Shed of the Week: Nissan Primera GT

Play at Anthony Reid - or a 90s minicabber done good - with this BTCC inspired Primera

Mrs Shed loves the opera. Even though most of the Go Compare-style chaps who take part in that art form are not exactly lookers, she recognises and pays homage to their talent. Indeed, you'd be amazed to see what she'll do for a tenor.

Is it green?

The Nissan Primera P11 GT is a similar kind of story. Not the most exciting looking vehicle ever built, but there's no doubting the motorsport heritage.

In the 1999 British Touring Car Championship, the Vodafone Nissan Primera GT wiped the floor with the opposition, with Laurent Aiello and David Leslie winning half of the 26 races on the schedule. To celebrate, Nissan released a GTLE road car with 16in Enkeis and four conventional paint choices of red, black, silver or blue.

We only mention the paint thing because one year before, when David Leslie, Anthony Reid and Tiff Needell were warming up Nissan's BTCC effort with two race wins, Nissan knocked out 300 (or possibly 400) special edition Primera GTSEs doused in green/purple 'flip' Chromaflair paint, adding 16in AZEV wheels, a two-tone leather steering wheel, leather Momo gearknob and full leather seats with green piping.

What's good about these cars is the unkillable 148hp 2.0-litre chain-driven twin-cam engine and the more than acceptable handling of the Dirk Schoysman/Nurburgring-developed chassis. Shortish gearing does mean that the upper areas of the rev range need to be firmly explored for meaningful progress, and it won't be a peaceful experience as you'll be turning 3,500rpm in top at the legal limit.

Is it purple? The mystery!

Wazzing it past the 4,000 mark on the way up to the 130mph top whack never gets old, but the firmness of the suspension might. The trade-off is pointy steering, strong braking through 280mm vented front discs and surprisingly high levels of grip.

Those well-stuffed seats are as comfy as they look, the driving position is excellent and you've got the full practicality of a five-door, five-seat car, albeit one with a diabolically large turning circle.

The gearbox can suffer from synchro stickiness in fifth and have difficulty getting into reverse if the oil level isn't monitored. If you're really lucky you'll get the full BTCC straight-cut gear whine too (only without the straight-cut gears). ABS rings can fail. That's hardly GT-specific, but in this case rust will often require you to fit a new driveshaft rather than just the ring. You may as well anyway as the driveshafts are not the strongest.

The vendor mentions an ABS sensor issue. If you can feel the ABS kicking in at low speed it will almost certainly be the sensor, as he says. That will be an MOT fail, and again rust may complicate the repair. Top links and bushes wear out but replacements are not expensive. The headlights can be a pain but they've been replaced here. Dampness gets through the sunroof and the LCD panel on the head unit regularly fritzes out.

Should still be a decent drive at least. Ahem

To be fair, this specimen is not a minter. A couple of years ago, tinworm brought down both inner sills. This was fixed to get the car through the MOT, and owners have generally done their best to arrest the flow of oxidisation underneath. The last MOT revealed a non-prescribed hole in the boot floor, and even a blind man would be able to tell that rust has grabbed onto the hatch and one wing. None of this is structural. Because Chromaflair is ruinously expensive and difficult to apply, the cost of sorting it would be a bit silly, and there are a lot worse things to be worrying about nowadays. Like that Go Compare bloke with the DJ and the sprung moustache, or that insurance bloke with the huge backside.

Here's the ad.

Nissan Primera GT 1998 Mystic Green Limited Edition asking £850 or reasonable offers.

I will not go into all the details as I am sure you will be aware of the specs for this car.

I will now list the good and bad re this car.

GOOD

MOT due on 10/10/2017

123671 genuine miles

K&N 57i induction Air filter

Magnecor KV85 Ignition HT Leads

Tyres in good condition

HID fitted low beam and fog lights.

Numerous spare parts for GT version which including lights clusters and four alloy GT wheels with tyres.