YELLOW FEVER

CLAYTON GOW HAD A PLAN TO BLOW SOCKS OFF IN THE SUMMERNATS TOP 60, AND THIS FINE DATSUN 1200 WITH A CABINET FULL OF SILVERWARE IS THE RESULT

- STORY KIAN HEAGNEY

IT TOOK just one stroll through the Top 60 Hall at Street Machine Summernats for Clayton Gow to want to go all out in pursuit of joining Australia's show-car elite.

"I was amazed, and I wanted in,” says Clayton, who decided right then and there that he'd leave no stone unturned on his Datsun 1200 build in order to do so. “The goal from that point was to make it into the Top 60," he says. “My wife and I had always had the dream of having a car capable of competing for Summernats Grand Champion and being in Street Machine.”

So, why was a Datsun 1200 ute his vehicle of choice for such a venture? Turns out Clayton has been a lover of little Dattos for the longest time. “I had a 1600 sedan with a 13B rotary, but I crashed it in 2006,” he says. “So, I got the 1200 ute to put the running gear out of the 1600 into, and then in 2007, this build kicked off.”

Unfortunately for Clayton, it still took from then until 2023 to get the ute finished. “I had two false starts with two different panel shops,” he says. “The first guy just up and left; I had to get the landlord to let me in to get my car! The second one was no better, and what was done had to be stripped back and started again, so that added up to a lot of lost time and money. Luckily, this final product was knocked out by Jason from Kustom Paint Refinishes, who fixed it all and prettied it up just how I'd imagined.”