You never forget your first love. That’s why we look back with enthusiastic car owners at their very first car. In Jan Kik’s village, there was a Datsun 100A F2 that was equipped with a lot of accessories. Despite not having a driving license yet, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy this car.
You didn’t have your driving license yet, but you already owned this Datsun 100A F2. How did that happen?
“I used to see the Datsun around, and even then, I thought it was a beautiful car. At one point, it was in the showroom at the then Datsun dealer in Nieuwerkerk, Zeeland, where I lived at the time. I immediately knew: I have to have that one! I just bought it because I assumed I would pass my first driving test. That turned out differently, which meant the car stayed at the garage for another two months. The funny thing is that I failed because I drove too cautiously. I can’t imagine that now.”
The car was already equipped with a number of common accessories from that era, such as a spoiler, striping, and rear window louvers. What did you add yourself?
“I added two round high beams and a pair of square fog lights around the front bumper; that was also fashionable back then. For me, it was mainly about the looks, but a nice side effect was that you had a lot of light. That was handy in the dark Zeeland polders. Inside, the Datsun was quite sober, so I also made a kind of center console from some wooden plates covered with imitation leather. In that, I then built an equalizer to control music. That way, it looked like a more luxurious version, because otherwise, you just had an empty space behind the gear stick.”
In one year, you drove approximately 35,000 kilometers in the car. Why so much?
“At that time, I lived in Zeeland and served my military service in Schaarsbergen near Arnhem. I was actually reliant on public transport then, but I was completely fed up with it. I was on the road for four and a half hours because the connection wasn’t good. With the car, it only took me just under two hours, so that made quite a difference. Every week I would go back and forth, and that added up considerably. Besides that, I also drove a lot in my free time. I drove everywhere with my mates.”
You also went on holiday to Switzerland with the Datsun. How did that go?
“That you just drive to the mountains in such a small car, you can’t really imagine that now, but it was very normal back then. Everyone did it. We went with my mates’ parents to Switzerland, so I could just tag along behind their car. At one point, we drove from the valley up towards our holiday home, and that went at a considerable speed. When we were almost at the top, the Datsun stopped working. It had apparently overheated or something; it wouldn’t start again. We pulled the car aside, got into the other car, and ate something first. Then we went back, pushed the Datsun downhill, and then it started running again.”
What ultimately happened to the car?
“I had a summer job at a garage, so I once put my car on the lift to do something to it. Then, by chance, we suddenly saw that the rear wishbone was completely rotted through. I thought: oh dear, this is the end of the car. I don’t think we even checked if anything could be done about it; I immediately decided to get rid of the car. I then traded it in for my second car, an Opel Kadett D 1.2 petrol.”