Car of the Week: Datsun Bluebird 510

Datsun Bluebird 510

Hey Guys
After such a long time now again a Car of the Week this time with the Datsun Bluebird 510.


The Bluebird 510, also known as Nissan Bluebird 510 or Datsun 1600 (in Europe) is a mid-class compact car produced by Datsun from 1967 to 1972. It was the first Bluebird model exported to Germany, as a Nissan. Later, when the export grew all the Datsun models were badged as Nissan models.
The Bluebird was assembled at the plants in Hiratsuka Japan, Melbourne Australia and later also in Pretoria South Africa.
One of the early competitors was the Toyota Corolla.

The Bluebird series PL510 (in the U.S. called Datsun 510) was available as a sedan, wagon and more recently as a coupe, the new model received front disc brakes, independently suspended rear wheels, and a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft of the sports car Datsun Fairlady (71 kW/96 hp), plus a four-speed transmission or on request, a three-speed automatic. In some markets, a 81 kW/110 SAE hp sports variant called Bluebird SSS was offered.

Particularly in the U.S. this Bluebird generation gained considerable appeal as a small sports sedan. In Germany it was offered by the newly established Nissan importer 1972/73 under the name Datsun 1600 deLuxe (59 kW/80 hp).

The 1600 SSS was also used in motorsports as a test car for Nissan Japan, and Ewold van Bergen (test engineer from Pretoria) raced it in numerous Motorsport rallies.

It was also very common used as a Taxi.