Words: Blair Bartels Photos: Dan Wakelin Motorsport Photos: Euan Cameron

Blair checks out a Nissan that was once a front-line rally car — and which is still competing in classic rallying events today.

In 1983, the FIA changed the face of rallying. It demolished the current system and introduced groups A and B. Group B required the build of just 200 cars for homologation, compared with the 400 required for Group A, the previous top class. The class instantly became dominated by Audi with the Quattro, and Lancia with its 037. Also joining the mix, but not quite as competitive, was Japanese manufacturer Nissan.

Son of Silvia

Nissan which had tasted some success in longer-distance events such as the East-African Safari with the 280ZX, decided to get involved in what seemed to be a rather exciting form of rallying, and started building a car based on the Silvia. That car had recently been moved out of production, however, it had been built with a 2.0-litre, fuel-injected engine known as the FJ20. A modified chassis was developed and given the code BS110 (B for Group B). Also new for the new car was the engine, the based on the FJ20, the FJ24. The FJ24 was a 2.4-litre four cylinder with double overhead camshafts, and a high compression ratio of 11.0:1 thanks to much shorter pistons. The FJ24 also replaced the fuel injection system with twin 50mm Solex side draught carburettors. Once this engine was mated to the BS110 chassis, Nissan’s Group B project, the 240RS, was born.

The car made its world championship debut at the 1983 Rally de Portugal, and was driven to eighth place overall by Briton Terry Kaby after his team-mate, Timo Salonen, retired with gearbox problems. By the time of the car’s next world championship outing, the East-African Safari of the same year, half a dozen 240RSs were entered, including cars for local aces Shekhar Mehta and Mike Kirkland, as well as Finn Timo Salonen. However, all three succumbed to engine failure. All was not lost for the Japanese manufacturer though, with another local, Jayant Shah, bringing the car home for fourth.

Its next two outings brought two sixth placings for Tony Pond in the Tour de Corse and Shekhar Mehta in the Acropolis Rally.

1983 Rally New Zealand

The next round, in New Zealand, proved to be the best round of the season for Nissan. Three cars were entered, for Timo Salonen, Shekhar Mehta and local man Reg Cook.

The end result was Salonen’s first, and best, finish for the season, powering his way to second behind the Lancia 037 of Walter Rörhl. Backing him up in fourth was Kenyan Shekhar Mehta, and Reg Cook drove his car to seventh overall. Nissan’s season finished at Salonen’s home event, the 1000 Lakes in Finland. Salonen didn’t disappoint, finishing eighth and first naturally aspirated car on the fast rally. The good results towards the end of the season rewarded Nissan with fourth in the manufacturer’s race.

Also running in the 1983 Rally New Zealand was Tony Teesdale. He had a Ron McMillan-prepared 2.0-litre Nissan Silvia. However, after the 1983 season it was decided that this needed to become a 240RS.

The car was run for one more season by Teesdale, but before this it went on a diet, losing 100kg as well as having a power transplant, the FJ20 out for the 194kW FJ24. The new and improved Silvia had a promising debut in the Woodhill rally, coming home second. However, disaster struck at the first national championship round in Tokoroa, with an oil pump failure causing a DNF and no points. After this event Teesdale took the car to the Ashley Forest rally sprint, ending up fourth overall. Teesdale then joined the Subaru team for the Rally NZ. However, the event away from the Nissan obviously didn’t hurt him, as he then drove the car in the second round of the national championship in Hawkes Bay, bringing home much needed third place points.

The next event was the Tokoroa car club rally, with Teesdale claiming the ultimate revenge, his first victory in the car. He continued his winning form at the third round of the national championship, the Hamilton Tarmac rally, beating everyone, including fellow 240RS pilot Reg Cook.

His good form continued at the next round of the national championship, the Hella Lights Coromandel event, with Teesdale picking up a second place. This result put him well and truly in contention for the national championship with just one round remaining, the South Canterbury rally. A third place was enough to give Teesdale one of his three New Zealand rally championship titles.

