Start With a Baseline

Below is a picture as the car sits today. More photos are available under the “Explore” sub-menu. Up until few months ago, the car looked much less complete, remaining largely untouched in the state I had purchased it in 2014. I recently decided I was going to find some of the parts that I was missing, and put as much of the car together as I could. This way, I could have a pre-restoration base-line to model the finished car against. This would also help crystalize exactly what parts I had already with the car, what parts I'd have to locate, and what parts I'd have to fabricate. I spent countless hours pouring over period photographs to get some details as they should be, and when that proved futile (as it often did) I turned to incessantly bugging Alan T with endless questions – thanks again for all your patience and assistance, Alan! This step would have been much harder without your guidance.

So, really - why go through all this effort, if I am just planning on tearing everything up in a few month’s time? My thinking originally was to put the car together, and then bring it to a few shows, so enthusiasts could take a look prior to the restoration starting. At that time, I could point out some of the Works features to them. Some measure of change from stock is expected, because the car is, after all, a purpose-built rally car. But a problem soon ensued - the more I got into the details of this car, the more things I discovered were clearly original Works upgrades, but completely not-at-all stock. It was getting to the point during my inspections and scrutiny of the car where I was discovering subtle changes and upgrades from stock seemingly on a daily basis. In the end, there became almost too many changes to keep track of without a more formal documentation process.

This of course begs the question: “How many of these upgrades that you’ve found are, in fact, correct and original Works upgrades?” This is a fair question, especially to a person who has not had the benefit of being in front of a Works car for months on end. Answer: to a certain degree, most features were readily easy to categorize - either they are clearly seen on other Works cars, or they are previously known and documented upgrades. In most cases, these were features that were already known to be Works, but just not known by me, due to my inexperience. Other features were not so easy: at first glance they appeared to be stock, but on closer inspection, were not. Many of the Works parts are bolt-on replacements of stock parts, so there is little reason to suspect that they are unique. It’s worth remembering at this point that it was in Nissan’s interest to make the Works rally cars APPEAR stock, so scrutineers of the day would gloss over some of the subtle performance changes. This practice has definitely had an effect in aiding some of the stories circulating around the internet about the composition of these cars, such as “They were just stock cars, painted in special livery”, and “They used <stock this>, and <stock that>”. Many of these claims are either a repeating of earlier claims, potentially based on conjecture, or just supposition, and not really based on any formal research or first-hand knowledge. This is actually completely understandable, because very few of us have had the opportunity to examine a Works car up close, and in detail. I myself have had the good fortune to examine and document only one other Works car up close and in-person. The information i gathered proved helpful in making some assertions as to the authenticity of many Works features. However, a few features were either previously undocumented or not comparable to other cars, and therefore required a higher level of scrutiny.

My own decision-making process went something like this:

Is it a previously documented Works upgrade? (i.e. does it appear on other cars? If so, then it is likely correct and original, but answer the next questions below anyways)

Does it look factory-made? (i.e. with factory precision, resembling a factory part, or perhaps had a Works part number on it)

Does it look period correct? (i.e. the right material, consistency, age, wear, installation technique, resembling something that has been installed since 1970)

Were there other similar period Works references, along similar lines? (using period pictures of this and other Works cars, plus other period documentation, bearing in mind that Works cars underwent constant development during the life of the Works program)

Does it pass the “Snicker test”? (i.e. did it have clear purpose, and did it make sense that it was done that way? It was at this step that I frequently turned to other experts for discussion, most notably Alan T. Alan has extensive detailed knowledge about many more Works cars than I have at my disposal, and served as a great sounding board when discerning the question of “authenticity” of a previously undocumented or unknown Works feature.)

Parts and features which didn’t pass this scrutiny were removed from the car, so as not to cause confusion later. For example, some console switches which didn’t appear in any 1971 photos were removed, as were some wiring elements which were clearly made using non-Nissan wiring standards. In addition, someone at some point had replaced the fuel pumps, and added a bunch of in-line fuel filters. The filters themselves were all later-period, and stained red-brown, so it was surmised that the fuel tank had begun to rust at some point, and a previous owner had likely attempted to keep the car running by filtering as much of the rust out as possible. All those later components were ditched in favor of more correctly-sized fuel pumps, based on period photos of other Works fuel systems.

Occasionally, I made the discovery of some previously unknown modifications, such as additional chassis mounting points for 4-point harnesses using identifiable factory plates and techniques. This upgrade made sense, especially when one considered the style of restraint being used, and how the mounting points were positioned in the car, relative to the Works-specific seats. However, newly discovered upgrades such as this were the exception as opposed to the rule. In all, most of the listed features I have added to the “Works Features” section of this site have clear prior documentation to validate their inclusion as Works features and upgrades, with only a handful of new surprises. I doubt I’ll ever be completely certain that I have made a definitive and exhaustive list, especially since there are almost no other Works cars at hand to compare my list to.

Of note, all the stickers on the outside of the car are of course replicas, and placed on the car for '“show-and-tell” purposes. The Monte-Carlo plates are authentic 1971 plates, but have been “renumbered”, and are not original to the car. The Carnet plates are plastic facsimiles, but IMHO came out looking fairly accurate. Thankfully, all the original plate holes on the hood and trunk lid are still there, making placement of the badges a snap!

1971 RAC. Note the holes in the hood, for the Monte-Carlo plate, Datsun badge, and Carnet plate (from left to right).

Slightly harder to see, but the holes are still present.