FOREIGN INVASION - THE DATSUN 280ZX FUNNY CAR ERA

Once upon a time, less than 30 years ago, a foreign car maker could enter an American racing series dominated by American-made cars and not be the subject of continuing controversy.

Those of you who also watch circle track racing know a lot of hands have been wrung the past couple of years over NASCAR's decision to grant Toyota eligibility to run its Camry coupes and Tundra trucks in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series.

Besides the idea of letting a Japanese manufacturer participate in what was always the all-American sport of stock car racing, the worry was, and is, that Toyota would spare no expense to engineer winning cars and trucks, possibly driving American car makers out of the game...

The National Hot Rod Association made a similar decision back in October 1979... to allow foreign car bodies, 1975 or newer, on Funny Cars.

However, several smaller teams took a look at the low, sleek, slope-nosed Datsun 280ZX and thought, “That could be a fast Funny Car.”

Thus, as the 1980 season opened, three veteran AA/FC teams had 280ZX bodies on the strip or in the works — John Collins, Gary Densham and Tim Grose...

Collins' 280ZX, with substantial backing from Japanese electronics giant Pioneer Car Stereos and some help from Datsun, was the first to see action, although Densham thought he would beat Collins to the punch...

Collins had run with Pioneer backing since 1978... Pioneer was making a deal with Newman and Sharp to sponsor the Datsun factory road race team, and Collins was perfectly placed to take advantage...

Meanwhile, Densham was building his 280ZX, saying he spent six months working on the plug, making the body — at chassis builder Ken Cox's shop...

"I always looked at doing unique things..." Grose said from his engine shop in western Michigan...

Grose debuted his 280ZX at the Bakersfield March Meet, where the original Datsun flopper, driven by Collins, met its demise...

Fortunately, Collins was already having another Datsun built...

Grose went on to have his own ZX misadventures... "There was so much downforce, it broke the body in half..."

After patching the body back together, Grose went on to an even bigger incident at the NHRA Springnationals...

Miraculously, Grose walked away more or less unhurt and set about building a new ZX from scratch...

If anyone harbored any concerns of foreign domination, that didn't happen, as the Datsun brigade experienced only moderate success in the nitro ranks. It should be noted Collins ran the only team with substantial sponsorship and help from the manufacturer. Collins ran primarily on the paid-in American Hot Rod Association circuit, winning two of the final three races of its Grand American circuit in 1981, and ran well on occasion in NHRA and elsewhere, however he felt he could have run even better.

The car worked great, Collins remembered. "It was one of my more successful cars. As far as the body, it was probably the slickest out there. My biggest problem was Bill Schultz was my crew chief, and he couldn't get the car to run right. One day, we discovered a main fuel injector jet had been left out for three and a half months. Schultz did a great job, as far as getting the car to run as well as it did, as lean as it was running, but we probably broke $20,000-$30,000 in parts."

Then, after two years with the ZX, Collins' Pioneer deal went to Shirley Muldowney for the 1982 season. Collins spent that year working on a deal with another car stereo company, JVC, and sat out the season to get ready for 1983. The Datsun appeared in just one race under JVC colors, making way for a new Chevy Camaro shell.

"It was JVC's request," Collins said. "Being an American company, I think they wanted an American-manufactured body back on the car."

Coincidentally, Densham and Grose also stopped running their Datsun bodies after the 1982 season. In three years with the ZX, sticking almost entirely to the West Coast, Densham managed runner-up spots in a 64-car show at Irwindale and a 1981 AHRA race at Spokane.

The Datsun also got Densham into an NHRA national event for the first time, at the 1982 World Finals at Orange County International Raceway, but Densham stated his World Finals experience from the year before is "probably the most memorable," as he rode out one of the worst fireballs of the time in a vain qualifying effort that made the cover of Super Stock and Drag Illustrated magazine.

"To be honest with you, it sure drove a lot nicer than the Trans-Am," Densham said. "It was a whole new car. Was it the chassis or the body, I don't know, but I loved it. With me designing the car, the way it was built, I was able to make it comfortable for me to drive. I'm not the littlest guy, and everybody was trying to make the car as low as possible."

