1978 Datsun 260Z Restomod 630bhp

Highlights

• PistonHeads Annual Service "Best Modified Car" award winner

• Built 3.4-litre RB Stroker kit by Australian tuning specialists Spool, rated at 630bhp

• Professional respray in Ferrari Rosso Corsa Red

• Highly original interior in great condition

• Incredibly detailed history file with extensive restoration records

Overview

There are a number of ways to make what was once a fairly humble classic sports car into a rip-roaring, tyre-shredding hooligan. You can go the “I’m a secret billionaire” route and hand it over to one of those fancy restomod places you see on YouTube. They’ll probably whack a Tesla drive train into it, 3D print you a fancy interior that’s trimmed in leather made from Hebridean goats or baby octopuses or something and relieve you of a couple of hundred grand.

You could go the “historic racing maniac” route and keep everything as ‘period’ as possible, using high-lift cams, clever porting and the distilled talents of a thousand old, beardy men to squeeze an extra 50bhp out of it.

Or you could do what we would probably do and OEM+ restomod the sucker. If we could insert GIFs, there’d be a nodding Mandalorian in here. This usually involves keeping the overall shape and “soul” of the car intact, but raiding the marque’s history for a worthy engine or drivetrain donor to instantly give you a giant hike in tyre-slaying ability. We like this method a lot.

Of course some marques lend themselves to this more obviously than others. When the car in question is a beautiful 70s Datsun 260Z (one of our dream cars, as it happens), you have but one choice: rip the heart from a fallen Skyline and whack it in there. It’s possible there’s more involved than this, but in our heads this is a simple and uncomplicated process. Still, always better if someone else has done all the hard yards, right?

How fortunate that we just happen to have an absolutely stunning example of just such a machine right here, ready for you to bask in its glory. Having been owned for decades by members of the ZClub UK, the car has been restored a couple of times before being rebuilt into the form you see here in 2016. Furnished with a 3.4-litre stroker engine assembled and shipped from Australia to the UK, apparently pumping out a frankly vicious 630bhp in a car that weighs about as much as a large sofa, you’ll certainly notice the difference over the (ahem) slightly lower powered original powerplant.

No expense has been spared here, with all manner of parts from scene legends such as Greddy, Wilwood, ACT, ITG, SPOOL, CP, ARP, BC Racing and Techno Toy to name but a few. This wonderful mechanical lunacy is paired with a mostly stock and original interior, which has worn really nicely, and a full respray in Ferrari Rosso Corsa. Which should get the purists nicely worked up. Never a bad thing.

Complete with a near encyclopaedic history and record file, this is the perfect car for anyone who wants to embarrass brand new supercars in an old Datsun. We can’t help feeling that would never, ever get old…

History and documentation

• Registered 7 November 1978

• Present owner since May 2022, 6 previous owners

• Current mileage 34,272 miles on the clock, verified from 2006 to present on via MOT record

• Restored in the early 2000s by marque specialist Fourways Engineering

• Restored again in 2011 by Motor Worx

• Built into its current specification over a number of years - completed in 2017

• Has been dry stored for most its life since its last respray and kept in heated storage since 2022; rarely driven and only on dry days

• MOT record since restoration to 2023 is exceptionally clean

• Tax exempt

• The vendor tells us that the car has been serviced yearly

• We're told that the car has just received a full service, including fresh spark plugs and has been raised slightly to focus on function over form

• Extensive record of servicing, maintenance and restoration across 5 folders of documents and images totalling around 200 pages

• Winner of the PH Annual Service "Best Modified Car" award 2025

• Collection of old tax discs and old MOT certificates

• Two keys

• V5 present in owner’s name

• HPI clear

• Mileage at time of photography was 34,272 which has increased slightly following a 200 mile round trip to Donington Park for the Historic Racing Show

Interior

• Black vinyl upholstery to the seats with fabric centre sections

• The seats look to be in good order, with some wear and light damage to the driver’s seat, but overall they hold up very well

• Black vinyl door cards and trim, all of which appears to be original and looks very good for its near 50 years

• New black, period style carpets were fitted a couple of years ago (per the seller) and still show well

• Black vinyl headlining appears to be original and it’s showing a little sagging, but nothing significant

