A way better road car than it was a rally car that hosted a current and future star, that’s the ultimate lasting irony of the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R.
Built by Nissan Motorsports Europe to compete in the 1991 and 1992 Group A World Rally Championship.
With four-time WRC champion Tommi Makinen involved in its test and development, and Stig Blomqvist taking the car to its best ever Group A result of third place on the 1992 Rally of Sweden, the Pulsar (Sunny, to be precise, as raced in the WRC), never really realised much success, in an era where Lancia and Toyota dominated.
Success did happen, however, in the WRC Group N production championship, with Gregoire De Mevius claiming the 1992 title.
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Still, with 15,000 made, the GTI-R, as little brother to the all-conquering Skyline GT-R, was a very capable stablemate, that 30 years on is proving the forgotten JDM star and performance car. Where once they roamed many streets in the 1990s and 2000s, spotting an unmolested GTI-R these days is becoming increasingly rare.
What’s ever rare is the Nismo version, a stripped out car built for rally: just 21 examples built. The RB models featured cheap seats and steering wheel, no carpets, basic radio and a host of optional parts from the Nismo catalogue, including the red, blue and black graphics.
Number 13 appeared on USA website Bring a Trailer, recently, where it went to auction and sold for a massive price of US$88,500 (NZ$158,000), demolishing the previous record of $43,000 from a car sold in Europe in 2021.
This record-setter was a little more special: with just 4700km, it was owned by the CEO of Nismo Japan, Takao Katagiri, and was shown at the 2022 New York Auto Show.
While road car prices aren’t quite in that level, or that of its GT-R sibling, like many JDMs of the era, they are indeed on the rise.
