WILLING ACCOMPLICE

REVENGE AND A HINO CAR HAULER SPAWNED BRE'S DATSUN RACING LEGACY.

- BRENDAN MCALEER

WYATT EARP'S SINGLE-ACTION COLT. The katanas of the 47 rōnin. Throughout history, there have been many famous weapons of revenge and retribution, but one of the most unusual has to be a Sixties Hino race transporter truck with a Cadillac V-12. Wearing the red, white, and blue Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) livery, what looks to be a humble race hauler sits at the heart of a SoCal rivalry that stretched across the Pacific. It was the spark that ignited a racing dynasty that put Datsun first on the podium and then on the map for U.S. customers as a performance brand.

We begin in the early Sixties at a shop in Ven-ice Beach, California: Shelby American. Carroll Shelby, recently forced to hang up his driving career due to heart trouble, hired a young racer and former General Motors designer named Peter Brock as an instructor at Shelby's newly formed School of High Performance Driving. Brock was his first paid employee.

Brock had a stellar career with Shelby American—for a short time. He helped design elements of the Shelby GT350 and the World's GT Championship-winning Daytona Cobra Coupe. But then Ford called on Shelby with a lucrative contract. The aim: win Le Mans at all costs. It was the beginning of the real story behind Ford v Ferrari, but with Ford's money and engineering capabilities, Shelby no longer needed Brock's input. So Brock was off the Shelby payroll, and the Texan was off Brock's Christmas-card list.

“Carroll never said thank you or goodbye or anything. It was like I never existed,” Brock says.