But, after running with no financial help, the chance to make money off the Datsun caused Densham to go in a different direction with a Dodge Omni -- before the '83 season.

"It didn't look like I had any opportunities to get any money for the car," Densham said. "Also, I'd always built my own cars, chassis, everything, but I'd always wanted to run a (Steve) Plueger-built car. Johnny Loper had bought one a few months before, but he was getting out. Then I ran two races in Australia, and a buddy of mine running BB/FC there wanted to give me top dollar for (the Datsun), so I was able to make the swap to the Loper car. That was the first store bought car I had."

Grose went on to win the NHRA Division 3 Funny Car crown in 1981. He also went to the final round of the 1982 Gatornationals, losing to Frank Hawley but bringing home the only final-round appearance for a Datsun AA/FC in NHRA national events, and added strong showings in IHRA nationals and match races.

Grose never received any factory help from Datsun which led to a change in 1983, running a new Corvette after talking to representatives from General Motors.

"I would love to have continued with the Datsun," Grose said. "But the Chevy guys were looking at what I was doing with the body."

And, even as American car makers were struggling mightily against the growing number of Japanese imports, Collins, Densham and Grose all said they never heard fans boo them for running the Datsun.

"Not really, but I don't doubt there were people in the stands going, 'Oh that GD Jap car,'" Densham said.

"The car looked so sweet, I never heard any negative comments," Collins said.

Other teams tried the 280ZX body after Collins, Densham, and Grose brought them out. Most notably among the nitro runners, Chuck Etchells, who in 1993 became Funny Car's first four-second pilot, swapped his aging Chevy Monza for a "Future Force" Datsun which saw action for several years on the East Coast, and Midwest veteran Dale Tuter ran his "Quik Trip" AA/FC as a 280ZX.

Datsun AA/FCs also saw action internationally, especially in Europe with Englishman Ron Picardo and Swede Lee Anders Hasselstrom, the latter with sponsorship from Flygvapnet, the Swedish Air Force. None experienced noteworthy success with the ZX.

A number of BB/FC teams in North America ran a Datsun, including future world champion Fred Mandoline, former AA/DA terrors Billy Williams/Cookie Kazanjian, and Nick Boninfante's "U.S. Male." But the strongest ZX of the bunch — and the only ZX ever to win an NHRA national event, four in a row in fact — came from the Des Moines shops of Vern Moats.

One of the first alcohol funny car drivers, well-known for his stout "Smoke 'n' Thunder" and "Oly Roller/Iowa Roller" cars in Division 5, Moats was in rebuilding mode before the 1982 season after a devastating crash at the '81 Gatornationals. He also had sponsorship in place from Hamm's beer, and he had experience with drag racing foreign cars, running a B/Altered Jaguar early in his career.

"I'd been using Ken Cox bodies, and they came out with the Datsun," Moats said. "They looked pretty streamlined. Aerodynamically, I thought they were excellent. It was a new chassis, and the car worked good."

Moats began running the ZX in 1982 and won two AHRA nationals that year, but it was in the second half of the '83 season when the car showed its potential. He took the Datsun to its, and his, first NHRA national win at Denver, then reeled off wins in his next four races: a Division 5 race in Nebraska and the NHRA NorthStar, U.S., and Golden Gate Nationals. At the latter event, he set both ends of the national BB/FC record with a 6.36-second elapsed time at 236 mph.

Moats said the Datsun started humming after receiving a bit of outside help.

"Bob DeVour of Hurst was a big help with the clutch," Moats said. "I said the car keeps wanting to wheelstand, so I was going to loosen the clutch. He said no, put weight in the front end. That took care of it."

That was the last hurrah for the Datsun, though. Moats soon went back to an American-bodied car, as funny car shells moved ever farther from looking like their street counterparts, while no one bothered to significantly change the ZX's profile.

Yet Moats fondly recalls his Datsun days. In fact, he might re-live them someday.

"If I were to get into the nostalgia thing, I'd look to run one," he said.