Nissan R87E

Posted on June 24, 2014 by classiccarweekly

1987 Nissan R87E

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | June 27, 2014

Photo – Bonhams

Nissan built some pretty awesome Group C racing prototypes in the late-80s and early-90s even if they didn’t have much on-track success. The R87E was their 1987 car and their third attempt at breaking into the Group C world. It used a chassis supplied by March Engineering of the U.K. and an in-house designed-and-built engine.

The powerplant is a 3.0-liter twin turbo V-8 making in excess of 750 horsepower. This was a step up from their previous car’s 700hp V-6. 1987 was a disastrous year for Nissan’s program, running only two events and failing to finish both. So for 1988, this car was upgraded to R88C specification and it ran at Le Mans again in 1988. Here is it’s 1988 competition history:

1988 Fuji 500km – DNF (with Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Kenji Takahashi)
1988 Suzuka 500km – 6th (with Hoshino and Takahashi)
1988 Fuji 1000km (May) – 7th (with Win Percy, Hoshino and Takahashi)
1988 24 Hours of Le Mans – 29th, DNF (with Aguri Suzuki, Takao Wada and Hoshino)
1988 Fuji 500 miles – 5th (with Hoshino and Takahashi)
1988 Suzuka 1000km – DNF (with Toshio Suzuki, Hoshino and Takahashi)
1988 Fuji 1000km (October) – 9th (with Allan Grice, Hoshino and Takahashi)

This car was sold and restored to R87E specification with 1988 Calsonic livery and a 3.3-liter development version of the 3.0-liter Nissan V-8 – making 780 horsepower. Bonhams says the engine has been run for less than an hour since rebuild. Only three of these were built and this one should bring between $710,000-$810,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Not sold.

Burlington Arrow

Posted on November 12, 2013 by classiccarweekly

1987 Burlington Arrow

Offered by Bonhams | Harrogate, U.K. | November 13, 2013

The Burlington Motor Company was founded in 1980 by Haydn Davis and they started by building a replica of the Morgan. Over the years they’ve offered almost exclusively kit cars. It’s weird that I’d feature a kit car on this site, but these are more interesting than any Cobra replica (because 1. so many Cobra replicas exist and 2. Burlington cars have names that don’t include “replica”).

The Arrow was new for the early-80s and it is patterned after the MG TC, though there are significant differences. Many of the chassis came from Triumphs, this particular car uses a Triumph Herald donor chassis and a 1.6-liter straight-four engine from a Ford Cortina. This car was not offered as a traditional kit, but rather as paper plans only. The purchaser had to create or buy everything separately.

About 6,000 sets of plans were sold and about 500 Arrows were constructed to completion. This one took two years (from 1985-1987) and because the cars use readily available parts, fixes are cheap and easy. This would be a fun little car for a tiny little price: it is expected to sell for between $6,500-$9,700. Click here for more info and here for the rest of this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Silk Cut Jaguar

Posted on September 9, 2013 by classiccarweekly

1987 Jaguar XJR-8

Offered by Bonhams | Chichester, U.K. | September 14, 2013

The XJR-line of Jaguar sports racing cars was a nine-year program that Jaguar initiated (with the help of the race car specialists at Tom Walkinshaw Racing) with the aim of dominating both the World Sportscar Championship and the IMSA Camel GTP Series. The cars were impressive – winning Le Mans twice – and the experience led Jaguar to produce two other-worldly road-going supercars: the XJ220 and XJR-15.

The XJR-8 was the fourth iteration and it was focused solely on the WSC. The Silk Cut livery began in 1986 and was a staple of Jaguar endurance cars through the early 1990s. The difference between and XJR-6 and the XJR-8 is mostly engine-related, as they share the same basic structure underneath. The engine is a 7.0-liter V-12 making in the neighborhood of 750 horsepower.

The racing resume of this car includes:

1987 24 Hours of Le Mans – 5th (with Eddie Cheever, Raul Boesel, and Jan Lammers)
1987 1000km Spa – 1st (with Martin Brundle, Johnny Dumfries, & Boesel)

Raul Boesel would go on to win the 1987 WSC Driver’s championship, with TWR-Jaguar winning the Teams Championship. After it’s racing career, the car was acquired from the TWR team by an unnamed racing driver who has owned it since. It has been freshened and is ready to run. Apparently, only four were built (or at least run by this team that had factory support). It should sell for between $1,400,000-$1,900,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams at Goodwood.

Update: Sold for a mysterious sum of less than $1.4 million.

S/N: 3.87