Editing S130/funnycars php (section)

=== THE OTHER GUYS ? AND THE BIGGEST ZX SUCCESS ===

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Other teams tried the 280ZX body after Collins, Densham, and Grose brought them out. Most notably among the nitro runners, Chuck Etchells, who in 1993 became Funny Car's first four-second pilot, swapped his aging Chevy Monza for a "Future Force" Datsun which saw action for several years on the East Coast, and Midwest veteran Dale Tuter ran his "Quik Trip" AA/FC as a 280ZX.

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Datsun AA/FCs also saw action internationally, especially in Europe with Englishman Ron Picardo and Swede Lee Anders Hasselstrom, the latter with sponsorship from Flygvapnet, the Swedish Air Force. None experienced noteworthy success with the ZX.

A number of BB/FC teams in North America ran a Datsun, including future world champion Fred Mandoline, former AA/DA terrors Billy Williams/Cookie Kazanjian, and Nick Boninfante's "U.S. Male." But the strongest ZX of the bunch — and the only ZX ever to win an NHRA national event, four in a row in fact — came from the Des Moines shops of Vern Moats.

One of the first alcohol funny car drivers, well-known for his stout "Smoke 'n' Thunder" and "Oly Roller/Iowa Roller" cars in Division 5, Moats was in rebuilding mode before the 1982 season after a devastating crash at the '81 Gatornationals. He also had sponsorship in place from Hamm's beer, and he had experience with drag racing foreign cars, running a B/Altered Jaguar early in his career.

"I'd been using Ken Cox bodies, and they came out with the Datsun," Moats said. "They looked pretty streamlined. Aerodynamically, I thought they were excellent. It was a new chassis, and the car worked good."

Moats began running the ZX in 1982 and won two AHRA nationals that year, but it was in the second half of the '83 season when the car showed its potential. He took the Datsun to its, and his, first NHRA national win at Denver, then reeled off wins in his next four races: a Division 5 race in Nebraska and the NHRA NorthStar, U.S., and Golden Gate Nationals. At the latter event, he set both ends of the national BB/FC record with a 6.36-second elapsed time at 236 mph.

Moats said the Datsun started humming after receiving a bit of outside help.

"Bob DeVour of Hurst was a big help with the clutch," Moats said. "I said the car keeps wanting to wheelstand, so I was going to loosen the clutch. He said no, put weight in the front end. That took care of it."

That was the last hurrah for the Datsun, though. Moats soon went back to an American-bodied car, as funny car shells moved ever farther from looking like their street counterparts, while no one bothered to significantly change the ZX's profile.

Yet Moats fondly recalls his Datsun days. In fact, he might re-live them someday.

"If I were to get into the nostalgia thing, I'd look to run one," he said.

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