Tag Archives: nissan

Nissan GT-R50

Posted on by
Reply

2021 Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 25, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Nissan‘s R35 GT-R has been on sale for what seems like forever. And the new ones look pretty much just like the examples produced back in 2009. Unless that is, your GT-R is one of the 18 “GT-R50” examples with bodywork by Italdesign.

And it’s not just the angular bodywork that is different. The twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 received better pistons and fuel injectors in addition to a fresh exhaust system for a rating of 710 horsepower.

This is the 11th car built (they wanted to make 50, but only 18 made it out). They cost over $1 million when new, and this one now has an estimate of $1,000,000-$1,200,000. Click here for more info.

Nissan R90CK

Posted on by
Reply

1990 Nissan R90CK

Offered by Artcurial | Le Mans, France | June 30, 2023

Photo – Artcurial

Nissan’s Group C program gave us some pretty spectacular prototype race cars. Especially those in their red, white, and blue livery. The R90C was their car for the 1990 World Sportscar Championship season, and there were a few subvariants.

This is an R90CK, which featured a low nose and two massive inlets up near the base of the cockpit. It’s powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V8 that could produce up to 1,000 horsepower in qualifying trim. This chassis is the last of 13 R90C cars built and is one of six of the R90CK variety. The race history for this chassis, #07, includes various races in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in addition to the:

  • 1992 24 Hours of Daytona – 8th (with Volkert Weidler, Mauro Martini, and Jeff Krosnoff)
  • 1993 1,0000km Suzuka – 2nd (with Martini and Heinz-Harald Frentzen)

For that last one, the car had been upgraded to R93 specification, but afterward Group C was pretty much done. The car was put away for about a decade before being purchased by someone looking to race it in historic events. It now has an estimate of $550,000-$875,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $587,060.

300ZX V8 IMSA

Posted on by
Reply

1994 Nissan 300ZX V8 IMSA GTS

Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | May 2023

Photo – Bring a Trailer Auctions

So this may be a purely purpose-built, tube-frame race car with composite bodywork, but it does have your standard Z32 road car tail panel, which is excellent. Nissan was around for the Group C era, and they eventually transitioned to the GTS class in IMSA.

Initially, they started campaigning second-generation 300ZX race cars with their twin-turbocharged V6s. But those became a little too dominant for IMSA’s liking (in 1994, a 300ZX won the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring outright before winning their class at Le Mans). So for 1995, IMSA outlawed the twin-turbo V6.

And Nissan said “okay, we’ll raise you two cylinders.” The next season’s cars, including this one, were powered by a 4.5-liter V8. Two such chassis were so equipped, and the racing history for this one, #008, includes:

  • 1995 24 Hours of Daytona – 21st (with Steve Millen, Johnny O’Connell, and John Morton)
  • 1995 12 Hours of Sebring – 5th, 1st in class (with Millen, O’Connell, and Morton)

This is a pretty serious machine that I suspect would be terrifyingly fast at 50%. You can read more about it here.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $156,000.

Nissan R90CK

Posted on by
Reply

1990 Nissan R90CK

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Le Mans, France | June 9, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

This is a pretty big deal car. Nissan’s Group C program got off the ground in 1983. In 1990, they launched a new series of cars starting with the R90C, which was based off of the previous R89C. The R90CK variant featured aerodynamic tweaks and revised styling. It was used during the 1990 World Sportscar Championship season and at the 24 Hours of Daytona in ’91 and ’92.

Six R90CK chassis were built, and this one carries number R90C/1. It’s powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter all-aluminum DOHC V8. In qualifying trim, output could hit 1,000 horsepower. Race trim usually dialed it back to under 800. But still. This car took pole at Le Mans in 1990, and its competition history includes:

  • 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans – 41st, DNF (with Mark Blundell, Julian Bailey, and Gianfranco Brancatelli)

It was retained by Nissan until 2000, spending some time on display at the Le Mans museum before private ownership came calling. The car is usable and has been present at various historic events over the last decade or so. Le Mans pole-winning cars don’t come around everday, nor do Group C legends. Click here to read more about this one.

Update: Sold $1,175,058.

Autech Gavia Zagato

Posted on by
Reply

1995 Autech Gavia Zagato Coupe

Offered by Bonhams | Beaulieu, U.K. | September 10, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

The Autech Zagato Stelvio, which was based on an Infiniti M30, was produced in very limited numbers with just 104 built. And yet, it is relatively well known compared to this, the Stelvio’s successor, the Zagato-styled Gavia.

Autech was a tuning subsidiary of Nissan from 1986 to 2022, when it was merged with Nismo. The Gavia project started in 1993 and again was based on the Nissan Leopard, aka the Infiniti M30. Under the hood was the turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 from the 300ZX. Output was rated at 280 horsepower.