The highly successful season finished on another high, with the newly crowned national champ travelling to the northland rally, netting another second. Armando Eduque came out from the Philippines and ran the car in the 1986 Rally New Zealand, and then took it home for two successful Philippine rally championship campaigns before the car disappeared.

Revival

In April 2004 the car was offered to Auckland rally driver, Rob Wylie. Wylie had campaigned a Datsun P510 for many years with reasonable success, however, he knew it was not really eligible for anything except club rallies. So the decision was made to buy the car and bring it back to New Zealand. When it arrived it was in a much worse state than Rob had imagined, meaning the car spent about a year in Rob’s shed while he sulked about the state of it.

In late 2005 the Silver Fern Rally was announced. The car was slowly progressing until Rob heard about the event. It sounded like something he would be keen on, so he had a discussion with his team and the decision was made to work hard at the car to try and have it ready for the marathon event. One of the first things on the list was to replace the alloy cage it was originally built with. This was replaced by a steel item at By’gone Autos.

With just a few weeks to go it was touch and go whether the car would be ready for the event. With a lot of hard work it was ready for a shakedown run one day before the team planned to leave for the top of the south island.

Meanwhile, during the weeks prior to the event the boys at Boat Haulage, Rob’s business, had made a copy of the route map, and for just $2 people could put a drawing pin in the map for where they thought Rob might get to. He was flattered by the amount of pins stuck in Blenheim, as the event finished there, however most involved in the sweepstake were interested in the Blenheim start ramp!

And they were nearly right, too. The prologue was the first competitive run on gravel for the 240RS, and was described by Rob as a shocker. To most, losing a wheel at the end of the prologue stage is bad enough, but Rob was just as upset at being passed by a Porsche. Also noticed was the brake balance, which was not quite to Rob’s liking.

Not a major, except that the balance adjuster wasn’t working. This was discovered after the event to be incorrect assembly by the team in its haste to complete the car for the marathon event.

Also dogging the team for the first two days was a terrible misfire. This, combined with the dry sump belt coming loose, meant that the car was unable to rev above 6000rpm, compared with the usual 8000rpm-plus. However, Rob explained this is not necessarily a bad thing, acting like a traction control system on the slow, rough and snowy west coast roads. These were just the major problems, with other small things being fixed along the route when time allowed.

After the third day, a rest day was allowed by the organisers to let some of the crews rebuild their cars for another three days of punishment. Rob and his team had a long hard day working on the car for all the permitted time. Throughout the event Rob got more and more comfortable with the new car, and the stage times got faster and faster. Before the event Rob had set his sights on a top 20 finish, and that is exactly what he got, 18th overall, 15th of the cars that finished all the stages and seventh in class. Rob described the rally as fantastic event that exceeded his wildest dreams. He also said it was enormously difficult, and the first event he had ever done where he was not worried about his pace, he was just over the moon to finish.

Classic support

With no Silver Fern for 2007, Rob decided to return the car to the national championship, however it now ran in the classic class. He wanted to support this up and coming class, now in its second year, and feels it will continue to grow, especially with the increasing popularity of classic rallying. Rob is surprised how much he enjoys the pre-rally shows, and also being seeded at the front of the field in all other national championship events, something he thought previously was just for stroking egos.

At the first round in Otago, Rob scored a third and a second in the two legs after a battle royal with Mazda RX-3 driver Euan Fuge, although both were blown into the weeds by the pace of Bert Murray in his ex-Allport RX-7. This was also Rob’s first attempt at the famous Otago Classic Rally, rated one of the best in the southern hemisphere. Round two saw Rob pick up a third and a second — both times behind Euan Fuge after Murray broke a gearbox on the second leg.

At the penultimate round in the Hawkes Bay, another battle ensued for second place between Rob and Fuge until the last stage, when one of the links on the four-link system broke, putting Rob out of the rally and title contention with just the final round of the series to run in Nelson at the end of September.

As for next year, decisions have yet to be made, with both the Silver Fern and the national classic Championships on offer. Whatever is decided, it will be great to see this piece of New Zealand rallying history back on the roads again.