Henry Ford famously said that "auto racing began 5 minutes after the second car was built". While he was probably right, it definitely started before he build his second Quadricycle in 1898, featuring chain drive and a whopping 20 mph top speed.

In Japan, the 510 was called the Bluebird. That's fitting as today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe 510 is blue, but will its condition and price make you want to flip the seller the bird?

"If a Datsun 510 with minor modifications can take this kind of abuse that long, who knows how long a new 510 will last out there."

So much speculation about the possibility of a Datsun 510 in the 24 Hours Of LeMons over the years, and now it's actually happening!

When you have a '61 Mini and an '83 Toyota 4x4 pickup and you're dangerously close to building the first-ever VW-based kit car 24 Hours Of LeMons racer, you might need to shed a project.

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Here's the fourth Datsun 510 in the series.

We think Nissan should drag the admen who made this series of Bluebird commercials out of retirement and put them to work on their current product line. Yes, they're that good!

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. A surviving Datsun 510 is the Bluebird Of Happiness for us!

This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. You'd think Maui's humidity would be rough on old Japanese cars…