An unfashionable brand following World War II, Datsun went a long way during the 1960s to quell this stigma by entering motorsport in a big way.
One of the poster boys for the brand during this time was ‘Wild’ Bill Evans, who can be credited for helping the brand develop further in Australia through his exuberant driving in a variety of disciplines.
After arriving back from England in 1967, Evans was soon snapped up by Datsun through performances on hillclimbs.
“I went up to Templestowe hillclimb and ran a Datsun 100 there, as were John Roxburgh and Doug Whiteford in the old 1600 Bluebird,” Evans recalled.
“I only did one run up the hill and all of a sudden, these blokes jumped on me. George Denham Managing Director of Datsun Motor Company at the time said ‘I want you to be a part of the Datsun Race Team.’
“The crew painted the car green with the red, white and blue stripes and that’s where it started.
“Next thing I got a drive at Bathurst in the Datsun 1000 in 1968. I then moved to the 1200 and we won our class in 1972, 1973 and 1976.”
One of the earliest signs Datsun was making a serious push into the Australian motorsport scene came at the 1969 Surfers Paradise 6 Hour event where it imported two R380A sportscars for the race, taking a 1-2.
Evans meanwhile took class victory and was fifth outright driving the local team’s Fairlady 2000, but was in awe of what the Japanese had bought.
“The Japanese bought it out here and they looked after that themselves, but it was a beautiful bit of machinery,” Evans said.
“They were very secretive and kept it all under covers, and I was part of the Datsun Race Team!”
Just as the age old battle between Ford and Holden waged on at the front in the touring cars, the rivalry between Datsun with its fellow Japanese marque Toyota spread down south to Bathurst.
So desperate were Datsun to topple Toyota, various parts, drivers and cars were sent down in what became a successful quest.
“In 1973, the Japanese sent the 1200 Coupe, which was highly modified in respect that it nowhere near represented the road-going model,” Evans said.
“It had twin carbs, a 5-speed box and a lot of things that weren’t on the car due to the introduction of the Group C regulations. The 1200 was great all the Mini boys were there with the Nissan books and the rules said all the parts had to be available to the public.
“John Roxburgh said to me ‘Billy come with me and I’ll teach you something,’. All the officials were on the outside of the circuit and all these Mini guys had rung every Datsun dealer in Australia. They couldn’t buy a 5-speed box, the GX manifold or the head, so John stood up and said, ‘the rules state that the part must be available to the public.’ They said ‘yes, yes and we can’t get it’ well he brought out this book from South America and it had every part listed and the rules were changed after that!”
Evans also contested rallies and helped Howard Marsden set up the team once he had taken it over the running of Datsun’s competition efforts.
Finishing up with class victory at Bathurst in 1976, Evans continued onto more success in motorsport just as Datsun turned to Nissan in the early 1980s and enjoyed success in multiple disciplines not only on tarmac, but dirt also.