One-off Datsun Sunny pickup | PH Auction Block
There's no such thing as an uninteresting Honda K swap, but when it makes for a 270hp retro pickup...
The Honda K Series have for a long time been regarded as perfect donor motors. They’re durable, available, and respond well to modifications. Hence there are plenty of Lotus Elises out there, for example, with a Special K swap, Hondas that were never meant to have such power now screaming to 8,000rpm, and all sorts of Ariels. If you want to spice up project car life, a Honda K20 or K24 is what’s required.
But we’ve never seen anything like this before. Because, yes, what you’re looking at was once a Datsun Sunny pickup, a humble workhorse that would have barely mustered 60hp the best part of 50 years ago. But as part of a total (and totally awesome) overhaul a few years ago, it’s now powered by Honda K24. Because why the heck not. Not just any Honda K24, either: it has a skimmed and ported head from a K20, very racy cams, better injectors, a Hondata ECU and a bespoke exhaust from the manifold for something like 270hp. In a tonne of classic pickup.
And that really is just the start of an astonishing build that’s now up for auction. Drag yourself from gawping at the engine bay (easier said than done, because look at it), and the Datsun is a feast of glorious one-off workmanship. Because truck was never made for engine and vice versa, all sorts of custom work was undertaken to make everything get along. A Mazda RX-8 gearbox was adapted (including an inch being machined off!) to drive the rear wheels, Nissan S13 subframes (including diff and axles) were modified to fit, plus there are parts of both Mazda MX-5 and Vauxhall Corsa in the steering setup. That’s on top of basically a full rebuild, thanks to what was a pretty rotten bed originally.
The Datsun is a truly fascinating one-off build, crammed full of incredible details that speak to one man’s obsession with creating something special. You may well have seen it on the internet already; obviously there’s no missing it, but even reading about the spec would linger long in the memory. See the Hakosuka front end from CabronSignal, the side exit exhaust, the cage that actually forms a stressed member of the rear suspension. It’s a crazy idea executed with obsessive attention to detail.
The Sunny took two and half years and thousands of hours to create, a lot of it the work of one self-taught man. It was finished up in the summer of 2021, being used and enjoyed sparingly since then; this is hardly the car for everyday errands, after all. But for making supercars look common and a bit uninteresting to drive, it’s hard to think of very much better. ‘Unique’ is an overused term when it comes to old cars these days - evidenced by whatever terrible take on ‘very unique’ is being employed in adverts this week - but this really is one of one. And spectacular.
Thanks to the approach used to make it and just a few miles since, the Sunny presents basically as a brand new build. In case the engine bay wasn’t proof enough, check out the condition of the forged carbon accents and interior fixtures. There’s now an opportunity to acquire an astonishing (and barely used) Frankenstein build, without the blood, sweat, tears and time that went into making it. Even in the world of barmy Honda K swapped project cars, this is something truly amazing. It deserves as much appreciation and adulation as possible - and most certainly a bid, which can be done from next week.
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