Mark Rolston's RB26DETT Datsun 240z

The Story behind Mark Rolston's RB26DETT 240z

Mark explains to us how he always loved the early Zcar shape with its balanced handling and the relative ease at which it is to work on a Zcar. Mark loved the fact that the Zcar community is extremely helpful and passionate about their car.

For 10 years now Mark has owned this 1971 Datsun 240z, but it hasn't always been the fire breathing RB26DETT powered beast it is today. Infact at first, Mark admits he only really just kept the old L28 running. It wasn't long before the customisation bug bit and he decided to rebuild the engine, slap in a roll cage and bolt on fender flares.

Like most of us, however it rarely ends there. Infact after living with the bolted on fender flare look, Mark decided to go with a smoother more modern integrated flare look. In Mark's own words it turned out fantastic, and we certainly won't disagree.

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Owning a Zcar isn't all fun and games

After having fun in his Zcar, Mark experienced something all older car owners are accustomed to. That is breaking something. This time it was the L28 that broke, while racing at Texas World Speedway.

This time however Mark opted for what most Z owners have probably considered on more than one occassion. None other than the Rb26DETT first found in the Nissan Skyline GTR (R32). Known for it's ability to produce an enourmous amount of power with only a few simple modifications, the RB26 has proved itself in many races to be a reliable and very competitive engine.

The good thing about putting one in a Zcar is the fact that it's part of the evolution of design process in fact it's development can be traced back to the earlier Zcar L-series engine. Although Mark admits putting a V8 in it would have probably been alot easier and involved fewer headaches. One reason for this is that the RB26DETT was never released to the US market.