1969 Datsun 2000 Sport Convertible

Peter Brock was secretly given two Datsun Roadsters in 1969, for racing purposes. The car was developed by Peter Brock Enterprises (BRE), and when it showed up at its first race, it was a complete surprise to everyone, including Datsun's own Racing Offices in North America. Peter Brock hired Frank Monise as, in his words, 'He was the only driver that I couldn't beat when I was racing.'

This BRE 2000 Roadster is powered by a 1.8-liter SOHC U20 4-cylinder engine developing 200 horsepower. (0.040 overbore with a 12.8:1 compression ratio). It has a close ratio 5-speed manual transmission and a curb weight of 1,900 lbs.

It won the SCCA's Southern Pacific Divisional Title in 1969. At the 1969 runoffs both BRE 2000 drivers John Morton and Frank Monise were expected to dominate D Production and Datsun's expectations were high. True to form, they qualified 1-2 on the grid by a considerable margin over other qualifiers. The race did not run to form when in the first two laps both drivers suffered freak fuel starvation problems which resulted in the meltdown of the Venolia pistons.

Peter Brock said they did not realize that local condition changed during the day and they did not check the barometer which resulted in fried pistons when both cars ran lean.