Recently the collector car world has shifted. Although interest remains for established sectors, a new generation of enthusiasts has arrived with a passion for more modern machinery. This shift is now impacting the vintage racing scene where the definition of “vintage racecar” will continue to evolve.
One sector involved in the momentum toward modern that’s captured my interest is rally cars. Seeking world domination, several manufacturers developed vehicles to compete in the World Rally Championship (WRC). Because the rules often necessitated homologation, enough cars had to be built to demonstrate they were a production automobile, even if they were in fact an all-out racing tool. Over the past five years I’ve been studying rally cars with the goal of adding one to my collection.
The term “weapons grade” has come to be overused in modern times, but how else would one describe the Group B racers of the 1980s? These were the ultimate rally cars, somewhat analogous to what Can-Am was to road-course racing. Among my favorite Group B cars are Lancia’s 037 and Delta S4, Peugeot’s 205 T16, Ford’s RS200, and Audi’s Sport Quattro. Of course in 2017 there’s just one small problem…price; with virtually all Group B cars now heavy-six-figure machines. So I may just grit my teeth until the urge passes. This is not to say I’ve given up on rally cars. In fact there are still some buying opportunities, and I recently acquired one that has yet to catch fire in the market.
My recent acquisition is a genuine homologated racing machine with the model having multiple WRC appearances. It’s blazingly fast, wonderfully nimble, and the turbocharged engine drives all four wheels. If that isn’t enough to grab you let me add this: You can still get a nice example for less than $15,000.
The car I’m describing is the Nissan Pulsar GTiR (N14), a three-door hatchback that fits into a category known as “hot hatches.” Production ran from August 1990 to November 1994, with 13,832 units built but none sold in the U.S.A. Designed with the specific purpose of winning international rallies, the Pulsar GTiR had speed, balance and agility. Powered by a 1998cc 16-valve DOHC inline 4-cylinder engine equipped with a Garret turbocharger producing 227 hp, the N14 roared to 60 mph in a blistering 5.2 seconds with a top speed of 144 mph. The rest of the car was equally race-ready with four-wheel independent suspension and disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, and a five-speed all-synchro gearbox.
The GTiR was available in two basic models. The luxury GTI-RA was a road-going vehicle with modern amenities including air conditioning, power windows and ABS brakes. The GTI-RB was built for Group N rallying. The interior trim was much simpler than the RA and air conditioning, power windows, and ABS were deleted (unless specified by the customer), shaving 66 pounds from the RB. Mechanically the RA and RB were similar and the engine packages were identical. Of note, the RB came with a close-ratio gearbox and LSD as compared to the open differential of the RA. The RA and RB cost roughly 2,270,000 Japanese Yen ($22,271). The total production runs of the RA and RB were 13,131 and 701, respectively.
Little information was available on the N14, and the deeper I dug the more confused I became regarding various special editions. JDM Expo Co., Ltd. of Japan (www.jdm-expo.com) deals in Japanese Domestic Market cars and was wonderful sharing information. With much help from mechanic Chikayuki Ohta and salesman Abror, I learned the spectrum of special edition cars produced. The name “Sunny” was used for European-delivered examples. Group A rally cars were not sold to the public and were used by Nissan Motorsports Europe to compete in the WRC. Autech, a Japanese tuning company, upgraded some RB models and sold them as special editions. The undisputed Holy Grail GTiR was the ultra-rare “Nismo” edition.
Nissan Motorsports International (“Nismo”) has been the in-house performance/racing division of Nissan since 1984. Based on model RB, Nismo produced few (21 or less) built-to-order cars with a long list of rally options. Some N14 Nismos were used by Nissan for promotional purposes and others were ordered by customers. Each car had a serialized Nismo identification plate. The Nismo edition was always special and pricey; MSRP 3,140,000 Japanese Yen ($30,807).
For years I’ve been hunting for an N14 Nismo. In all that time I’ve not been able to find a single car. I’m not talking about a car for sale, just one to study or an owner to speak with. All that changed in June of 2016 when I spotted a short string of internet posts about Nismo #005. It took several emails to get the poster to respond, and after much pacing I received a response: “My name is Marc L’Heureux. I am a 30-year-old French Quebecois who sold his home seven years ago to buy my Nismo. This is the car of my dreams and I have lovingly stored it in my garage.”
