RE: Shed of the Week: Nissan Primera GT

RE: Shed of the Week: Nissan Primera GT

Friday 24th February 2017

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?
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!
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
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.

BAD

ABS has intermittent fault believe one of the sensors.

Air Con not working probably just needs a recharge

Minor bumps and scrapes have some pictures

Inside in good condition but there is wear and tear

Please contact me for further details.

 

 

 

 


 

Author
Discussion

legalknievel

Original Poster:

352 posts

196 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Nice shed.

A bit of an unknown champion this thing?

Butter Face

30,192 posts

159 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
What a cracking shed, that colour itself is worth the money! hehe

olliete

403 posts

110 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Big fan - reminds me of playing TOCA

hammo19

4,899 posts

195 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Fabulous car the Primera GT. An eGT saloon in the BTCC black Castrol colours please.....

The Don of Croy

5,976 posts

158 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Another fan here - had an Almera with THAT engine and it is a rorty number...

As it happens, I may need a short term gap-filler soon. Shame it's more than two hours away.

ecsrobin

17,023 posts

164 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
pistonheads said:
What's good about these cars is the unkillable 148hp 2.0-litre chain-driven twin-cam engine
I was getting a lift to Winchester once from a friend in a primera GT, in return I valeted the car that morning took some photos and we put it up for sale. That afternoon on the M27, BANG pullover at the Ford plant to find a nice hole where the con rod had decided to punch through. I never did get to Winchester!

s m

23,164 posts

202 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
legalknievel said:
Nice shed.

A bit of an unknown champion this thing?
Cut price Accord Type R thumbup

hundleydavid

215 posts

236 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
My god I had forgotten about these cars.

Reuters gave me one as a company car back in the day. It sadly only made it to 6months old as drowned in a rather large flood in Oxfordshire.

I never did warm to it!

J4CKO

41,287 posts

199 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
I drove one of these when they were new, I had a 140 bhp MK1 Golf GTI at the time which I thought was the dogs whatsits, it made it feel like the heap it was, quick, handled very nicely, lovely seats, aircon ! so it left me feeling like mine was a right old woofer.

Nearest nowadays I suppose is an Octavia VRS, i.e. not for badge snobs, a good package but not mental power, but enough to enjoy.

Shame about the rust as even if you were inclined to get it fettled, getting that paint to match, and buying it in the first place could be a nightmare, best just enjoy it for what it is, then the banger lads will have it, they love a Primera.

texr2000

59 posts

108 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
The abs kicking in at low speed could be a broken ABS ring like mentioned. Easy fix if is that just a CV joint no need for a shaft. Use to change these all the time when working on them at the dealer.

Good cars these engines went really well and handeled pretty good. Been awhile since i drove one so dunno what there like 10years further on...

Edited by texr2000 on Friday 24th February 09:22

s m

23,164 posts

202 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Sat alongside Mr Needell in one of these as well at Donington when they did the Nissan promo days.
His first task was to drive flat out towards the back of a bus ... Then swerve at the last minute to demo the handling and ABS

Caused a few gasps from the passengers in the back who hadn't arrived in time to see the bus being 'inflated'

In the afternoon passengered with David Leslie in a BTCC replica ( standard engine ) - entertaining to see him try and keep up with Chris Goodwin in the R33 GTR doing similar demos.

Car impressed me for a 4/5 door saloon/hatch so I bought one a few years later as a cheapish runaround.

littlebasher

3,767 posts

170 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Air con needs a recharge...scratchchin

rucky544

13 posts

85 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Great shed. I had a GTSE saloon for a few years before my Accord Type R.

I believe there was only 100 of the saloons made in this colour. I even had a tin of the KV7 mystic green paint at the time I owned the car.

Mine was written off thanks to a woman driving into the side of it and the crazy price of the paint.I bought it back, fixed it up and sold it on to make an overall profit over my ownership. Not many 4 door saloons you can do that with.

MorganP104

2,605 posts

129 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
littlebasher said:
Air con needs a recharge...scratchchin
Ah yes, that old chestnut! biggrin

I had a '95 P10 2.0 eGT 5-door a few years ago, which I bought for sub-shed money. The best thing about the car was its screaming twin-cam engine, which I think revved all the way round to 8,000rpm.

I used to drive that thing like I stole it, mainly because anything below 6,000rpm in any given gear felt a bit slow!

Took it into a garage to have them look over the suspension. They told me it needed shocks all round, bushes all round, and a couple of arms. Suffice to say, it got none of that.

Shortly after that, it got punted to a geezer from North London for the princely sum of £400.

I wouldn't say I miss that car, but I do have fond memories of it. smile

grumpy52

5,565 posts

165 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
I owned a hatch version in met blue and also looked after an ex Team Rosberg European super tourer from the Spanish championship .

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
The old AC needs a 'regas' line and it's fitted with a K&N filter?

One for the avoid list methinks!

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Ad said:
ABS has intermittent fault believe one of the sensors.
So fix it.

Ad said:
Air Con not working probably just needs a recharge
So regas it.

Seriously. Did anyone ever read 'just needs a regas' ever, and believe it?


Digga

40,207 posts

282 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Back in the day, a guy arrived at our offices for a meeting in one of these. Flip-flop paint looked the dog's bks - at the time I had TVRs and they were just about the only other cars you really saw it on - and the guy was well pleased with how the thing went. Nice to see it getting some appreciation.

poosemon

226 posts

198 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Cracking SOTW, had one of these and was fantastic.

Only thing that went wrong on mine, which wasnt uncommon from what i understand, was the driveshaft snapping, happened half way up a steep hill which was intereting!!!

Did get me in trouble on a very spirited drive back from work across Dartmoor, didnt notice an unmarked police car in a village and was greeted a few miles down the road by a blockade and a minute later the pursuing police car...whoops and lesson learnt!!

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Friday 24th February 2017
quotequote all
Good shed and I think for the money it's a future classic. Certainly not going to lose money on it!

I just couldn't buy a car that colour(s) though! It looks bloody awful, ruins it. Black, red, blue, even silver would be better!