Hello everyone, I think I'm overdue for joining this site.. My name is Dave Levinson, and I'm from Philadelphia Pa.. I'm now 50 years old and still have the Datsun bug since I was 6 years old in 1968 when Dad bought his first 510.. I was brought up going to the races since I was 3 years old going up to Watkins Glen for the US GP Races back then, and can still remember the Lotus 49B F1's with Graham Hill driving, and the group 5 and 6 races with the original GT40 MK1's and 2's.. In the early 70's Dad started taking me to Lime Rock to see the Datsuns and Bob Sharp.. I still remember the original Red car paint jobs and have plenty of personal photo's as Dad was a commercial Photographer until he passed away in 1998.. The most important piece of work he did was a film in 1971 on Bob Sharp racing, that was cataloged in the Library of Congress back then, but never released to the public as Dad was never happy with the final editing of the film and had always hoped to someday finish it.. THe studio had to get the film back from Datsun as they ended up with it, and it appears because of the red flags on the footage, they copied portions.. We'll talk more about that at a later date!

I ended up getting out of High School and going to Penco tech in the early 80's driving my Dad's second 510, a 1972 SSS car painted Sahara Brown.. After Tech, I went right to work for Datsun as a line mechanic and to my surprise had 6 raises my first year and worked into a lead tech spot.. I was constantly calling up to Bob Sharps back then for Datsun Comp parts from his catalogs, and personal talks with Jason Jessenski.. I was also a membeer of Bob's Datsun Owners club , and the 510 club run by Rex Jennet called the UFO or United 510 owners.. I've owned a total of 14 510's and 3 series 1 Z cars as of today, and I'm currently waiting to find another Z that calls out to me for restoration.. After reaching my Master Tech status with Nissan at that point I actually found myself un-employed by a argument with 2 Japanese engineers who flew out from California to see how I was beating the book time for their recall on the 240SX were it was blowing timing chains.. I was getting 8 hours from the factory for the repair and doing the job in 1.5 ! Well, needless to say I went to work for K&K Racing and Restorations in Philly and began working on vintage Britt cars so feed my personal Datsun resto's.. Currentl I'm doing a 73 510 which is the 3rd complete ground up resto I've done since 2009.. My last car was on the cover of 12.1 of the Dime Quarterly, and I've been in Vintage Motorsports Mag in 2009 for my work at Sebring Raceway for helping to build a historic 1958 English Turner that ran that race in 59.. Today, I'm doing my own thing and just doing Datsun resto's at a more relaxed pace, as health issues have slowed me down a bit.. For this latest Resto, I'd like to finally do a 510 Tribute car to Bob Sharp racing and I'm trying to track down anyone who may know the Red/White/Blue paint codes that were used on the cars from 72 up.. Any help here would I would be extreamly greatly,, Glad to be here, Dave Levinson

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BSR510Trib

Lets see if I post this correctly? My last resto, from 2010.. Made it's debut at the Jefferson 500 for the SPEC510 meet in May 2011.. This year planned is my current Dime and Next year I'll be doing a 72 Z .. In search of a shell now!!

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BSR510Trib

WOW.

Welcome, Dave! Its really hard to focus on your full qualifications and on the Superbowl at the same time, but you sure bring a lot to our table and you're a real distraction from the great game SanFran and Baltimore are playing. Usually we could wait until the commercials, but even those are spectacular today.

OK ~ Halftime. Might get time to e-shake your hand properly now.

Welcome to the CT Z Car Club. This website is our communication board for our membership and we're very happy to have you aboard. We are unique in that we actually know each other, meet at least monthly during the "Zeason", attend Datsun Z functions together and help each other work on the carz. Most of us know most of us ~ we're not just an internet club or forum. You're gonna have a lot of fun in here, and meet some people you have a lot in common with. Once you've joined us, you're our Z brother for life because you 'can't quit a free club'.

Rick Morgan, owner of "1969" 240Z #00013 (you'll recogniZe that as the first 240Z listed in any Datsun partz manuals) is our member. Rick worked for Bob Sharp Datsun back in the day, and he also owns a 'nickel dime' car and a Roadster which are awaiting restoration. That's not even mentioning Rick's two other "spare" Series-1 240s.

Our West Coast member Danny Linquist was one of the early Datsun certified line mechs for the 240Z in the midwest and has spent a lot of restoration time saving Series 1 cars since then.

Our RI member Paul Mackin is a certified Master Mech, an avid Datsun devotee, and owns more spare Z partz then our local Nissan dealer. Paul also owns and drives a nifty Datsun pickup which he can tell you about himself.

Vinny Bedini is our member and owner of Bedini Motorsports, where most of our 'hot' early Datsuns are built. Vinny still owns and sometimes still races his award-winning 'nickel' car, some early 240s, and some of the engines he has built still hold world records in their classes.

And of course Bob Sharp Himself is our member and Executive Advisor. Bob is still passionate about the early Datsun cars and can be found at most of our annual events. His old #33 car which you saw racing back in the day (VIN#0006) is restored to racing trim and belongs to our member "Doc" Robbins in NY state. Bob's son, Scott Sharp, has carved his name deep into American LeMans racing history already, and shows no sign of slowing down.

