# Datsun 510 (Third-generation Bluebird (510))
Source: https://fullysorted.com/research/models/datsun/510
Publisher: Fully Sorted (fullysorted.com), collector car research
Last updated: 2026-09-16

## Key facts
- Make: Datsun
- Model: 510
- Generation: Third-generation Bluebird (510)
- Factory code: P510
- Years: 1968 to 1973
- Body styles: 4-door sedan (P510 right-hand drive / PL510 left-hand drive), 2-door sedan - the lighter shell, and the one both American works teams raced, 5-door estate / station wagon (W510), live rear axle, 2-door fastback coupe (KP510), Japanese market and knock-down export only
- Engines: 1,595 cc L16 single-overhead-camshaft inline four, chain-driven cam, 3.3 in (83.0 mm) x 73.0 mm bore and stroke; 96 hp gross at 5,600 rpm on a single downdraught carburetor in North American tune; 1,595 cc L16 with twin SU-type Hitachi side-drafts, 99 hp at 6,000 rpm in Japanese 1600 SSS coupe form per Nissan; 1,595 cc L16 with dual Solex 44PHH, 129 hp at 6,800 rpm and 116 lb-ft at 4,800 rpm in the 1970 works Safari 1600SSS as recorded by Nissan; 1,296 cc L13 single-overhead-camshaft four, 71 hp at 6,000 rpm per Nissan; 1.4-liter L14, adopted for the United Kingdom from October 1970 and for several Asian, African and South American markets from September 1970; 1.8-liter L18 four, offered outside North America and discontinued for 1972; 1.5-liter J15 pushrod four, fitted in place of the L-series in some South American and Asian markets
- Production notes: No source consulted here publishes a worldwide production total for the third-generation Bluebird, and the figure most often repeated is a sales figure for one market rather than a build figure for the model. Nissan North America states that roughly 300,000 510s were sold in the United States between 1968 and 1973, and that in 1971 the 510 accounted for more than forty per cent of Nissan's American sales. That is a useful number and it is not a production total: Japanese, European, Australasian, African and South American output sits outside it entirely. Wikipedia, which aggregates widely, gives no total at all. productionTotal is left null rather than filled with an inference.

The shape of the run can be established where its size cannot. The range was launched in Japan in August 1967 as four-door sedan, two-door sedan and estate; the KP510 fastback coupe followed in November 1968 and was sold new only in Japan, knock-down kits to South Africa aside. North America took sedans and the estate but never the coupe. Assembly was not confined to Japan: Australian cars were either full imports or built up locally from Australian and Japanese parts, and New Zealand sedans were assembled under contract at Campbell Motor Industries in Thames at around forty per cent local content. British imports ran to roughly 4,000 cars from the October 1968 Motor Show, of which fewer than ten original UK-specification examples survive - a rate that describes the car's corrosion record more usefully than any production figure would. The 610 replaced it during 1972-73.

## Summary
The Datsun 510 was the North American name for the third-generation Nissan Bluebird, launched in Japan in August 1967 and sold in the United States from 1968 until 1973. Yutaka Katayama, first president of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A., had spent the decade arguing that thrift alone would not sell a Japanese sedan to Americans, and lobbied Tokyo for a larger overhead-camshaft engine and a chassis a BMW 1600 owner would recognize. What arrived was a 1,595 cc single-overhead-cam L16 four, MacPherson struts, semi-trailing-arm independent rear suspension on the two- and four-door cars, front disc brakes and a curb weight under a metric ton, at $1,996. The estate kept a leaf-sprung live axle for load capacity. That specification at that price earned the standing description of a poor man's BMW. It won the East African Safari Rally outright in 1970, took the Trans-Am under-2.5-liter title in 1971 and 1972 in Peter Brock's hands, and then rusted away in very large numbers.

