A piece of Australian motorsport history
"Like a larger, much more potent BMW M3." With these words, touring car legend Jim Richards once praised a model that often stands in the shadow of its prominent successors from a European perspective. While the Nissan Skyline GT-R is the ultimate JDM poster car, the actual foundation for Nissan's motorsport success on Australian soil was laid by the Skyline HR31 GTS-R. Designed by the factory purely as a homologation model, only 800 units of the rather plain-looking saloon were built for Group A racing.
However, its true potential was only unleashed by the Fred Gibson Motorsport team. Using a large turbocharger, the engineers extracted brute 400 horsepower from the compact 2.0-liter inline-six. The power was sent to the rear wheels via a close-ratio five-speed gearbox. Despite a weight disadvantage, this factory Skyline drove to victory in the pouring rain at Winton in 1989 and secured a hard-fought fourth place at the legendary Bathurst 1000 against the then-dominant Ford Sierra RS500s.
After a crash at the Wellington street race, the race car vanished into obscurity for years. Only a meticulous restoration brought it back to its original condition, including the corresponding six-cylinder engine that was discovered by chance in a collection.
Straight outta Affalterbach (feat. Tokyo style)
The R129 series Mercedes SL radiates a quiet authority. The large star in the grille signals status, while the perfect proportions and wide track convey a certain dominance. It is hardly surprising that the German roadster was a favorite in the hip-hop scene during the nineties and still is today. One only has to think of the car on the cover of Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth's 1992 classic "Mecca and the Soul Brother". More recently, Joey Bada$$ paid a musical tribute to the V8 version with the song "500 Benz".
Exactly such a V8 model formed the basis for this example, which was originally delivered in Arctic White with blue leather for the US market. Shortly thereafter, the car made its way to Japan, where a refinement by AMG finally unlocked the full potential of the base model. This was true even though its looks alone would have predestined it to be the star of any hip-hop video during the genre's golden era. The engineers bored out the 5.0-liter eight-cylinder to a displacement of 6.0 liters and increased the power from 322 to 381 horsepower. The unmistakable appearance of early AMG conversions for the Japanese market is completed by three-piece Aero III wheels with color-matched centers, a rear spoiler and a luxurious interior featuring plenty of wood, white-backed dials and a Panasonic television integrated into the dashboard.
After this initial phase in the Far East, the rare SL was re-imported to California in September 1995, where it remained for almost three decades. During its time in the US, the specialists at RENNtech in Florida gave it a comprehensive mechanical restoration. Now, this perfectly documented collector's item from AMG's highly sought-after pre-merger era is going under the hammer at the Broad Arrow auction during The Quail.
Too fast for the British middle class
The Opel Omega and its British brother, the Vauxhall Carlton, were not exactly known for their spirited temperament in their original form. This only applied until Lotus got their hands on the two executive cars though. The British sports car manufacturer turned the duo into the fastest saloons of the early nineties. They looked sleek but remained understated enough to leave commuters in their grey econoboxes astonished on the Autobahn or motorway.
Under the hood lies the 24-valve General Motors inline-six with dual overhead camshafts. The engineers from Hethel increased its displacement to 3.6 liters using a longer-stroke crankshaft and forged Mahle pistons. Two Garrett T25 turbochargers boosted the output to 377 horsepower. Power was transmitted via a six-speed ZF manual gearbox, which was also used in the Corvette ZR-1 of that era. This allowed the aerodynamically advanced saloon to reach an impressive 283 km/h and sprint from zero to one hundred in just 5.4 seconds.
For a large part of the British public, this was too much of a good thing at the time. The performance saloon had an almost scandalous image, partly because criminals quickly learned to appreciate it as a getaway car. In total, Lotus only produced 950 units. About 70 percent were left-hand drive Omegas, making the right-hand drive Carlton an even rarer variant. This specific example, offered by the aptly named dealer Fast Classics, was delivered in Lichfield in August 1993 and has covered just 35,000 miles since. In late 2020, the car was carefully brought back into operation and received new brakes in the process.
The pinnacle of Porsche's manual purism
The 997 generation Porsche 911 GT2 RS can safely be considered one of the absolute highlights of analogue sports car construction. Only 500 examples of this uncompromising sports car were built worldwide, of which supposedly only 24 were delivered new to the United Kingdom. In the rear sits the legendary 3.6-liter twin-turbocharged Mezger engine, which sends a massive 620 horsepower to only one axle. Mated to a classic six-speed manual transmission, this model remains the most powerful production Porsche with a manual gearbox to this day.
This deliberately dark-themed British example impresses with its understatement. The first owner consciously opted against the Club Sport package and chose the rare comfort specification instead. Thus, one of the most demanding driving machines of its era disguises itself visually almost as a restrained everyday 911.
The collector's car, offered by the dealer Romans International, also delights with its flexible seating configuration. In addition to the retrofitted full carbon bucket seats, the original seats are included in the sale. This gives the future owner the freedom to choose between uncompromising track feeling and the original comfort.
Californian snakeskin futurism
A fighter jet on four wheels, bathed in extravagant Amethyst Purple and garnished with an eccentric interior. The Vector Avtech WX-3R Roadster Prototype, presented in 1993, makes a mockery of any traditional sports car design. Where other brands focused on subtle elegance, founder Jerry Wiegert, who also coined the fighter jet comparison, celebrated the Californian futurism of the nineties with scissor doors, an extremely low silhouette and wild Recaro bucket seats in a snakeskin look. The result is an automotive spectacle that still looks as if it stepped straight out of a science fiction movie.
Behind the striking appearance, however, lay uncompromising aerospace technology. Intended as the evolutionary stage of the W8, the roadster received a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter Rodeck V8 directly behind the cockpit. This was supposed to catapult the open two-seater to over 320 km/h, with the power flowing through a heavily modified GM automatic transmission. Vector asked 765,000 dollars for it in Geneva. However, after the hostile takeover by Megatech and a long legal dispute, series production never materialized. The roadster remained one of only two WX-3 prototypes ever built.
Jerry Wiegert kept his masterpiece in his personal possession for more than a quarter of a century before it passed into an American collection in 2019. Following a 116,000-dollar mechanical overhaul at Miller Motorcars, what is probably the wildest US supercar of its era will now be auctioned off at the Gooding Christie's Pebble Beach auction.
