The Nissan Pulsar GTI-R Was The GR Yaris Before It Was Cool

It doesn’t take much debate to agree that the homologation special is, for the most part, a dead concept. Top-level rallying has moved so far away from production cars that the main purpose of these thoroughbred specials simply isn’t required anymore.

The closest thing on sale today is the Toyota GR Yaris, introduced when WRC required 2,500 examples of a car to be built before it could go rallying – something that was ultimately dropped before the GR came to market. The production car lived on, though, remaining a sole throwback to those days of boost-heavy, normal traffic-based road-going rally monsters.

While the most memorable of those of the Group A era in the late ‘80s and throughout the ‘90s remain the likes of the various Subaru Impreza WRX STIs and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, the Lancia Delta Integrales and the Toyota Celica GT-Fours, there are some deep cuts too.

Among those is the Nissan Pulsar GTI-R, a car you may be mostly familiar with from the Gran Turismo 2 used car dealership.

The GTI-R’s framework was of the very humble, quite miserable N14 Pulsar hatchback, known to us in the UK and Europe as the Sunny. The Pulsar and Sunny are not-so-fondly remembered, being quite frankly An Car™ for the most part – small four-cylinder engines, front-wheel drive, and little else to write home about. Perfect for a turbocharged rally monster then.

Introduced in 1990, the GTI-R borrowed the SR20DET 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot from the Bluebird (and best known for its later use in the Silvia), good for 227bhp and 209lb ft of torque in road-going form. 

That would be delivered to Nissan’s clever torque-splitting ATTESA all-wheel drive system, including centre and rear differentials, through a five-speed manual gearbox. All that, in a car weighing 1220kg. A recipe for hilarity if there ever was one.

You’d tell a Nissan Pulsar GTI-R on a road by its gigantic aftermarket-looking bonnet scoop and extended rear wing. Oh, and probably the TSUSUSUSUS coming from its turbo blow-off valve as it went past you.

According to the dedicated GTI-R registry (yes, such a thing exists), a total of 13,842 Pulsars left Nissan’s factory, and just 771 of the European Sunny GTI-Rs before going off sale in 1994. 

No surprise, then, they’re a rare find today, and most in the UK are imported JDM-spec cars. The market seems to have realised how cool they are, too – the cheapest tidy car we’ve found for sale at the time of writing comes in at £20,000. Go for a concours example, and you’re looking at near-enough £40,000. At least they’re still cheap on GT2…

Then again, it’s not the rarest of all of the Nissan Pulsar homologation specials. Here’s your reminder that the VZ-R N1 existed.