The car features the signature Zagato double-bubble roof. It only has Zagato badging on it, and this one was sold new in Japan. It is one of just 16 built. The pre-sale estimate is $35,000-$58,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $39,670.

Mitsuoka Viewt

Posted on by
Reply

1998 Mitsuoka Viewt 2-Door

Offered by Brightwells | Leominster, U.K. | March 17-April 1, 2021

Photo – Brightwells

“I want a Jaguar Mark II but I don’t want it to be an unreliable nightmare. Also, I want it to be a hatchback and look like a crappy hatchback, from the side.” Well then do I have the car for you. The Viewt is the car that put Mitsuoka on the map. It’s basically a re-worked Nissan Micra (or March) that is supposed to look like a Jaguar Mark II from the front.

This first-gen example is based on the 1992-2003 K11 generation of the Nissan Micra. Most Viewts were four-door sedans, but it looks like someone convinced them to tack their front end on a hatchback. Power is from a 1.0-liter inline-four that produced 54 horsepower when new.

The Viewt is technically still in production but on an updated Nissan platform. Over 12,000 have been produced thus far, a very small percentage of which I believe to be two-doors. This relatively low-mile example should sell for between $4,000-$7,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $2,235.

Spartan II

Posted on by
Reply

1986 Spartan II

Offered by Mecum | Houston, Texas | April 2-4, 2020

Photo – Mecum

The Spartan was initially produced by Spartan Motors of Santa Ana, California, in about 1983. They later relocated to San Marcos, California, and became the Spartan Motorcar Company. In 1998 – yes the company was still around in 1998 – production was shifted to the Table Mountain Rancheria, an Indian reservation in Friant, California. They wanted to keep building them. It is unknown if they were successful.

While the initial Spartan was based on the Datsun 280ZX (and could be purchased at Datsun dealers, which is insane), the Spartan II was based on the Z31 Nissan 300ZX. It features a 3.0-liter V6 that made 160 horsepower when new.

It’s a polarizing car, I know. But these are one of the more common neo-classics. They were liked enough when new that this company was around for nearly 15 years. Go out and get you one! Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $12,650.

Nissan NPT-90

Posted on by
Reply

1990 Nissan NPT-90 IMSA GTP

Offered by Mecum | Monterey, California | August 25, 2018

Photo – Mecum

The IMSA GT Championship was an American racing car series that lasted from 1971 through 1998. Its shining moment was from 1981 through 1992, when a category called GTP existed. It featured prototype sports cars from some big name manufacturers like Porsche, Jaguar, Toyota, and Nissan.

Nissan won the championship in 1989 and this was the follow-up car to the series winning GTP ZX-Turbo. It debuted in the middle of the 1990 season and the competition history for this chassis includes:

  • 1992 IMSA Grand Prix of Mami – 1st (with Geoff Brabham)
  • 1992 12 Hours of Sebring – 2nd (with Brabham, Derek Daly, Gary Brabham, and Arie Luyendyk)
  • 1992 IMSA Road Atlanta – DNF (with Geoff Brabham)

Brabham crashed it at Road Atlanta and that was sort of it for this chassis. It was later comprehensively restored and is powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 capable of 750 horsepower. It’s eligible for historic racing in the U.S. and in Europe (against Group C racers from the same era). Works GTP cars don’t change hands publicly all that often, so this is an interesting opportunity to get one of the big ones. You can read more here and see more from Mecum here.

Nissan Pao

Posted on by
Reply

1989 Nissan Pao

Offered by Mecum | Los Angeles, California | February 17-18, 2017

Photo – Mecum

I just asked someone in the room when they thought this car was built and their answer was “1969.” Something funky was going on in Japan in the 1980s (and let’s face it, every year before and after that, too). Mazda and Toyota were building strange things, but Nissan was taking the cake.

Their “Pike” series of cars was a line of four small cars with far-out designs. The Pao was the second “Pike” car introduced and it was only sold during the 1989 through 1991 model years. It is powered by a 1.0-liter straight-four making 51 horsepower that could regularly get over 50 mpg.

These cars were only ever sold in Japan and could be had with a cloth sunroof. Their retro styling was, strangely, ahead of its time. In just 1.5 years of production, Nissan moved 51,657 cars – which they managed to sell all of in just three months. This 65,000 mile example is a rare bird in the U.S. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $12,500.

