Article by Cary McCallister and Kendel McCarley
Are there just not enough 510s in your area to gawk at? Nobody around that understands your small-car fixation? Whether you need some friendly advice on a technical problem or just want to drool over hot 510’s, if you have access to an internet provider with email and a web browser, there are resources available to help you.
The two best resources are the "Bluebirds" mailing list and "The 510 Web Page". The Bluebirds list allows you to have almost real-time discussions with other members interested in 510s (or Bluebirds, or 1600s, or whatever they're called in each member's country). The 510 Web Page (actually a collection of many pages) serves as an archive for JPEG images, MPEG movies, and text files for anyone interested in 510s. Both of these resources are available for free.
The Bluebirds mailing list is intended to benefit those interested in the Datsun 510 ( 1600, Bluebird ), produced in the '68 to '73 model years. The Bluebirds list was started a little over three and a half years ago by Ken Dye, who raced an ITC 510. Ken has moved on to bigger cars, but still can be found answering questions on the list. It just goes to show: you will never get 510s out of your blood.
You can join the bluebirds list by sending an email to bluebirds-request@hpcvts.cv.hp.com. Send a brief biography about yourself so we can get to know you better. In this message, make sure you state whether or not you want this information posted to the list. Once a month, we like to do a who's who. The list administrator, Cary McCallister, will add you to the list membership and send you back an email telling you how to use the service. It will explain the do’s and don'ts of mailing-list etiquette. It may take a few days if Cary is away from his computer, but once you're added, you'll be able to join in all the 510 discussion.
There are currently 183 members of the Bluebirds list, many of them international. You can read posts from Mexico City, New Zealand, and Russia, all in the same day. Topics for discussion can range from the highly technical to the extremely silly. On the same day, you can learn about milling your brake rotors to operate better in the rain, or read a 510 version of "The Night Before Christmas".
The mailing list is also a great way to meet other 510 owners and stay on top of all the latest dime-related news. All of the contributors and editors of this issue of DQ are members of the list. In fact, the idea for DQ was spawned out of a discussion on the list and most work on it done through email, even though some of us have never met any of the others.
The 510 web archive can be found using the following internet address: http://dimequarterly.tierranet.com. The site contains over eighty megabytes of 510-related material. There are many technical articles (as well as a few humorous ones), many pictures of engines, cars, Datsun literature, MPEG clips from the Nissan "Against All Odds" movie, and links to other Datsun-related sites. This web site serves as the unoffical site for the Bluebirds list, and is primarily updated with things sent in by the list members. Back issues of Dime Quarterly will also be available for download from the web site. Don't let the title of the web site throw you off, though. These pages aren't the only web pages for 510 owners, just the first to be established on the internet. Links to other sites include the Northwest Datsun Enthusiasts web pages (which includes their newsletter and classifieds), The Datsun Classifieds pages, and other web sites that focus on 510s.