rik1471

Being 21, with not enough for a Sccoby, I was thinking of buying a Sunny/Pulsar GTiR to join the 2.0 16V 4WD Club

Any comments/advice about these motors?

darlodge

Delboy's son had one for sale recently with a blown g/box
Darren

The Zohan

Rik - someone posted a link to the GTI-R board recently, cannot remember it mind!

nisr227

......over 2hours 45 minutes and no scooby owner's have slagged of a GtiR - that must be a record!

I own one, better to check:
FORUM:
http://www.japmobiles.com/gtir/

OWNERS CLUB:
http://www.gtiroc.com/

I love it, they are great fun if you know how to look after it, setup the fueling correctly and do sensible mods. I certainly wouldn't swap it for a scooby, even though I like them, its just nice to be different. In fact my brother sold his old modified WRX for an R too (running 350bhp with ND pistons, FMIC, 6 pots etc). I love the way that your common driver hasn't got a clue what they are and try it on.

They are very chuckable, and inspire confidence when on the limit. They also kick *rse on the 1/4 mile strip... high 12's with very minimal mods. They are starting to have a following in the UK now, and like the cossies, 99% get modified.

For peformance per pound the R is better, they don't grip as well but you can overcome this with the right mods. Be warned, there are a lot of dogs that were imported, but buy a decent one and it be OK.

If you have after big reliable power above 300bhp, then like scoobs you'll have to upgrade pistons, intercooler, brakes, clutch etc, the biggest problem is the gearbox.......and there are some new ones coming onto the market that will sort this out for you.

Bascially, if you buy one for say £6k, and then in the longrun spend something like £10k including pistons and gearbox you will have a very very fast car. They will probably be quite a few R's at the pod this year so just ask any of the owners.

rik1471

Cheers

I'd be looking for a standard (or as close as poss), i've been down the excessive modification route and it's not for me at the moment

What are they like standard? (standard = filter/exhaust )

nisr227

With Filter and Decat Exhaust, and a correct setup (important) at a place like Powerstation, you get about 240bhp (as opposed to 220bhp), a few owners have done 13.6sec 1/4 miles with just this, the decat makes a big difference and the throttle response is far better at 3k. You also need to use the highest octaine fuel, ie Optimax. I ran my car for nearly 18 months like this and it was fine, as soon as the boost was raised though the clutch started to slip big time. Its now all upgraded.

If your planning on keeping it standard then I would recommend you still upgrade to 15/16's inch wheels with decent tyres and and fit 4 pot brakes with bigger discs. The standard brakes (260mm with single pots!) are the worst thing about a GtiR and I don't know what Nissan were thinking of at the time!

Christ

Definately a car I can recommend, I had one for 12 Months... Very quick cars on both acceleration and traction, handling is average - I tweaked mine a little with adjustable camber bolts, only downside of the car is fuel consumption - but then thats not why you buy these sort of cars! Buy One!!

what would scooby do

My mate has one, everything keeps braking on it - especially the gearbox. He couldn't give it away and is still stuck with it. I guess they aint designed for doing high mileages!! His is 70K miles IIRC

rik1471

Oh dear

brett555

edited for not reading the 1st message properly.

brett

[Edited by brett555 - 1/30/2003 10:54:20 AM]

jamin

If abused then nothing will last a long time, I know people on 125K miles + with only minimal repairs so find a good one and you will be OK.
The problem is finding a good one..

mike16v

I had a shot of one a while back and when over 80mph the wind was getting in from above the doors and this was pretty annoying.

Other than that, it was supremely fast The one I was in was RR'd at 297BHP and I drove it in the snow. Not the prettiest car on the road, but very fast & held the road well (even in the snow!)

If it looks like these are £6k or so, is this not the same price as a Scoob (about a MY94/95?), and GTI-R's are Grp19 insurance whereas Scoobs are Grp17 aren't they??

GINGA

The GTIR is no less reliable than any other 2L 4wd rally rep out there you only have to read the owners club BB's to see that,In the 2 1/2 year I've owned my gtir the only things that went wrong was the radiator started leaking ,exhuast flexi joint started blowing replaced with SS exhaust,Clutch started slipping after boost raised and replaced the brakes because they were crap!! oh and had to replace the Battery as few days ago all pretty normal wear and tear with nothing major and in that time the car has only been off the road for just 3 days!!!
There old cars know some are 13 years old!!so you can expect a few problems but there NOT the unreliable sh*t boxes alot of peole make out just spend some time finding a good one,and any info/help you require just ask on the gtiroc message board already mentioned and they'll be more than happy to help out.

nisr227

....you mate has obviously got a dog of an example that was probably abused before it was imported, or he abused it, or just he wacked up the boost incorrectly without setup etc etc. Basically if you abuse any turbo 4wd car it will brake!....

I've seen stacks of imprezas that keep braking all the time, but its down to how they are treated. I've also sold many through work (fleet company), and they are not perfect, one customer blew his pistons, we sorted it under warranty, 1 month later his gearbox went too! And that was with full service history with everything replaced on the dot as a fleet car. I'm not slagging off imprezas, they are reliable, as I said, anything that is abused can brake!

After over two and a half years ownership the only problem i've had with my R was a flat battery, and a slipping clutch after the boost was raised to 1 bar with 300bhp, and thats it.

The main problem is that there are many dogs that have been imported to get on the band wagon, this is becuase of the cheap price for its age in Japan, so you must look hard and do research before buying one.

The gearboxes are weak with over well over 300bhp, i know some that have gone with standard boost, but then again I also know many that have lasted with far more power than this. Again, it all depends on how the car was treated before you imported it and it is difficult to know this, and how you have treated it since you bought it i.e snapping gearchanging, full 6k 1+G launching and lack of servicable fluids and it won't last long. You can get an uprated box for about £1500 plus fitting if your into this on a regular basis.

Maybe its becuase tuned GtiRs beat the Sti's at the pod

Can't wait for 10 of the best this year

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

I've got one also, had it two years and love it!. it's my third gti-r, it's running 1 bar, scorpion decat, air filter, ap clutch adjustable susp, 17's.

I've also got a 94wrx, the scooby handles better but the gti-r is faster running the same boost (up to ~80mph), gti-r is a lot cheaper to insure!

I've never had gearbox trouble with any of my r's, worst I ever had was the battery used to go flat in 2 days on my 2nd one and all of them suffered a strange intermittent power loss like holding back, if you turned off and re-started it would go. Although a trip to SE nissan with my current gti-r to find the prob left me with it running perfect, he took the exh temp sensor out and adjusted my timing which was 6 degrees out, it's been spot on ever since.

James

scooby nutter

Looked at about 15-20 examples in Ireland when the big importing boom was happening.Went straight to the main importers who gave all the Auction houses the ****e cars so i thought i might find a good one but i Couldnt find a decent one.All rattled their brains out,had notchy gear changes,some were bent underneath were always on those small wheels.......

i gave up in the end and bought a mint Wrx from the same place.

there must be some excellent examples about but reliability would be my main worry.

great looking cars and they would be great fun on the road

Duncan