Then the unexpected follow-up email, “I need money. I’m interested in selling this car to re-invest in bitcoin mining rigs.” Excited and confused, I quickly emailed back. Thus began a four-day odyssey of emails trying to figure out what the hell bitcoin mining is all about.
According to Wikipedia, “Bitcoin is a digital asset and payment system (that is) peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public ledger…which uses bitcoin as its unit of account…The U.S. Treasury categorizes bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency, also known as cryptocurrency…Bitcoins are created as a reward for payment processing work in which users offer their computing power to verify and record payments into the public ledger. This activity is called mining and miners are rewarded with transaction fees and newly created bitcoins.”
L’Heureux wrote, “If you purchase my car I will buy a powerful machine that mines bitcoins at 13 terahash per second. I cherish my Nismo, but must sell it to earn monthly bitcoin income. The mining rigs take up hydroelectricity and generate a stock-exchangeable cryptocurrency in the form of bitcoins. It’s a gold mine with computer power.”
Crystal clear…right?
Having hunted hidden treasures for more than 20 years, the one lesson I’ve learned is when you locate an impossible-to-find automobile and a willing seller, get the deal done ASAP, even if their motivation is beyond your wildest comprehension.
L’Heureux emailed me photos of his car confirming it was Nismo #005 with many special Nismo-only factory components. The car was running and in reasonable condition. Agreeing to pay more than I should have, the deal was done. The car was in Notre-Dame-du-Nord, Quebec, Canada, which is located precisely in the middle of nowhere. However, as luck would have it my colleague Mark Evans was headed to Rochester, New York, for an unrelated matter. Evans agreed to drive from Rochester to No-Where-Ville, pay L’Heureux, and trailer it back to my shop (Houston). To get the car across the border I hired Auto Import USA. I’ve imported many cars that were 25 years old from other countries without a problem. No worries with a 1991 Pulsar Nismo…or so I thought.
A few days after hiring Auto Import USA I received a distressing email from company specialist Andrew West; “I just learned the car you’re importing is a Japanese right-side-drive Nissan. Pulsars, Skylines, etc. are anathema to U.S. Customs, and are hugely problematic. We need a signed letter on Nissan stationary with a brief description. We must establish that the vehicle is older than 25 years because otherwise it simply cannot be imported into the U.S.” WOW! Talk about a mood killer.
Resigned there was no way I could get a letter from Nissan I called my good car-buddy Myron Vernis for some automotive love-lost sympathy. Instead, Vernis reminded me of our mutual friend at Nissan who immediately swung to action. A few days later my InBox went ding with a data card from Nissan’s FAST System and a signed letter on Nissan letterhead documenting the build-date as October 1990. Problem solved! A few weeks later my Nismo arrived in Houston and it was everything I hoped it would be. This was my first homologated rally car and it was fun, nifty and blindingly fast.
The Nissan Pulsar GTiR has not yet hit the radar screen of most car collectors and “performance bargain” does not begin to describe this automobile. My favorite rally car of all time is the four-wheel-drive, supercharged and turbocharged Lancia Delta S4, and I remember when street versions could be had for reasonable money. The Pulsar GTiR is five years newer than the Delta S4 and the Pulsar is getting ready to begin its substantial appreciation cycle (no guarantees, just my opinion!). Other than a true Group A works rally car, the RB model is the one to have, and if you can find an Autech or Nismo edition, grab it now, before it’s too late.
The Delta S4 is Italian, cost more than a very nice home, is ultra-exotic and therefore ultra-finicky. The Pulsar GTiR is Japanese, currently costs less than a Delta S4 engine-tune, is exotic in its own right, and fires to action every single time you turn the key.
Is the Nissan Pulsar GTiR a vintage racecar? I don’t know. But in showroom condition it’ll trounce an unmodified Delta S4 to 60 mph and likewise outpace it on top speed. Just sayin’.