## Specifications
- power: 96 hp gross at 5,600 rpm for the North American L16 - a manufacturer-advertised gross figure, not a net one; 99 hp at 6,000 rpm for the Japanese 1600 SSS coupe and 128 hp at 6,800 rpm for the 1970 Safari 1600SSS, both per Nissan
- brakes: Discs front, drums rear
- engine: 1,595 cc L16 single-overhead-camshaft inline four, chain-driven camshaft, 3.3 in (83.0 mm) x 73.0 mm bore and stroke; L13, L14, L18 and J15 units fitted in other markets
- layout: Front-mounted longitudinal engine, rear-wheel drive
- torque: 116 lb-ft at 4,800 rpm for the 1970 P510 1600SSS and 97 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm for the KP510 1600SSS coupe, both per Nissan; no North American net torque figure was located
- weight: 2,127 lb curb for the 1970 P510 1600SSS, 2,061 lb for the KP510 coupe and 2,072 lb for the 1967 W510 estate, all per Nissan
- chassis: Unitary steel monocoque, four body styles on a 95.3 in (2,420 mm) wheelbase
- dimensions: 160.2 in (4,070 mm) long, 65.4 in (1,660 mm) wide, 55.3 in (1,405 mm) tall (P510 1600SSS); 95.3 in (2,420 mm) wheelbase
- fuel_system: Single downdraught carburetor in North American tune; twin SU-type Hitachi side-drafts on the 1600 SSS; dual Solex 44PHH on the 1970 works Safari cars
- acceleration: 0-60 mph in 13.5 seconds as tested by Road & Track in 1968
- transmission: Four-speed manual standard, three-speed automatic optional; five-speed manuals on later and on competition cars
- us_list_price: $1,996 for the 1968 four-door sedan; $1,890 for the 1969 two-door
- suspension_rear: Semi-trailing arms with coil springs on sedans and the coupe; live axle on parallel leaf springs on the estate, and on sedans for several African, Asian and South American markets
- suspension_front: MacPherson struts, coil springs, telescopic dampers

## Notable variants
- 510 two-door sedan (North America): Lighter than the four-door, with the same semi-trailing-arm rear end, and the shell both Brock Racing Enterprises and Bob Sharp Racing built on. The body style the market pays most for, and the one most likely to have been cut about for competition.
- 510 four-door sedan (North America): The volume car and the one Katayama argued for: same running gear as the two-door at $1,996 in 1968. The cheapest way into an original 510, and the most likely still to be one.
- 510 station wagon / Bluebird Estate (W510): The exception to the independent-suspension story - a live axle on parallel leaf springs fitted for load capacity, as Nissan's record for the 1967 W510 confirms. Long the least wanted body style and now the fastest appreciating.
- Bluebird 1600 SSS (P510): The Japanese sporting sedan: twin-carburetor L16, uprated instrumentation and trim, never sold in North America. The specification that won the 1970 East African Safari Rally outright.
- Bluebird 1600 SSS Coupe (KP510): Introduced November 1968 with a reprofiled roof and C-pillar. Nissan quotes 99 hp at 6,000 rpm and 2,061 lb. Sold new only in Japan, so a coupe elsewhere needs import paperwork agreeing with its chassis prefix.
- Datsun 1600 (United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand): The same car under another name. Britain took four-door sedans and estates only, about 4,000 cars, arriving before Nissan had a dealer network there to sell them.

## History

### Katayama's Argument
Yutaka Katayama was sent to the United States in 1960 to find out what Americans wanted from a small car, and returned with an answer Tokyo did not particularly want: economy was not the draw. What sold were European cars with some appetite for a corner, and the one he kept pointing at was the BMW 1600-2. As first president of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A. he pressed head office to send the next Bluebird to America with a larger overhead-camshaft engine rather than the pushrod units the range was built around. He got it: the L13 and L16 arrived in 1967 at his direct request, and the 510 reached the United States for 1968 at $1,996 with independent rear suspension - a specification that read like a European sports sedan at a price that did not.

### The Engineering, and Where It Stops
The third-generation Bluebird launched in Japan in August 1967, its soft-edged predecessor replaced by flat planes and a square glasshouse. Underneath sat a unitary steel monocoque on a 95.3 in (2,420 mm) wheelbase, MacPherson struts and front discs, and semi-trailing arms with coil springs at the rear of the two-door, four-door and coupe. The estate did not get them: Nissan's own record for the W510 lists a leaf-sprung rigid axle chosen for load capacity, and several African, Asian and South American markets took leaf-sprung sedans too. The four-wheel-independent claim holds for the cars people raced, not for the one people loaded. The L16 is the other half of the story. Introduced at Katayama's request with an 3.3 in (83.0 mm) bore and 73.0 mm stroke, it became the pattern for the L24 six of the 240Z - the same design with two more cylinders, an 83.0 mm bore and a 73.7 mm stroke. The Z that followed in 1970 was not a separate idea but this engine, and this argument, made larger.