In addition, we have more than a doZen members who have hand-restored Series-1 240Zs (or are in that process) with outstanding results. We have a number of other 510s and 520s among our members' stables, each unique and with its own story.

Our 700+ members range from lifetime-career Datsun mechanics and racers who have owned dozens of Zs, thru first-time novice Datsun owners, to those deeply bitten by the Z-Bug and looking for their first Z.

So you should have some fun in here. I don't know how you found us, or what took you so long to join us, but I'm very glad you're finally aboard and I'm looking fwd to meeting you in person ~ maybe at this year's ZCon in neighboring New Hampshire?

Very nice to meet you, sir, and your car looks show-ready.

Frank T

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1970 240Z

Many thanks for the WARM welcome Frank! I already know of a few of your members as the Datsun community is a small world of it's own in this small world we live in..We're most certainly going to have a great year in 2013, and I'm looking forward to taking the 1.5 hour drive up to Ct. for some events and fun with you guys, and certainly seeing some awesomely built Z's! Vinny is actually a close friend of one of my fellow 5&10's down here in the Tri-State area, and works on Tri-Pod Racings cylinder heads for them.. I've talked to him once or twice myself, but also happened to find a more local machinist who's work equals Vinny's, Shhhh for now!! I'm also in the process of converting my Fathers 16mm sound film on BSR into digital format at this time, and had gotten in touch with Bob Sharp about 4 weeks ago or so to come up and view the film for him.. It was shot in the 71 racing season and both the Z and the 510 were in the solid red paint.. There's even more interesting history about the 0006 Z as my Dad's film crew had done some custom mods on the car to mount the AirFlex cameras to it,, and I did see the car up at the storage facility in NY about a year ago, when I delivered a 510 shell up there to repair a crashed one, and could still I believe see where the camera was mounted.. My uncle Bruce was on the film crew and actually also worked for PENSKI at the time and was also working on Sharps cars changing tires as well!.. He's got even more stories about that Z and what went on in the shop.. Shhhhhh Weight saving time back then!! Looking forward to spending many a future day with my new found family here, thanks, Dave Lervinson

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BSR510Trib

Welcome to the family Dave. Hope to meet you in person during the 2013 season!

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Phil
1981 280zxt - Now in the care my son!
2014 370Z Sports Touring Roadster

Well, I'm very happy to report that I had the honor of meeting Dave in person at ZCon in Nashua, and got to spend some time with him. He's a great guy, a real live wire, and has even more stories than i have!

Dave was kind enough to grant me a private showing of his Dad's 1970-'71 film, "Some People Collect Stamps", which documented Bob Sharp's first racing season with the 240Z. The movie itself was spectacular (especially for anyone old enough to remember those days), but hearing Dave's narration thru the film gave much deeper appreciation for what his dad went thru to make it.

[For example, one scene is taken from a backwards-facing camera, looking down at the nose of Bob's Z as it drifts thru a sweeping turn at 3-digit speeds. I asked what race car was used as a platform to get such a steady shot, and Dave explained his dad had sat BACKWARDS on the roof of a stationwagon at 100mph, balancing a big, heavy motion picture camera, looking down on Bob's car a length or two behind!!! ]

I'm hoping Dave gets to come up from Philly and visit us this year before the Zeason is out. Hopefully he can make it to the Annual Fall Outing picnic?? It would be grand for y'all to meet him.

Frank

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1970 240Z

Thanks for the kind thoughts and words Frank! I'm still mega busy down here in Philly trying to pull together the last bits for our BSR 510 and oversee the paint work.. Unfortunate delays have just been ever presenting themselves, and pushing my finish date most likely closer to early winter.. It's just my luck, I always seem to complete my restorations for my previous target dates of December 24th for a Christmas diner road test with Mom! This BSR tribute car looks like it may be the same.. No work in the shop right now has me at a stand still with funding the resto as well, so I'm just taking it one day at a time, and praying that it all falls together as it should, but be sure I'll make it up to CT and spend some time with my Z family as soon as I can..

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BSR510Trib

Dave,

WELCOME ABOARD !! Can't wait to hear more stories ! Have you ever heard of Dick Loyn or Dick Loyd, (can't remember his last name.‚ He did Bob Sharps engines For the roadsters in '63 - '66 or longer.

Irv Rich

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'71 240 Z

Thanks Irv! No, that was just before my time.. I'll have to ask Bob the next time we talk.. I've done my share of work on both the R16 and U20 engines though.. One of my friends, Andy Vitek owns one of the 2000s that was Fitzys, and races it in vintage today.. I've got a photo somewhere of me at the Pitt. Vintage Grand Prix with the car.. Andy seems to always take a first place win with the car, or at least a second every time out! Another new friend, Paul Veltum has one of the 1600s. I'll ask them both if they know any history as well!

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BSR510Trib

Dave, I'm hoping you plan to make the trip up here for our Annual Picnic tomorrow?

Frank

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1970 240Z

Ahh Shoot! I wish I could have Frank, I was actually attending Tom Cotters 15th Woody Party in Davidson NC on the 19th.. The East coast 510 guys show up now and I always help Tom set up the day before, and stay late to chat.. I hope the event was as awesome as mine was, and we'll certainly catch up in the near future.. My BSR 510 is getting all my attention now, and I'm hoping to have ity done by December 24th! Thanks again, Dave

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BSR510Trib