Datsun 510 Trans-Am race car

The 2019 Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) Charity Challenge at the Sonoma Raceway the weekend of October 5 & 6 featured nine race groups, among them was the cars that competed for the John Morton Cup, cars that competed in the Sports Car Club of America 2.5–liter Trans-Am series and in SCCA ‘B’ and ‘C’ sedan racing in the late nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies.

The John Morton Cup is named in honor of racer John Morton who dominated the 1971 and 1972 under 2.5-liter SCCA Trans-Am championship seasons for Datsun (marketed these days as Nissan) with six wins each season. Morton was on hand to race over the weekend in this Datsun 510.

A view of the longitudinal mounted single overhead camshaft (SOHC) 4-cylinder carbureted Datsun 110-cubic inch engine under the fiberglass hood develops around 150 horsepower more than enough for the car that weighs around 1700 pounds.

The cockpit of race cars of this era were very sparse with the myriad of electronics that we see today. 

Photos by the author