### Safari
Nissan had entered the East African Safari Rally since 1963 without winning it. In 1969 twenty-eight Datsuns started and 510s took six of the top thirteen places, Edgar Herrmann fifth in a battered practice car from a ninetieth starting position. In 1970 Herrmann and Hans Schuller won outright in a 1600SSS, fifty-one minutes clear of another 510, from ninety-one entries of which nineteen finished. Nissan records it as overall, class and team victory, and as the first Safari won by a Japanese car. The high point of the 510's competition record belongs to the SSS, the twin-carburetor Japanese specification never sold in North America. Nissan's next two Safari wins, in 1971 and 1973, went to the 240Z.

### Brock, Morton and the Two-Five Challenge
Katayama backed racing in America on the reasoning that it sold cars, and put two teams on retainer: Peter Brock's Brock Racing Enterprises on the west coast and Bob Sharp Racing on the east. When the SCCA split Trans-Am into an over-2.5-liter class for the pony cars and an under-2.5-liter Two-Five Challenge for the imports, BRE entered John Morton in the number 46 two-door. Datsun took the 1971 under-2,500 cc manufacturers' title on a countback of race wins - no drivers' championship existed in Trans-Am until 1972 - and took the class again in 1972 with Morton as champion driver, against Alfa Romeo and BMW. Factory support ended after 1973.

### The Cheap Way In, and Rust
The lasting consequence was not the professional titles but what happened underneath them. A used 510 cost very little against a list price under $2,000, competition parts came through BRE at sensible money, and Datsun paid contingency money for SCCA wins - $100 for a Regional, $200 for a National. Datsun sedans took eight of the nine B-Sedan national championships between 1971 and 1979, and by 1978 a twenty-four-car Runoffs grid held twenty Datsuns. A generation of American club racers learned on this car, which is also why so few remain: the steel is thin, carries none of the corrosion protection that came later, and the survivors spent forty years competing with a racing paddock for the same shells.

## What to look for

Structure before everything. The bodyshell is thin-gauge steel with no rust-inhibiting alloy or coating, and the parts supply shows where the risk sits: exterior panels and floor pans are reproduced, while under-car structural sections are not made at all and have to be fabricated, so a car rotten in its rails or inner structure is a metalwork commission rather than a parts order. A magnet run over repainted areas will find filler that photographs will not. Establish which rear suspension the car has and that it matches the body: semi-trailing arms on two-doors, four-doors and coupes, a leaf-sprung live axle on the estate and on sedans built for several African, Asian and South American markets. A coupe outside Japan was never sold new there and needs import paperwork agreeing with its KP510 chassis prefix. Assume the car has been raced or modified until shown otherwise - look for flare installation and cut-and-weld work around the tunnel and strut towers - and price the return to standard if that is the intention. Engine swaps are normal rather than exceptional: the L18 and L20B drop straight in, and later Nissan units including the KA24DE and SR20DE appear regularly in current listings. Carbureted swaps give the least trouble; fuel-injected conversions using offshore-market engines are where poor work shows. The driveline itself is durable, so a bad 510 is nearly always a rust or workmanship problem rather than a mechanical one.

## Common problems

Corrosion is the defining fault and the reason for the survival rate: of roughly 4,000 original UK-specification cars, fewer than ten are known to remain. The steel is thin and carries none of the rust-inhibiting alloys or coatings that came later, and cars from the salted American rust belt have largely gone. Floors, rockers and the sills beneath the front seats are the commonly replaced areas and therefore the commonly rotten ones. Against that, the mechanical package is unusually sound. The L-series four served in North America for thirteen years across displacements from 1.3 to 2.0 liters and is described by specialists as nearly bulletproof, with most cars passing 100,000 miles and many reaching 200,000 on ordinary maintenance; suspension and brakes are conventional and similarly durable. The faults that do turn up are usually inherited from someone else's work: badly executed engine swaps, cut-and-welded structure from racing or flare fitment, and thick filler concealing rot rather than repairing it. Mechanical service parts and aftermarket panels and floor pans are readily available; under-car structural sections are not, and that is where a cheap car becomes an expensive one.

## Market notes

Reputable market sources do not agree on what a 510 is worth, largely because each tracks a different slice of the market. As of August 2026, classic.com records a market benchmark of $25,518 on a falling trend with an average recorded sale of $27,054, its highest tracked result being $35,000 for a modified 1972 sedan sold through Cars & Bids on 2 January 2026 and its lowest $5,200 for a 1971 station wagon project in December 2022. Hagerty's market write-up, which carries no date on the page as retrieved, puts condition-#2 two-door sedans around $30,600, wagons around $22,100 and four-doors around $20,500. What the three agree on is the ranking rather than the numbers: two-door first, wagon rising fastest, four-door cheapest. Asking prices sit well below sold prices - a private-listing summary dated 18 August 2026 covering seven new listings showed an average ask of $11,667 against a median of $6,500, a market of projects rather than sorted cars.

