Frank and his VR38 Datsun Ute

VOTE FOR FRANK’S DATSUN TO WIN THE 2023 HALTECH HERO OF THE YEAR HERE

Frank Cannistra has a reputation for getting the interwebs buzzing. Recently he caused quite a stir by turning up at the Street Outlaws USA vs AUS in Sydney with this VR38-powered Datsun 1200. That’s right, an R35 GTR engine in a tiny Datto ute. But that’s not the only interesting part of this build…

SIZE DOESN’T MATTER…

Like many of our ilk, Frank got into cars at a young age. His older brother was always into modifying Ford Falcons and often took Frank out for adventures. However, when it came time for Frank to get his own set of wheels, he wanted something different to the huge land barges his brother was into. At the same time, Frank’s Dad was working in the construction industry, and Frank grew fond of his work ute.
So Frank set his sights on a small, light and nimble work ute, and the Datsun 1200 ute fits that bill perfectly.

POP THE BONNET

While being small and light, anyone who has driven a Datsun 1200 can tell you they aren’t exactly fast.
And Frank wanted to go drag racing, so an engine upgrade was necessary. Frank’s first foray into engine swaps with the Datsun was a Mazda 20B, and while it was fast, and certainly turned heads, it just didn’t have the reliability Frank was looking for. Frank considered some of the more common popular engine swaps, such as the mighty Ford Barra or a 2JZ, however soon realized there was no way to fit those in the small Datsun engine bay. Frank’s friend cleverly suggested trying out the VR38 from a Nissan R35 GTR and the rest is history. The compact V6 fits perfectly well in the Datsun engine bay.

ALL OF THE BOOST

The VR38 is fairly stock for emissions and engineering purposes, but will probably end up with some aftermarket components in the not-to-distant future, just to maintain reliability. One thing anyone who knows the R35 will notice is that a couple of things missing from Frank’s engine bay… turbos! Fear not, this isn’t a naturally aspirated run about, Frank has opted to go with a big single turbo sitting behind him in the ute’s tub. Why? Well, because this is a fully legal road car, it had to maintain a full turning circle, and that was much more achievable without manifolds and turbos cluttering up the engine bay. Now that’s thinking outside the box… or inside the tub, you might say.
Running 15-20 pounds of boost and 650hp on tap there’s no doubt in our minds that this weapon would be loads of fun to drive. 

Fueling is taken care of by an Aeromotive mechanical fuel pressure regulator and an Aeromotive fuel pump with flex-fuel capabilities. The massive nitrous bottles located at the back of the tub aren’t actually NOS, Frank is just trolling there, they’re really a pair of barrel-style, custom-made fuel tanks.

On the cooler side of things, the Datto is equipped with a custom-made PWR radiator, a PWR barrel intercooler, and a 16-inch thermofan.

IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT

The brains of the ute is a Haltech Nexus R5 VCU, and it is in charge of pretty much everything. Neatly placed in the cluster is an iC-7 digital display dash alongside a CAN keypad allowing Frank to activate functions with an easy touch of a button.

A set of retrimmed Kirky seats and a Momo steering provides Frank with a comfortable drive every time. Upon closer inspection, a six-point roll cage can be found neatly tucked under the roof lining. Pretty cool huh!?

Frank strongly believes that every real street car needs a radio, so he went ahead and installed a Sony head unit and speakers to match.

DRIVETRAIN AND ROLLING STOCK

The drive train consists of an Al’s Race Glides TH400, TCI converter, aluminum tail shaft, and a custom Ford 9” diff with a Strange diff centre. For street duties, the Datto is running Mickey Thompson tires, Weld Alumastar wheels (front: 15×4 rear: 15×10), GTR big brakes, and coilover suspension.

STREET-LEGAL BEAST

Before undergoing this amazing build, Frank’s number one goal was to have it fully engineered and street-legal. It was a long, hard, and very expensive process, but Frank achieved his goal in the end.

“The second most talked about thing are these babies. Because we’re running e85 we needed a big capacity fuel tank. I didn’t want to run the normal aluminium fuel cell, so I decided to run this barrel style tank. In my head when we were doing it, I just saw nitrous bottles, and this is what we ended up with. And I’m genuinely surprised how many people think they’re actually nitrous bottles”.