What do you get when you mix together a 1973 Datsun 1200 Ute and a nasty Mazda 12A rotary bridge port engine with 50-pounds of boost being funneled into it? Well, you get Tim Roads’ wild little ride that makes a whole lot of noise and runs well into the sevens, that’s what you get. This Datsun from the ‘land down under’ is an absolute animal on the track, and it keeps Roads busy inside the cab as he rips through the gears.

The Datsun 1200 Ute was designed to be a light-duty pickup type vehicle, so high-performance applications were never considered when they rolled off the assembly line. Roads wasn’t concerned about the intentions Datsun had for the 1200, he replaced the stock engine with the Mazda unit and added a Precision 7685 turbo to cram all the boost possible into the rotary-based mill.

A MoTeC EFI system controls the engine and is tuned by WA Racing Developments, Roads gets all of his information about the truck’s health from a MoTeC C187 dash. What makes this Ute extra cool is the G-Force GF5R clutchless transmission and Direct Services twin-plate clutch that Roads uses to smash gears on each pass down the track.

The Datsun has an interesting stance thanks to the ladder bar rear suspension and big 28-inch Mickey Thompson Pro Radials it rolls on. This combination is used on the Ute because Roads used to participate in the Ozmod class that had very strict rules on what modifications you could make to a vehicle and what tire you could run. Check out the video from FullBoost that shows just how wicked this Datsun 1200 is.