Story by Jehran Naidoo – Pictures by Etienne Pretorius
For Gauteng speedster and all-round motor mechanic guru, Arno Joubert, making a 7-second pass at Tarlton Raceway in his 1970’s Datsun 1200 is a bittersweet memory.
Sweet because it’s an achievement that he’s worked over a decade trying to achieve.
Bitter because he got into trouble with officials at Tarlton, after exiting at 275km/h during an unsanctioned event.
The 3RZ turbo conversion was completed in 2020, with Arno fabricating and building everything at home.
“This bakkie has been around the block. It got completely rebuilt a couple years ago and I have been fine tuning ever since just to try and get it running perfectly. I think the bakkie is in a sweet spot at the moment before it goes pretty straight. I drove that 7-second run with one hand,” Arno said.
Arno, 37, bought the Datsun 1200 from a customer of his and was still a street sleeper at the time.
But Dicktator Management employee had other aspirations for one of South Africa’s Most loved bakkies.
‘Sweet ride, what you under there?’
“It has a Toyota Hilux engine in it. That is the 3RZ spec which is a 2.7 litre 4 cylinder petrol engine. Its fully worked, rods, pistons, crank; everything has been upgraded. It’s turbo charged and runs on full meth.
“I built the suspension at home, the roll cage and all of the fabrication were done at home. The bakkie runs on a Haltech Elite 2500 and has 31 inch slicks in the back,” Arno said.
Being more popular overseas, the 3RZ engine was chosen because of its efficiency and availability of parts. Upgrade parts can come “off the shelf”, Arno explained, making it easier to build and break.
The car gets tuned at Dicktator Management in-house dyno by Arno, who is also a bit of a “guru” when it comes to Haltech systems, according to fellow drag racer Meshen Naidoo.
Making around 950 horsepower at the wheels, Arno’s purple pocket rocket has taken a lot of sacrifice to get over the line in 7.86 seconds @ 275km/h.
Trouble is my middle name
“So that was a street to strip event at Tarlton. I think it was a couple of weeks back. We took the bakkie out to do some testing. We were not there to race but I ended up getting chased away because of the run.
“It was not a fully sanctioned event so the emergency services and public liability was a bit of an issue on the day. I think I am in a bit of trouble with Tarlton,” Arno told Auto Rush.
“Looking back, I was irresponsible and admittedly wrong for doing it. Lucky for me it was a good clean run but I will never attempt it again unless its a proper MSA event,” he remorsefully added.
Starting out in the drag racing scene at 17-years-old in a Ford Mk2 1600 Sport that had a Nissan V6 in it, Arno has come a long way and picked up a plethora of tricks along the way.
“It takes time. things don’t happen overnight. Especially in this game, if you want to go faster it becomes very costly. Like everything, racing is a journey. It took me a while to save up and buy all of the parts.
“It takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice, also sacrificing a lot of time with my family. I don’t think I ever would be here if it was not for my wife Yvette. She really made this dream possible for me. I almost gave up on the bakkie but she helped me see it through,” Arno said.
Auto Rush