We can well imagine if the Nissan Sunny GTI-R either means nothing (anymore), or is tucked away very far in your memory. Too bad, because it was quite a memorable creation. We concluded that exactly 30 years ago, when we first drove it.
The Nissan Sunny as it stood in the showroom in the early 90s, was not necessarily the most sparkling car of the moment. However, that strongly depended on which version you had. As a three-door hatchback, the Sunny, for example, already looked a lot smoother than as a five-door and then you could also dress it up fairly sporty. However, the absolute crème de la crème was for the lucky few. That was the Sunny GTI-R.
The fact that it was not for everyone was primarily due to the fact that there was not an endless stream of copies available. After all, it was a limited homologation model for Nissan’s Group A WRC car at the time. Anyone who wanted one in the Netherlands could only do so on order. Just walking into a dealership, meeting one in the showroom and pulling the checkbook was not an option. It is estimated that less than 1,000 of these have been sold in all of Europe.
So it was a very special thing and you could tell right away. The somewhat well-behaved carriage of the Sunny was equipped in various places with things that were quite out of tune with the rest. The biggest eye catcher was of course the bump on the hood containing the four air intakes in a row. He also had two more, flat on the hood. Not a superfluous luxury, because underneath there was a large intercooler, which thus got enough air. The intercooler was supposed to keep a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine cool, basically the same block as in the WRC car. In the rally-Sunny the power source was good for no less than 300 hp and 323 Nm, in the Sunny GTI-R it was slightly milder but still quite bizarre for its time and class: 220 hp and 267 Nm, still outside Europe slightly more: 230 hp and 280 Nm.
As you can imagine, that made the Sunny a bloody but also bloody fast hatchback. The car was able to distribute its forces well over the asphalt thanks to a permanent four-wheel drive, especially thanks to the viscous couplings. Whoever operated the wonderfully accurate five-speed gearbox could accelerate from standstill to 100 km/h in just 5.2 seconds. In a Sunny! The top speed was also not skimped on: it reached 227 km/h, with the wind at your back you could even reach 230 km/h. Contrast that with the sportiest versions of its competitors from that time: they see the Sunny disappearing on the horizon with its hefty roof spoiler.
When we drove the Sunny GTI-R exactly 30 years ago, we described it as ‘wolf in wolf’s clothing’, although we think it looks rather modest with retroactive effect (except for the air intakes). Especially if you know what the car is capable of. What was also striking was that the Sunny GTI-R could be very fast, but was not always an untamed beast. “He doesn’t protest at all against being used as a shopping car. Driving quietly in the city, he pretends he was made for it. He purrs like a contented cat. But if you kick them on the tail, you wake up the beast in him. Then purr he no longer roars like a cat, but roars like a lion.”
We are curious how many Sunny’s GTI-R there are still in the Netherlands. One if all goes well, this black one that we could test ourselves six years ago. They are extremely rare anyway and if you wanted to get your hands on one, you probably won’t be ready for less than €20,000. Then you have something very special in your hands.