I'm sure you had more of 'em running around down there, Ray. I had a friend with a little '50s era Austin 2dr sedan, that he drove for over 20 years. Of course, that may have been one of a million! He might have never stopped driving it, but was "T-Boned" by a pickup. (Luckily, only got a scratch, himself) My impression was the engines were tough as nails. Isn't that the same engine family as the mini cars used?
I agree about the Datsun engines, too. In fact, I have a 1200 Datsun push-rod engine sitting my garage, while I try to figure out what to put it in. It was rebuilt after nearly 200,000 miles! A .010 overbore cleaned up the cylinders and the crank miked out perfect!
