This car was originally built in Japan in 1979 with two others specifically to win the Southern Cross Rally of that year in Australia. This was a dramatic change in Nissan Australia's policy with regard to rallying in Australia at that time, as up until that point they had been building all their cars in Australia and had in fact radically changed the design as compared to the cars used elsewhere in the World Rally Championship. That year Japan decided very much against Nissan Australia's wishes that they would build and look after the three cars in the Southern Cross Rally that year. They were driven by Rauno Altonen, Ross Dunkerton and George Fury and this particular car was George Fury's and the car won the Rally that year. It has been involved in rallying ever since and has had two previous owners in Australia prior to being obtained by the current owner Andrew Johnstone. He bought the car in 1995 in Australia and when he returned to the UK the following year brought it with him.

Since arriving in the UK the car has competed in many rallies with Andrew as the driver and the Dumfries St Galloway Aviation Muséum's curator David Reid in the left-hand seat. A Sélection of the rallies being The RAC International Historié Rally in 96, The Circuit of Ireland Rally in 97 and 98 and in the Scottish Rally from 96 until 2002.
The cars spécification is exactly as it was in 1979 and has RAC certification as a Historié Rally Vehicle, the only changes being made to the car being that required to bring it up to current safety standards (i.e. a new roll cage and fire extinguisher System). The suspension in the car is what is called Safari suspension and was used by the factory cars in the East African Safari and in Australia, you will notice that the front suspension has wire ropes attached, this was to allow the car to reach the end of the stage if it damaged the front suspension!

There is a photo album which anybody is welcome to hâve a look through and in fact in it there is a letter from the driver George Fury who won the 1979 Southern Cross Rally to Andrew on the occasion of his 50th birthday and opposite there is a picture of the car competing in the Queensland Rally Championship about that time.
The Datsun Stanza was never released in the UK but factory cars were run by Andy Dawson's Team Datsun Europe and there is a short article that appeared in Autosport around that time that is included in the album.

The old girl is now 31 years old and has been constantly rallied since she was built and there can't be too many Datsun's that hâve been treated like her and are still going strong! In fact she is the only one of her type in the UK and she was the last in Australia and was very well-known over there in the rallying community.