Nissan K10 March Super Turbo

The turbo supercharged engine is nothing new these days with most manufacturers, particularly VW, fitting them to their new cars to keep emissions down. Back in 1989 though when the turbo ruled at the top of the hot hatch performance tree, strapping on a supercharger was very different. So why was such a car built? Racing.

Nissan Boga

Spacious, family crossover looks, 1.5ltr frugal engine, solar powered ventilation system, sounds just like any modern concept and to a degree it even looks like one. This concept though was built in 1989 as the future of the city vehicle, it even had automatic closing doors. Think they nailed it with this one, well even if it was 20 years later. Not much information on this just a good example of what was a concept now in use a daily vehicle.

Autech Zagato Stelvio

I know odd isn’t it; I had never seen one or knew about it until I was casually thumbing through the classifieds in “Classic Weekly” preparing my lottery win wish list. The look of the car in the small pic peaked my interest then how rare the seller said it was!!!! I’m getting ahead of myself, the car does quiet some miles during its construction and delivery. Autech is a custom wing of Nissan, in Japan all car manufacturers are required to offer a custom version of their cars for disabled drivers offered direct from the car builder, most set up special specific companies to do this.

SSZ Stradale

When a car looks like it is right, and by looking at the proportions on this racer come road car, my its so right.

Finding information on this car is fairly scarce, from what i could find out it was built in Wisconsin by a racer for racing, particularly for GT2 racing in the early 1990's. It was built as a "kit car" that was supplied complete in road going spec, powered with either the legendary Alfa Romeo V6 which would do 0-60 in under 6 seconds for $50,000, or a Nissan 300ZX derived turbo V6 in racing guise.

Nissan Pulsar NX

Sold in Japan, Australia and the US, this 3rd generation car was sold with an interchangeable rear, between 1986-90!!!! The dealership sold it as either an open top coupe (with its t-bar roof) or a hatchback/estate depending on what rear section was provided. It’s similar to an idea from Mercedes VRC, but on a server budget. I suppose it was meant to be a car for all users and could be changed to suit your life style at the time. To me it just doesn’t look finished, like part kit car, all's good up to the B pillar then oh dear. Still its unusual so found its way on here.

Straman Nissan 300ZX Convertible

This is another convertible produced by coachbuilder Starman (the ones behind the dealer offered Honda CRX Convertible). They would take an angle grinder to just about any car and this has to be one of the more successful offerings. With 352 first generation 300ZX's built between 1984 and 89, it’s still a rare car. The new rear deck was made from fibreglass as the prototypes full metal deck was deemed too heavy, especially for the non turbo cars, especially with all the additional strengthening cross bracing. The majority of the interior remained as it was out of the factory. The price for this conversion $8,500 on top of the $30,000 for the car.

Nissan MID4

In the mid 1980’s Nissan looked at the supercar market and decided to throw its hat in the ring, in 1985 it debuted its first MID4 at the Frankfurt Autoshow. With sleek looks and powered by a mid-mounted 3ltr V6 with 226 bhp with four wheel drive, it would have at that time sat behind the 300ZX twin turbo in the Nissan line-up. By 1987 Nissan decided to lift its profile by installing a much more powerful twin turbo V6 giving it 325 bhp, with more refinement and at the Tokyo Motor Show the MID4 II was debuted.

Nissan R390 GT1

Back in the mid 90’s Nissan decided to go GT racing, the was beyond the lower classes in which it currently raced. Nismo (Nissan Motorsport) were set the task of preparing and building the cars. In order to get round he homologation rules a production car was needed. The rules at the time only requried 1. The result the road legal R390, this is a vary rare car, with 2 produced and only one in the public domain. The other is stored in Nissan’s Zama facility. Powered by a 3.5ltr V8 with two turbos strapped to it producing 550bhp, enough to get it to 60mph in 3.3s. This probably makes this one if not the rarest “production” car in the world.

Nissan Almera GTI

Although a mid sized family car with a GTI badge on it was nothing new, hell most Golf's, Escorts even AX's can still be seen on the roads today (although the AX is a rarity) just think if the last time you saw a Almera GTI. Not the SRI the GTI?

The last one I saw was about a year ago in a pub car park, before then it would be in the late 90's, its one of those cars you'd want bacause its so rare and was a much sleaker alternative to the overweigth MK3 Golf and bland MK4 Escort with a GTI badge grafted on to its boot to replace the SI one.

If your a child of the 70's/80's then the myth of this car stems from its 1996 avertising campaign taking the mick out of iconic 70's cop shows, that sold the car so well the press of the time printed a shortage of the car!!!! the adverts are classic and will take you back in time, so enjoy-





For more information-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Almera