SHARPENING THE SWORD
Todd Blackmun is one of many motor racing enthusiasts taking to the track in the growing Historic Pre-78 Saloon class, competing until this season in a very presentable Vauxhall Chevette.
By day he’s ‘The Rust Doctor’, specialising in restoring classics to their former glory at his Invercargill panel beating business. By night his focus over the past five months has been restoring a Datsun 120Y fastback into a competition car for the Historic Pre-78 Saloon class. The blue car featured here was not the one he originally intended to race. Todd now has two of these rare little Japanese coupes in his garage. He fully intended converting his red coupe for competition use until, while chasing down some parts online, he noticed a tidy looking blue example in the background of a photo.
“My red car is a 1975 model and I was struggling to find parts for it,” Todd explains. “I was trolling around on the internet and came across some parts in Balclutha. While I was talking to [the seller] I asked him about the blue car and if it was for sale; I did a deal and ended
