Wednesday 21st August 2019

Nissan Pulsar GTI-R | Spotted

Rally reps are big news in classic circles nowadays - will the Pulsar join them?

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Those who keep a close eye on the classifieds will be aware. For others it might come as a shock. But the roadgoing rally cars of the 1990s are becoming very hot property as used buys, even if it only seemed like yesterday they were being razzed around your local one-way system.

Alright, so we're talking about the best of the best. We're talking about £70k for an Integrale and £100k for a 22B. The same again for an Escort Cosworth. It's bonkers. Even the Celica GT-Four, perennially in the doldrums (despite being the basis for a great cheat, and therefore cool), can now command up to £20k.

So where does that leave the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R? The car Nissan threw into the WRC ring to take on the likes of Subaru, Mitsubishi, Lancia, Ford et al with the advent of Group A has never been fondly remembered. Partly that's due to a lack of success (a third being its best result, with far more wins coming once adapted to Group N), but also a lack of image, even by rally car standards. Lancia had the heritage and romance, Ford had the UK fanbase, Subaru had that unique engine and, by 1995, a homegrown rally champ.

Which isn't to say the GTI-R didn't have a lot going for it as a production car. Don't forget that it's powered by the same SR20DET that did such sterling work (and still does) in various Silvias, and the ATTESA (Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-Terrain, dontcha know) four-wheel drive that was also found in Skylines. 'Mini GT-R' has been applied to the Pulsar on more than one occasion for its combination of enormous performance and clever chassis tech.

While assisted by the all-wheel drive traction, 5.4 seconds to 62mph is more than respectable, even today; 14.2 to 100 proves there's muscle to back up that initial dash, too. Combine that performance with the sort of compact, wieldy dimensions that would really suit the UK's tight roads and it's a surprise the Pulsar didn't find more favour. The image, as mentioned, combined with a chunky £20k price tag meant it always faced an uphill struggle, sadly.

Too late now, of course, the GTI-R is 25 years old and very much consigned to the status of curio. However, for those interested, there can't be many left on the planet better than this one. Although a JDM import rather than one of the UK Sunnys, it's absolutely immaculate: 45,000 miles, gleaming paintwork, not a single modification and stacks of history. 'POA' means there's no telling if the price is up quite where those others are, unfortunately; a less presentable car back in 2015 was £10k so could this be double that? More perhaps? Who knows.

While something this flawless couldn't be subjected to regular use, it would take greater willpower than possessed by us not to investigate just how good it might be over a British B-road. Because all the ingredients are there. The reality more likely is that the car takes pride of place in a collection alongside Type R Hondas, Spec C Subarus and RS Mitsubishis, where it will fit in just nicely. Or perhaps it will head back to Japan. Whatever the case, it's cause enough for some kind of muted, dorky celebration to see a Pulsar survive this far how the factory first intended. As always, we'd love to hear from whoever next decides to take the plunge...

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SPECIFICATION - NISSAN PULSAR GTI-R
Engine: 1,998cc, 4-cyl turbo
Transmission: 5-speed manual, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 230@6,400rpm
Torque (lb ft): 197@4,800rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: 279g/km
First registered: 1990
Recorded mileage: 45,000
Price new: £20,552
Yours for: £POA

See the original advert here

Search for a Nissan GTI-R here

[sidewinder500]

My first taste at the time of power.
Big bang turbos was nice to experience.
Nothing happened at 1k, 2k and from 3,5k it kicked vigorously.
Made for a price, though, inside plasticky and agricultural and on top the looks with the small wheels.
But, being Japanese, everything worked as it should, and probably still does.
Always dreamt of an Integrale, especially the latest one, but a friend had one and it was a mess to keep on top mechanically.
Oh, the nineties... thanks for the memories

[loskie]

Wasn't it rallied as a Nissan Sunny GTi here I the UK? IIRC Alister Macrae and the showman that is Jock Armstrong rallied them in the early to mid 90's. They were the Shell Scholarship cars

[Butter Face]

A good friend and I both had Civic VTI’s at the same time, he bought a Pulsar, I bought a 200SX.

Great times.

[scottygib553]

Best bet would be to buy this car and sell it to some teenager in America for double the money.

[Dale487]

I remember these looked really wild, from the out side, but it looks quite tame now.

[greenarrow]

I always thought these were very under-rated cars. Very quick out of the box for the time (faster accelerationg than an Escort Cossie) and I have an old Autocar from 1992 where Derek Warwick got one around Castle Combe faster than the then newish 964 Carrera. I think it may have come runner up that year to the winning Honda NSX. Great to see one, they look so tiny now compared with modern stuff. Its probably not all that much bigger than a VW Up!!