10 Modern Rarities

Posted on by
Reply

There are cars that are rare, obviously. Sometimes it is intentional – Lamborghini and Ferrari want to sell a lot of cars and make a lot of money, but they have to balance that with exclusivity. If everyone drove a Ferrari, they wouldn’t be as special (but we’d be a lot happier, I would guess). Anyway, we are going to celebrate 10 cars (or trucks or SUVs) produced since the year 2000 by major manufacturers that just didn’t sell. Some were flops. Others were doomed from the start.

A few cars just missed the cut. Apologies to the final generation Saab 9-5, Lincoln Mark LT pickup, those two new Scions (the 2016-only iA and iM), Pontiac G5, PT Cruiser Convertible, and (at some point in the future) the Chevrolet SS. Here we go:

10. 2005-2009 Mitsubishi Raider

Mitsubishi_Raider_crew_cab

A number of Mitsubishi’s could’ve made this list. A few years ago they sold 50,000 cars in the U.S. and Ford sold half a million F-150s in the same time span. But the Dodge Dakota-based Raider is pretty rare on our roads. Over six years, they sold only 28,334 of these.

9. 2004-2005 Saab 9-2x

Saab_9-2X

The Saab 9-2x was a badge-engineered version of the Subaru Impreza hatchback. The “Saabaru” was only sold for two years and only 10,346 were built. While the Subaru version is pretty common, you almost never see the Saab. Or maybe you do – they are identical other than the grille area. It’s the fancy-man’s Impreza.

8. 2002 Lincoln Blackwood

2002_Lincoln_Blackwood_2

Have you ever actually seen one of these? I haven’t seen one in years. This was Ford’s fancy F-150 Crew Cab and it only lasted in the U.S. for one model year (Mexico got a second year). In total, only 3,356 were built. I guess people weren’t ready for a $52,000 pickup truck from a “soft” brand. My favorite Blackwood story is that, at the end of the 2002 model year, there was a dealership somewhere that had a deal: buy a Lincoln Blackwood, get a brand new Mercury Cougar… free. Talk about saddling dealers with some dead weight.

7. 2005-2008 Isuzu i-Series

Isuzu_i-Series

This was basically just a copy of the Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon that was already on sale in the U.S. The picture above shows a four-door version, even rarer than the heavily-discounted two-door base model (I once saw a brand new one on a dealer lot for about $8,000 back in its day). It was a slow-seller… in the first year there were only 1,377 takers. Isuzu left the U.S. shortly after.

6. 2010-2013 Acura ZDX

1280px-2011_Acura_ZDX_--_NHTSA

Uh, what is this? The shaving razor grille of Acura is on some sort of… SUV? Crossover? Tall car? Does it have four doors or two? I’ve only ever actually seen one of these… and they are relatively recent. Only 7,191 were built and sold (they sold 18,000+ NSXs). So you’re twice as likely to see an NSX than a ZDX. Think about that.

5. 2008-2012 Suzuki Equator

2009_Suzuki_Equator_extended_cab_Premium

The pickup market is a tough nut to crack. The Equator was a Nissan Frontier-based pickup offered by Suzuki. It’s actually a decent-looking truck – better than the Nissan anyway. Canadian sales ceased in 2010 but U.S. sales soldiered on until 2012 (and Suzuki left the U.S. market not long after). Since 2009, they sold only 5,808 of these. Pretty rare.

4. 2002-2005 Lexus IS300 SportCross

Toyota_Altezza_Gita_002

Yes, I know the photo above is of the Japanese Toyota variant, but Lexus sold it as the IS300 SportCross between 2002 and 2005. While the IS300 is one of the best (the best?) car Lexus has ever built, the SportCross was a dud. Only 3,078 were built. Bentley Continental GTs are more common on our roads.

3. 2009-2010 Hummer H3T

Hummer_H3T_NY

The Hummer H3 was an SUV built between 2006 and 2010 by Hummer. The H3T was a pickup variant only available for two of those years. It was a popular concept a few years before it ever went on sale – but by the time it did the market didn’t care. Only 5,680 were made and I have never seen a single one.

2. 2011-2014 Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet

2011_Nissan_Murano_CrossCabriolet_--_10-28-2011

I think this easily qualifies as the most bizarre vehicle on this list. It’s probably the most bizarre vehicle produced by a major automobile manufacturer in quite some time. I’m not sure how many of these were built but I’ve only ever seen two: both driven by women in their mid-50s.

1. 2011 Saab 9-4x

1280px-Saab_9-4X_--_04-08-2011

Here’s the unicorn. Before General Motors kicked Saab to its knees and shot it point blank in the head, they introduced the 9-4x. It’s basically a Cadillac SRX that was produced in Mexico for its Swedish cousin. It went on sale literally right before the brand was shuttered. Only about 500 of these were made. I’ve actually seen one in my tiny hometown. But it’s easily the rarest car on here, and thus why it is #1.