section-aerody...windnoise.html

They claim 5 km/h more top speed. I don't know what that translates to in Cd, but it will help with wind noise at the very least.

[Xist]

I guess that the previous model was called the 1200 and supposedly had a Cd of 0.42

Tech Wiki - Aerodynamics : Datsun 1200 Club