The low-miles AMC beat the NASA-built Fairmont in the Electrocutioner Edition Choose Your Eternity poll, though the Fairmont did make a respectable showing. Today we're jumping back into a pool of flaming gasoline, because there's no telling how much longer the smell of incompletely burned hydrocarbons will hover around our garages. After seeing a Datsun 610 in the junkyard and then the '78 Toyota brochures over at Japanese Nostalgic Car (thanks, SOS10), we decided to find a couple of Japanese cars built before they'd discovered focus groups (and airtight quality control) over there.
Datsun 280Zs are a dime a (rusty) dozen, but you don't see many mid-70s Fairladies in North America; it seems that those willing to go through the hassle of importing a classic JDM Nissan tend to go for the earlier models. Right-hand-drive, weird badges, and the utter impossibility of passing any sort of emissions test- sign us up! They're tough to find over here, but if you've got $1,200 burning a hole in your wallet you can buy this '75 Nissan Fairlady. Yes, just barely over a grand! You won't be able to just fire it right up, though; as the seller says: "It has been stored and has not been ran for a few years now and is looking a bit rough." See those tiny, blurry photos? Looks like a challenge, but it gets even better- those shots "were taken prior to storing so it looks a lot dirtier and rougher now." Using one of the Hell Project seller's favorite gambits, the Fairlady's owner wants you to know that this inexpensive- and totally easy- project has a "potential value of $40-$50k restored." Wow! It's like getting free money!
The early Mazda rotary wagons are pretty rare, but you can still find them. How about the early piston-engined Mazdas, though? When was the last time you saw a Mazda 1500 wagon? SoNaive found this '71 Mazda 1500 station wagon in Vancouver, for just $1,300 Canadian dollars. This was the "big" Mazda of its time, and featured styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro (the seller points out that "you may notice it looks like an alfa from the front," which may or may not be a very persuasive selling point in a wagon). The original 1500 engine is long gone, but not to worry- the seller "shoe-horned an '83 2.3 liter 200sx engine and 5spd transmission into place," which should work great as long as the shoe-horning was done with care. What could go wrong?
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