His blood runs white and blue
RIAAN JACOBS: A GENUINE DATSUN FANATIC
Family’s collection part way to being museum for brand.
If you could look inside him, you would see that Riaan Jacobs’ blood is red … but it’s also white and blue. Does that combination make him a Yank or a Pom, though. No – it makes him a Datsun fanatic.
The brand (part of the giant Nissan group) has always had red, white and blue as its colours and, over five decades, its cars have been winning races, rallies and sundry motorsport events in those colours.
In South Africa, Datsun as a brand has a devoted following – although Riaan (along with his Dad Rudi and brother Thinus) takes things to extremes, building, restoring and modifying Datsuns (the old school ones, mind, not the new tin boxes being made under the brand label in India), as well as racing them.
They say there isn’t much the Jacobs family from Middelburg in Mpumalanga don’t know about Datsuns…
Like many South Africans, Riaan traces his love back to the days when the cars were part of the family. His first memories, as a laaitie were of his father’s Nissan 2.8GTX Skyline, in the standout “shark blue” colour. It had been the company car of South African rally and track legend Nuno da Cunha, who could make Datsuns go faster than most.
Riaan says his dad started oval track racing in George in the early 1990s in the midget class and soon had the opportunity to race in the V8 class. But even then, there was still the loyalty to the brand from the land of the rising Sun, because, even though Jacobs senior drove an American saloon in these races, he used a brawny, indestructible Nissan 2.8 litre straight six engine, similar to that in the Skyline.
“So when I had the choice, I chose a Datsun.”
Riaan’s first experience behind the wheel of his own car was in a 1200GX coupe. The 1200GX was bought for Riaan by his Dad in 2005 when he got his driving licence.
“He paid R5k for it, but she was in need of a full restoration. But I wasn’t scared of all the hard work. I found a book named Hansel & Grietjie in the glovebox and she was named Grietjie.”
The family has a treasure trove of unusual and rare Nissans and have put together a number of “replicas” of famous race models to celebrate the company’s track and rally successes.
So, it’s not going to be easy for Riaan to decide on which is his favourite Datsun. After a while he says it’s a red 140Z racing car dubbed “The Red Baron”.
Although his first car was the 1200 GX coupe, he hankered after a “hot” 140Z. After years of searching, he eventually found one and swopped it for the 1200 GX.
“I restored the 140Z over a year and I was the happiest laaitie in university. I then started working and earning some good money as a quantity surveyor. But five years later, I started losing my passion for ovaltrack (I had been racing since I was in Standard 7). I finally convinced my idol, Martin Richards, to sell the Red Baron to me.”
From there, things “just snowballed” says Riaan.
The family currently has around 15 Datsuns, mostly racing machinery – but, over the years Riaan has owned about 50 Datsuns, buying and “flipping” them to make money for his next purchases. Not bad when you consider he’s still only 34 years old.
The Jacobs collection is already part way to being a Datsun-Nissan museum, but Riaan’s dream is to have a motorsport museum for the brand, “to preserve the racing heritage of this amazing brand for future generations.”
Rare pieces in the current collection include a twin-cam racing engine, of which just 100 were made, and a racing Datsun Fairlady two-seater.