## Value trajectory

For most of its second-hand life the 510 was worth very little, which is precisely why so many were raced, modified and scrapped. The recovery is recent and rests on two forces working together: rust attrition on one side and, on the other, a buyer group Hagerty puts at more than 78 per cent Gen X and younger, buying the car they could not afford when it was merely old. Over the five years to Hagerty's write-up, condition-#2 values rose about 85 per cent for the two-door sedan and 92 per cent for the station wagon, the four-door about 50 per cent - the wagon, long the least wanted body style, climbing fastest. Race and heavily modified cars have moved past $50,000. The near-term picture is less uniform: as of August 2026 classic.com shows its benchmark of $25,518 trending downward, and a private-market summary dated 18 August 2026 reported asking prices softening week on week. The structural argument is unchanged, since the supply of unmolested, unrusted shells only shrinks, but the gap between a documented original car and a swapped, flared, filler-heavy one is now wide enough that the two behave as separate markets, and only one is short of cars.

## Sources

- [Nissan | Heritage Collection | Datsun Bluebird 1600SSS](https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/HERITAGE_COLLECTION/datsun_bluebird_1600sss.html) (Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.)
- [Nissan | Heritage Collection | Datsun Bluebird Estate Wagon](https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/HERITAGE_COLLECTION/datsun_bluebird_estate_wagon.html) (Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.)
- [Nissan | Heritage Collection | Datsun Bluebird 1600SSS Coupe](https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/HERITAGE_COLLECTION/datsun_bluebird_1600sss_coupe.html) (Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.)
- [Nissan Heritage Collection spotlight: Datsun 510](https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/releases/nissan-heritage-collection-spotlight-datsun-510) (Nissan North America)
- [1971 Datsun BRE 510 #46 Trans Am 2.5 Champion](https://usa.nissannews.com/en-US/releases/release-bdde5f7651d941cabccc547d6ab9dfe0-1971-datsun-bre-510-46-trans-am-2-5-champion) (Nissan North America)
- [MOTORSPORT: How the Datsun 510 revolutionized sedan racing in America](https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/motorsport-nissan-datsun-510-sedan-competition-history/) (Japanese Nostalgic Car)
- [Datsun 510](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datsun_510) (Wikipedia)
- [Yutaka Katayama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutaka_Katayama) (Wikipedia)
- [1971 Trans-American Sedan Championship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Trans-American_Sedan_Championship) (Wikipedia)
- [Safari Rally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_Rally) (Wikipedia)
- [Safari Datsuns](https://retro-speed.co.uk/showfeature.asp?art=11838) (Retro-Speed)
- [Nissan/Datsun L Series Engines](https://www.zhome.com/History/LSeries/LSeriesR1.htm) (The Z Car Home Page)
- [Datsun 510: Buy one now? Buyer's Guide](https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/datsun-510-buyers-guide/) (Classic Motorsports)
- [Vintage R&T Road Test: 1968 Datsun 510](https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/vintage-rt-road-test-1968-datsun-510-a-legend-is-born/) (Curbside Classic)
- [Fun with 510s, Part 1: Ratty Road Car to Low-Budget Racer](https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/fun-with-510s-part-1-ratty-road-car-to-low-budget-racer/) (Hagerty Media)
- [Datsun's 510 is a fun Japanese classic on the rise](https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/datsuns-510-is-a-fun-japanese-classic-on-the-rise/) (Hagerty Media)
- [Datsun 510 Market](https://www.classic.com/m/nissan/bluebird/510/) (classic.com)
- [Datsun 510 For Sale & Price Guide](https://www.theclassicvaluer.com/cars/datsun/510) (The Classic Valuer)
- [Datsun 510 Market Summary for August 18th 2026](https://www.510forsale.com/market-summary-august-18th-2026/) (510forsale.com)
- [1971 Datsun 510 Trans Am](https://www.supercars.net/blog/1971-datsun-510-trans/) (Supercars.net)
- [Datsun Bluebird 1968-1973 (510)](https://datsuns.co.uk/?p=531) (Datsuns.co.uk)

Cite as: Fully Sorted, "Datsun 510 (Third-generation Bluebird (510))", https://fullysorted.com/research/models/datsun/510, updated 2026-09-16.