[cerb4.5lee]

I was a really big fan of these when I had my S14a 200sx, I came across one running 300bhp and he left me for dead(my 200sx was running about 250bhp) in a rolling race.

They have left their mark on me ever since. They are typical Nissan though with being very unexciting to look at...but great fun to drive and easy to live with.

[Sandpit Steve]

scottygib553 said:

Best bet would be to buy this car and sell it to some teenager in America for double the money.

Yup. The prices of all 'classic' Euro and Jap '90s cars are being driven way up by the USA's 25 year rule, whereby only older cars can be imported.

The trick is to buy '95 and '96 cars now, and wait a couple of years until you can sell them to Americans.

[Bluesmurff09]

A work colleague had one of these back in the day which had been mildly tuned and it kept up with a sports bike so it must have been pretty quick as the bike was trying to shake us off!

[skylarking808]

These are quicker in standard form than I remember.

Quirky looks and most were poorly modified at the time. Funny how all the modified 90s cars are now all commanding money in standard form, there obviously are a derth of original spec boy racer machines...

[Jamescrs]

Just as an aside does anyone else find the price as POA a complete turn off, no doubt someone who really wants this car will still call but in my opinion someone browsing for a modern classic more generally will gloss straight over it and move on.
I see it on owners groups too, people advertise a car for sale with no price, usually followed by a number of replies asking the said price only for the seller to reply "PM me". Whats the secret??

I feel better now for venting that

Edited by Jamescrs on Wednesday 21st August 10:15

[NewUsername]

Everything worked as it should...........briefly until the chocolate transmission warmed up. Desperately unreliable compared to its contemporaries at the time as the transmission was weak.

[RemyMartin81D]

Back in the mists of time when I was a wee whippersnapper, this was sort of a 'dream' car. I was rocking around in a R5 GTT and the thought of a 2.0 16v 4x4 in a hatch sounded too good to be true, then one day I drove one and it truly was woeful. Didn't feel hugely quick for what it was and the brakes.......Jesus the brakes, woeful does not come close. Huge disappointment and I'm sure you can improve everything on them but everyone I know who has had one has suffered a blow up of sorts

[lawrencec]

This is my teenage dream car when i was in secondary school, there was one that drove around the area the noise it made was obscene.

Now i own one 1993, 43k on the clock i love it its a bit of a dinosaur handling wise and the brakes are poor but with just short of 300bhp its very quick!

[Gary29]

I had a 300bhp one, it was laggy as fk, but kicked in like a sledgehammer once you got it above 3.5Krpm, even with Wilwood 4-pots the brakes were still crap.

I never broke my gearbox though. Weak forks and cases were weak points, nice and smooth shifts and some mechanical sympathy and the boxes would last, but then that kind of defeats the object of the car, so definitely a big issue.

[R400TVR]

Great little machines. I remember seeing a white Sunny and being amazed at the bonnet grille. Very tunable engine, but i think that they suffered if the wheels were changed to larger.

[loudlashadjuster]

A friend had a few of these, replaced more than a couple of gearboxes in his time with them.

[wolfie28]

Hero car of mine from my younger days. Friend of mine had tuned one and boy could it shift, such a laugh. Not a great advert in my opinion. Spec too much to list and POA??? Tells me the dealers are not really experienced in selling that sort of car i.e. they don't know the spec or what to price it at.

[rossub]

Sandpit Steve said:

scottygib553 said:

Best bet would be to buy this car and sell it to some teenager in America for double the money.

Yup. The prices of all 'classic' Euro and Jap '90s cars are being driven way up by the USA's 25 year rule, whereby only older cars can be imported.

The trick is to buy '95 and '96 cars now, and wait a couple of years until you can sell them to Americans.

As much as I'd like it to be true, I really can't imagine there is too much demand in the US for one of these.

[Jon_S_Rally]

loskie said:

Wasn't it rallied as a Nissan Sunny GTi here I the UK? IIRC Alister Macrae and the showman that is Jock Armstrong rallied them in the early to mid 90's. They were the Shell Scholarship cars

They were Sunny GTIs, so the FWD 2.0-litre normally aspirated ones, rather than the GTI-R. Tommi Makinen won the F2 class of British Rally Championship in one in '94, Alister McRae won it outright in one in 1995 and Mark Higgins won it in one in '97. It was a really good Group A 2WD car, but it got left behind by the Kit Cars in the end, as NME didn't develop it loads when they started working on the Almera Kit Car. Higgins did use a Kit Car spec engine in the Sunny towards the end of '97 though.

The Shell cars were clubman Group A spec I believe, so not quite as serious as the NME cars. David Winstanley had a Group N Sunny. A couple of the works Group A cars are still about in the UK I believe.