PICTOU – Damian Hill has even more time to tinker with his 1969 Datsun.
Hill retired this year from teaching the automotive course at the Nova Scotia Community College and can turn more of his attention to his dark red convertible, one of numerous classic cars lining Provost Street in New Glasgow at the recent Festival of the Tartans events.
“It was sold new in Nova Scotia back in 1969, and it was off the road for 20 years before I had it running,” he says.
He bought the car in 2000 and it took him seven years before he was able to get it on the road.
The body had been sitting on the frame, the engine didn’t work, the drive train and fuel system needed overhauling; those are just a few of the things he had to take care of before it was road-worthy.
“I did everything mechanical and got it running, sourced a lot of new parts for it,” he says. “Since I got it resurrected, I put 18,000 miles on it. I absolutely love to drive it.”
The car’s design was heavily influenced by late 1950s, early 60s Fiats and also borrows from subtle Ferrari stylings, so cosmetically, it’s got a European sports car look.
“It is Italian influenced,” Hill says. “It came out before the MGB but a lot of people think it looks like an MGB.”
Hill spends a lot of time in the car with his wife Ann, but would he actually let her drive it?
“Oh, definitely (but) she’s scared to drive it. She’s scared she’ll break it, but it’s a car – it can be fixed – so that’s the way I look at it.”
Freshly painted three years ago (the only thing he didn’t do himself), his car gets a lot of looks when he’s driving down the road.
And it’s got some snap under the hood.
“It’ll cruise happily all day at a hundred and twenty (kilometres) – it doesn’t even stretch it itself,” he says.
We really need to know something: how fast has he had it going?
“I haven’t had it over a hundred miles an hour,” Hill says, before he pauses and smiles.
“But that would be illegal.”