The Datsun 510 (from 1968 to 1973) has often been called the poor-man's BMW, and many people believe that the 510's design was inspired by old 70's BMWs (particularly the BMW 2002) with their round lights and box-shaped bodies. However, this idea is unfounded - the Datsun 510 was released a year before the BMW 2002. The comparison is further fueled by the little Japanese powerhouses' dominance over the BMW 2002 in the Trans-Am 2.5 L series of the 70's.
The Datsun 510 released to the US market came originally with the Hitachi downdraft carbureted 1.6 L L-Series motor, with an advertised 96 horsepower (72 kW), front disc brakes, 4-wheel independent suspension (MacPherson_strut front and Semi trailing arm rear), rear wheel drive, and either a 4-speed manual or a 3-speed automatic transmission, and both the 4-door, 2-door, and wagon models. It gets about 20 mpg in factory trim(US). Non-US spec models were also available in a coupe body style with the "SSS" package which included an uprated 1.8 L L-Series engine and dual hitachi sidedraft carburetors which were a copy of the earlier British Skinner's Union design used on Jaguars and MGs.
One triumph of the early Nissan/Datsun cars is that many of the parts are interchangeable - engines, transmissions, suspension setups, etc., were all similar enough to swap with minor modifications. This allowed the Datsun 510 to be easily upgraded from the 1.6 L engine to the 2.0 L L20b motor, and to go from the 4-speed manual transmission to the more versatile 5-speed transmissions made available for the later Datsun Z-cars.
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