Terrible News If True

[whitels1ss]

Give China 5 years and they will be building cars that will be superior to our local cars.

I doubt it buddy

[the big fist]

I don't think it would be too hard. As we have seen more people make decisions with their wallets than their heads. With more money comes more development and hence a better product.
However Tuna is right in some regards. The Japs were and are quite inovative, I haven't seen that with the Chinese. They are good at copying and producing cheeply. The problem is finding the balance between price, quality, reliability AND consistency.

[Woodchukka]

Not quite......not really
The Japanese took existing designs such as the putrid old A-Series Morry engine, fixed all the pommy crap problems in it, made it 500% more reliable and efficient before releasing it in 'classics' such as the Datto 1200 and 120Y. Even the Datto 1600, 180B had enough innovation in it back in the 1970s that Holden 'used' the same rear end design on their 'all new' IRS system in 1993 or so nearly quarter of a century later and carried it through until VE.

My first car was a 200B. Not particularly innovative, no IRS however one thing I still can't believe was how strong that engine was. Valve bounced it more than once and the timing chain puts any other factory one I have seen to shame. I still love that car.

[whitels1ss]

My first car was a 200B. Not particularly innovative, no IRS however one thing I still can't believe was how strong that engine was. Valve bounced it more than once and the timing chain puts any other factory one I have seen to shame. I still love that car.

Datsun 200B's certainly did have IRS, I am 100% certain with sedan, but only about 98% certain with the station wagons.
Even the old Datsun 1600 had IRS and so did the 180B.

[Rick76]

My first car was a 200B. Not particularly innovative, no IRS however one thing I still can't believe was how strong that engine was. Valve bounced it more than once and the timing chain puts any other factory one I have seen to shame. I still love that car.

My first car was a 200B also. I still can't believe what a rust bucket POS it was. It shat itself on the drive home after I bought it. I still hate that car!

Datsun 200B's certainly did have IRS, I am 100% certain with sedan, but only about 98% certain with the station wagons.
Even the old Datsun 1600 had IRS and so did the 180B.

Mine was a sedan and 100% certain it did NOT have IRS. I blew up the diff in mine so I spent enough hours under the car looking at it.

Japanese cars may be better in the beginning but after a few years they are no better than anything else. Most of them are poorly maintained because people who buy them think they don't need to look after them due them being 'better quality'. "Oh it's unbreakable, don't need to service this baby."

[whitels1ss]

Edit.... just corrected this post with my next one

[Rick76]

The Japanese ones had IRS. Mine was the Australian built one which didnt have it.

[whitels1ss]

Just looked up some more and found out that that other link was not 100% correct
According to WIKKIPEDIA the later 200B's which were built in Australia did not have independant like all the 1600's
had and the early 200B's had, they changed some over to a leaf spring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datsun_200B

I was wrong as far as ALL 200B's go I never knew they produced a few in Australia with leaf springs

[whitels1ss]

The Japanese ones had IRS. Mine was the Australian built one which didnt have it.

Yes I stand corrected
The point was from Martin.D that the Japs had had IRS since the Datsun 1600, as I posted above I did not realise they made a few later ones in Australia without it

[whitels1ss]

Japanese cars may be better in the beginning but after a few years they are no better than anything else. Most of them are poorly maintained because people who buy them think they don't need to look after them due them being 'better quality'. "Oh it's unbreakable, don't need to service this baby."

Yeah there are some very poorly maintained ones out there.

[VH-COM]

The Japanese ones had IRS. Mine was the Australian built one which didnt have it.

Used to work at a wrecking yard when those were popular cars, and to our surprise we used to pull out Holden diff centres from some Datsuns and Toyota Crown I think it was.
The diff centres were exactly the same as Holden Eh , HD etc. but were 3.90 ratio.
They were actually built by Holden (I recall the Holden stamp and part number on them)

[whitels1ss]

Used to work at a wrecking yard when those were popular cars, and to our surprise we used to pull out Holden diff centres from some Datsuns and Toyota Crown I think it was.
The diff centres were exactly the same as Holden Eh , HD etc. but were 3.90 ratio.
They were actually built by Holden (I recall the Holden stamp and part number on them)

Gee I reckon the 3.90 ratio diffs would have been a red hot seller then

[Rick76]

Going O/T but I think....
1977-1979 200B Jap Sedan IRS
1979-1981 200B Aus Sedan Live Axle with Trailing Arms/Coils
Wagon Live Axle with Leaf Springs

Not sure about Bluebird but I though most of the Pintara and Skylines made in Australia didn't have IRS either. Datsun/Nissan must have decided IRS and painted bumpers weren't for us. But those models are generally conveniently ignored by Holden/Ford bashers because they were no better than Commodores/Falcons (apart from the Skyline engines). All we get is stories about 1600's with IRS > skip straight to killer R32 GT-R.

[VH-COM]

Gee I reckon the 3.90 ratio diffs would have been a red hot seller then

They were for those that knew about them .....no LS1 forums to get info then
Wreckers had their own stock car ....first one went in that - an EH.
Something about the EH chassis dynamics they were so damn good on the track.

[Martin_D]

The real 'Terrible News' is that the LS1 forum is being dominated with discusssion about this -