I stumbled across this beautiful little Datsun 510 recently, hidden in an alcove beside an old service station. For all intents and purposes, it’s been relegated to lesser duties as a piece of art, resting just beyond the sidewalk. While it serves its new duties remarkably well there, I can’t help but feel that it deserves so much more.

I imagine, knowing Mr. Schmo’s obsessions, that he will probably get a little bit tingly in his naughty bits over this car. Particularly when I reveal that I got to speak to one of the friends of the owner, who revealed that the car was half-heartedly for sale, if someone offered him the right price. It’s not all original, as I am told it has quite a number of go-fast upgrades on it, but it apparently runs beautifully and would need nothing more than a tune-up. The friend said he could probably be talked out of the car for, say, $2500. That seemed a bit steep briefly, but a once-over of the car showed it to be beautifully solid and clearly well-cared for. Of course, the astute viewer will notice that it has been outfitted with a rudimentary roll-cage. So any attempt to say it had probably been gently driven by a little old lady who only took it to church and back on Sundays would be about as believable as the salesman this weekend who tried to tell me something similar about a beat up Mini Cooper S Rallye with a minimum of an aftermarket exhaust and intake. But that doesn’t matter. It just means it’s probably that much more eager to play rough when we want it to. What say you, Hoons? Would you pay $2500 for this little beastie? I’m pretty sure I would. A nicer set of wheels and tires, maybe a more aggressive suspension, and I’d pretty much call it done. [Thanks to CaffeineFuelled for the photos that don’t suck, and for keeping a camera in her purse because she knows all about my strange obsessions with random cars seen in random places.]