Classic Datsun Car Show Invades Arizona
One of the best Datsun Car Shows in little Williams, AZ
3rd Annual Multi State Datsun Classic
Story and Pictures by Dale Herseth – All pictures from the Classic Datsun Show HERE
Over the weekend of Oct 4th- 5th, Datsuns from several states including Arizona, California, Nevada, Washington, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and even Mexico migrated to the small town of Williams in northwest Arizona for the “3rd Annual Multi State Datsun Classic” car show. Williams is a perfect spot for the automotive enthusiast and is right in the heart of old Route 66! The whole town really gets behind this event and offers discounts at many food establishments as well as souvenir shops.
This year there were approx 80 classic Datsuns in attendance and it’s growing every year. The organizers of this show are SOCALROC (Southern California Roadster Owners Club) and www.nostalgicdatsun.com. They do a fantastic job putting on this event which is no small task. They had T-shirts, dash plaques, awards, raffle prizes, and all the usual stuff that goes with any quality car show!
We drove up from Gilbert on Friday and stayed at a great Bed & Breakfast called the “Grand Living”. Several participants from our local Arizona Datsun Club (Desert Datsuns) stayed at the same place.
The town Meyer allows us to park on both sides of old Route 66 in the middle of town to display our cars during the show on Saturday.
The Z-cars had the biggest attendance in the show, followed up with the Datsun Roadsters, and then the 510’s. There were also several “other” classified Datsuns as well as a few pickups.
For this show Jodi and I took our white 1970 SPL311 Roadster. 1970 is the last year that Datsun made a Roadster and it’s the only year the Roadster and the “New Z-car” were sold at the same time. This was the end of the line for the Roadster and the beginning of the new era of the Nissan Z.
The Arizona contingent came home with several awards 1st & 2nd Datsun 510, 1st & 2nd – Datsun Z-car, 1st & 2nd Datsun “other” and 3rd in late model Roadster.
Overall a great time!