Group A rallying may have felt a step down from the fire-breathing Group B monsters of the '80s, but it doubtlessly spawned some mighty road-going specials. With the ruleset requiring teams to run cars closely linked to their civilian counterparts, manufacturers spent millions developing machines that could win in the WRC before toning them down ever so slightly for us lot to muck about in. Without it, we’d never have had all-wheel drive greats like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, Subaru Impreza WRX and Lancia Delta HF Integrale.
Of course, those are the ones that took home the most silverware during Group A's golden era in the '90s, but for every championship winner there is a whole heap of homologation specials that never cut the mustard. For instance, the Escort RS Cosworth may be one of the great fast Fords even if it only managed a handful of wins in the WRC. On the more obscure side of things, Mazda created a barmy version of the 323 with well over 200hp on tap, while Volkswagen made its Mk2 hatch even boxier with the Rallye Golf. Both were a bit rubbish at rallying, but otherwise made immensely cool homologation specials that collectors would bite your arm off to own.
However, as cool-yet-unsuccessful rally hatches go, few hold a candle to the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R. Dubbed the Sunny in Britain, the GTI-R was a radical transformation of Nissan's woefully boring family hatchback for an assault on the WRC in '91. Chief among the upgrades was a 2.0-litre turbo engine developing 230hp, sending it along with 210lb-ft of torque across both axles via a five-speed manual gearbox. It’s said that a 0-62mph sprint could be achieved in just 5.5 seconds, which is almost identical performance to the 30 years newer Toyota GR Yaris.
Impressive performance for a Sunny, so little wonder Nissan wanted to make a song and dance about it. The GTI-R is famous for its outlandish body kit, comprising chunkier bumpers, a massive boot spoiler and a non-ironic bonnet bulge thanks to the positioning of the intercooler directly above the rally-prepped engine. And while interior tweaks were kept on the light side, the dials feature the GTI-R graphic and there are high-bolstered sports seats to stop you flailing around while charging down a tarmac stage.
If that’s not an invitation to hoon, I don’t know what is. And hoon is what many, many GTI-R owners tend to do in their homologation special, with some spending thousands on premium Japanese aftermarket upgrades to extract even sillier amounts of power. Nissan made nearly 15,000 of them, including those branded Sunny here in the UK, though finding one these days is incredibly difficult, let alone one that hasn’t been tuned to within an inch of its life. That makes this JDM-spec GTI-R a bit of a unicorn, remaining in completely stock condition over the last 26 years and 42,000 miles.
Every inch looks immaculate, with no reported scuffs or faded paintwork, while the engine bay looks as fresh as the day it left the factory. It even comes fitted with some rare factory extras, such as a tri gauge cluster in the centre console and a very '90s passive radiator speaker (or DDPR in Nissan speak) in the parcel shelf. A suburb example of a cult rally hero, and as such there’s a mighty sizeable asking price. The seller’s looking for £28,995, and while GTI-Rs don’t come cheap, they can certainly be had for less than this. But this isn’t any old GTI-R, it’s as close to a box-fresh example as we may ever see and would be a fantastic addition to any rally fan’s collection. So what’ll it be: this, or a lightly used GR Yaris?
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