• Rear strut brace

• Original switchgear and trim shows well, with a gentle, natural level of patination and some small splits/cracks showing on the dashboard

• The radio does not work, otherwise everything in the cabin apparently works as it should

• The boot is trimmed in black carpet, which appears to be free from stains or threading

Exterior

• Originally grey, the colour was changed to Ferrari Rosso Corsa Red in September 2011 by Motor Worx

• Glass out respray in 2017 by Gavin at The Paint Shop

• The paintwork looks to be in excellent condition, with a smooth, even finish and excellent depth of shine

• We didn’t discern any notable blemishes, marks or issues other than a couple of minor stone chips and some chipping on the edge of the near-side air louvre panel

• The bodywork looks to be very clean and straight, with no obvious dents, damage or corrosion on show; panel gaps are neat and as even as you’d expect on a car of this vintage

• Carbon bonnet, which is in very good order, with just a couple of small cracks in the lacquer

• Carbon wheel arch flares

• Carbon ‘duck tail’ rear spoiler

• All of the badging and exterior trim looks well, with some light patination hinting at the car’s history

• The glass elements and light lenses appear to be clean and clear, with no misting, cracking or delamination we could identify

• Underneath the car is in very good condition, with no obvious signs of corrosion we could see

• The exhaust has obviously grounded out at some point, causing a slight ‘flat spot’, but it doesn’t appear to have cracked or caused any further damage

• Gorgeous 15-inch Watanabe Racing 8-spoke Type R aluminium wheels, finished with charcoal grey centres and polished lips/barrels – all are in excellent condition, with no kerb damage or lacquer peel evident

• A matched set of Nankang CRS 245/40 semi-slicks were fitted in March 2024 and still look to be in very good order, as the car has been used minimally

• The vendor tells us that the car previously rode on a set of 17-inch alloy wheels with slightly more ground clearance, we are told this can be arranged for the buyer if so desired

Mechanical

• The engine is by Australian tuning specialists Spool and is their 3.4-litre Stroker kit which is an RB25DET head on an RB30 block

• Fully built engine with CP forged pistons, SPOOL 94mm billet stroker crank, SPOOL RB34 I-beam con-rods, ACL Race Series main and big end bearings and ARP main studs

• Walton turbo manifold
• Link G4+ ECU

• Mapped to 630bhp after road tests (perhaps unsurprisingly) deemed this to be “enough”

• Rear-wheel drive

• Five-speed manual transmission

• Electric PAS with variable weight selector

• Willwood disc and caliper upgrade

• ACT Xtreme Race Sprung 6-pad clutch (November 2022)

• ITG cone filter

• Front strut brace with polished finish

• Braided fuel lines in the engine bay and under the car

• Silicon coolant hose / breather kit

• Greddy intake manifold

• Custom aluminium radiator and intercooler

• Turbo heat shield from Funk Motorsport

• Suspension refreshed in 2017 with BC Racing and Techno Toy Tuning parts

• New RB25DET transmission installed in 2017 (less than 10,000 miles ago)

• New battery installed in 2024

• We’re assured that the car will come freshly serviced with all new fluids

• The vendor tells us that the car is very tractable, with heaps of low-down torque and a thunderous six-cylinder howl at higher rpm.

• Currently set up in “show spec”, we’re told the car’s suspension would need to be raised for regular driving on UK roads

Summary

If you have even an ounce of petrol in your veins, then you probably yearn for something like this in your garage. It’s an unbelievably desirable car, finished to a very high quality using some of the finest tuner parts on the market. The spec has been extremely well considered, and the result is a car that looks, sounds and drives like a proper brute.

If power is what you crave, there’s certainly no lack of it here – there’s a damn good chance that fully planting your right foot on a dry bit of tarmac would turn the world backwards. Even parked up, it looks low, mean and fantastically well stanced.

Forget your gaudily-wrapped Lambos and Fezzas, or your bubble-stored, special edition Porkers – this is what real automotive enthusiasm looks like. What a machine.

To arrange a viewing, click the 'Book Viewing' button located under the 'Place Bid' button. Viewings can be booked up until the day before the auction ends, after which the option will change to 'Contact Seller' for further enquiries. This seller is located in Carterton, Oxfordshire