If it isn’t completely clear already, we’re large followers of classic Nissans and Datsuns round right here. And that’s very true if we spot a basic truck that’s nonetheless pulling work responsibility as a components runner for a neighborhood import tuning and restoration store.
However first, some context.
Should you’re a daily OnAllCylinders reader, you would possibly know the title Ritz. The Ritz household’s love of Nissans spans generations and their tasks have been featured on Summit Racing catalogs and displayed in top-tier exhibits. (The vehicles are equally at house on the Autocross course too.)
So once we noticed this humble 1976 Datsun 620 pull up into the Summit Racing Retail Retailer close to Akron, Ohio some time again, we had a sense we knew who its house owners have been. Our suspicions have been confirmed once we noticed the “R&R Racing” livery painted on the door.
Yup, this truck belonged to one of many Ritz brothers—and no, we don’t imply these Ritz Brothers.
So after all, we needed to run right down to get the news on this truck and make it certainly one of our common Lot Photographs options.
Particular Hat Tip to Summit Racing’s Patrick Miller and Justin Weideman for his or her assist with this text.
We caught up with Larry Ritz as he was strolling within the Summit Racing retailer, and rapidly requested him in regards to the truck’s historical past.
“It belonged to a volunteer fireman in Fort Lupton, Colorado,” Larry explains. “And so they used it with the Hearth Division.”
Fortunately, the comparatively dry Colorado local weather preserved the truck—as many northerners know, Datsuns of this classic are infamous for rust points. “My concept is that they put ’em deep down within the hull of the ship after they came visiting,” Larry jokes. “All that saltwater simply soaked in.”
However as a longtime proprietor of many, many Datsuns (over 50 of them!), Larry speaks from expertise.
“I purchased a brand-new 1973 510, and inside a 12 months the entrance fender began rusting out,” he laments.
Larry tells us that he thinks the truck was, at one level, owned by a savvy machinist who made all kinds of intelligent, well-thought-out modifications to the truck.
He describes a customized made software secured contained in the gas door to assist set up the tonneau cowl snaps and an incredible bracket system that held a set of family Venetian blinds neatly within the rear window. Heck, Larry says the license plate bolts had particular tabs soldered on like scratch-built wingnuts to make them simpler to put in/take away.
However our favourite half about this patina’d Datsun is that it’s a truck—and will get used as such.
“I’ve hauled gravel in it. I pull a trailer with it. It’s my each day driver within the summertime,” Larry smiles. “It’ll be loaded up with tires and be our assist car at an autocross occasion tomorrow.”
All advised, this tidy classic truck is the right workhorse for folk who spend quite a lot of seat time zipping round cones in race-prepped 510s. And contemplating how scarce these 620s are within the northern climates, we’re glad this one acquired into the Ritz household’s arms.
