Nissan Sunny GTI-R | Spotted
Rare as hen's teeth and not much to look at, the GTI-R is cult classic gold
It’s hard to think of a drearier hatchback than a Nissan Sunny. With multiple generations and variants spanning the course of nearly six decades, not one stands out as being clever enough to warrant the sort of praise a VW Golf gets, nor are there any stinkers to lambast like we would do, say, a Hyundai Accent. Or an Austin Montego. Or a CityRover.
Obviously, Nissan never saw a reason to make the Sunny anything more than a cheap and practical motor car. Its sole purpose was to sell in vast numbers and provide people with many years of solidly mediocre motoring. That being said, even the most magnolia of machinery needs zhuzhing up a bit to draw the punters in. Why else would Volvo enter an 850R estate into the British Touring Car Championship? Or Ford ditch the dinkier Fiesta as the template of its WRC car for the chunkier Puma?
Nissan found itself in a similar situation in the early 1990s. After launching the N14 generation at the turn of the decade, it turned its attention to motorsport to inject a little desirability. The WRC’s Group A regulations were chosen for the job, where it’d go up against the equally joyless Mazda 323. However, with Group A regs essentially being a jazzed-up production class, the Sunny would be eaten alive if Nissan didn’t make drastic changes. And so it released the car you see here, the GTI-R; comfortably the coolest Nissan Sunny that has ever existed.
Sold under the Pulsar name its home country, the Sunny GTI-R nailed the homologation special brief with wonderfully ridiculous styling and nearly double the horsepower of the next car down in the line-up. Under the massive vented bonnet bulge sits Nissan’s SR20DET 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder motor, which also appears in several Silvia variants. It develops 220hp in the Sunny GTI-R, or 10hp down on the Pulsar version due to different fuel and ignition maps in the ECU to compensate for the lower octane fuel available in Europe at the time. Nevertheless, the Sunny GTI-R was still capable of hitting 62mph in 5.5 seconds flat, or 0.2 seconds faster than a Ford Escort RS Cosworth. That’s blistering pace for any car, let alone a Sunny.
Of course, it helped that power was sent to the road via both axles, you know, for rally purposes. Unfortunately, all the hard work Nissan put in to transform the Sunny into a rally weapon proved to be in vain. It was no match for the Lancia Deltas, Cossies and Subaru Legacies of the era, racking up a sole podium finish with third place at the 1992 running of Rally Sweden.
So the GTI-R won’t be mentioned in the same breath as the Impreza or Evo any time soon, but its brash looks and genuine performance make it something of a hidden gem in the homologation sphere. If there’s ever been a GTI-R itch you’ve been wanting to scratch, this is the car to do it. It’s a right hooker - one of only 103 for Europe, according to the ad – and it’s only covered just 22,500 miles since leaving the factory in 1993. And with rally special editions such as the 22B and Tommi Makinen Edition commanding stratospheric money at the moment, the £21,995 asking price for this GTI-R seems a tad more bearable.
SPECIFICATION | NISSAN SUNNY GTI-R
Engine: 1,998cc four-cylinder, turbocharged
Transmission: 5-speed manual, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 230@6,400rpm
Torque (lb ft): 197@2,600rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: 297g/km
Year registered: 1993
Recorded mileage: 22,500
Price new: £20,552
Yours for: £21,995
given how car prices have gone I wonder if this one is a bit of a bargain?
Loves these as a kid, I have fond memories of Mark Higgins blasting the Almera kit car through Castletown harbour on the Isle of Man
I thought all of them ended up with 5” diameter tail pipes and aftermarket alloys. This one has seemingly been spared that fate, so could well be an astute purchase at that price as a seemingly standard car with such low mileage. Look at the little wheels!
Daft thing is I'd still have an unmolested one as there's just something about them.
I came across a tuned up version of these when I had the 200(that was tuned to around 250bhp), and we were rolling side by side and we both booted it and he absolutely battered me! I got chatting to him a bit further down the road and his Sunny GTI-R was running about 350bhp he said!
In some ways they are a bit of a sleeper I reckon(especially when tuned). I'd love one.
Daft thing is I'd still have an unmolested one as there's just something about them.
Given prices of other marques it seems like it could still gain more!
The bonnet bulge to end all bonnet bulges
I think s m on here calls them the interwarmer!
Not a looker but still something about them.
One of the neighbours kids has a the Mazda 323 from the same era which looks and sounds great and was dirt cheap. Good left field choice for him but he knows his old school hatches.
Really wanted one of those back in the day but stuck with 205 gti then moved into m3’s. You remember when BMWs were good looking…
Would see them on the start line at Santa Pod & Shakespeare Raceway and felt sorry for the other guy, as the power to weight of these was hard to beat.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff