Nicks gtir(s)

[nick_m]

5 hours ago, sheepers said:

incoming old man sharn,

in about 1998 a mate of mine was working for urgent couriers in AK and for some fucked up reason that only coke filled courier company execs can answer urgent couriers bought a GTIR and gave it to my mate as his courier car.

it was branded and all that but he drove it all day every day.

it took me for quite a few rips in it and fuck me was that thing fast.

when your bench mark was a 4M powered shitbox the gtir was light years faster.

why did they think that was a good idea? fuck knows but it gave a bunch of mid 20s jokers a new understanding of what a turbo car was.

Fuck yeah how cool. Was there any pictures kicking around

[sheepers]

not that i know of sorry.

[Alfashark]

Mate had a red one on white OZ rims, about 20 years ago.

Had all the go-fast bits, to the point where it was nicknamed "The Paralyser" because at least as a passenger, you couldn't do anything but sit in the passenger's seat with a grin that a belt sander couldn't take off when he'd launch the fuckin thing.

Fucked a gearbox trying to do helis like the cool kids in their Evos...

I can recall things getting decidedly breezy over 180-ish as the outside air would start to find its way through the door handle cutouts in the door-cards too.

[nick_m]

Haha mint yeah I’m imagining it’ll feel all sorts of 90s car sketchy at speed. Especially cause they were never known to be great handlers haha. I love that everyone’s memories of them was they were fast as fuck. 

[cletus]

I remember reading about them as a kid and being "whoa" at 2l turbo 4wd in a hatch 

Never had much to do with them apart from fixing one for a tight arse car dealer customer we had, it was a fill in job for when work was slow so it ended up taking 4 or 5 months , it broke a ring land so the car dealer supplied 1x second hand piston. Did it with the engine in place, getting the head/intake manifold off counts as one of the worst jobs I ever did 

 

Also due to the fact it took so long just doing bits here and there, when I started it I'd forgotten I'd removed the oil filter. It was on the hoist, fired up, pissed oil everywhere,  I reached in the window to turn the key off but it had a turbo timer down by the console so I had to do a panic dive in the window to turn it off, the boss thought that was quite funny seeing me with my legs sticking out the window

[nick_m]

Haha. Yes they definitely are a pain to work on anything in the engine bay. A sensible man would have brought an Evo

[ajg193]

My brother had a GTI as his first car, must have been nearly 25 years ago.

He crashed it on the harbour bridge once

Another time he shot a rod out the block doing 180 on a back road

After that he replaced it with a 4WD turbo familia, he paid $6000 at the time. No idea if that was a lot of money or not back then. That was a fun car to ride in

[nick_m]

On 06/04/2024 at 22:45, Alfashark said:

Mate had a red one on white OZ rims, about 20 years ago.

Had all the go-fast bits, to the point where it was nicknamed "The Paralyser" because at least as a passenger, you couldn't do anything but sit in the passenger's seat with a grin that a belt sander couldn't take off when he'd launch the fuckin thing.

Fucked a gearbox trying to do helis like the cool kids in their Evos...

I can recall things getting decidedly breezy over 180-ish as the outside air would start to find its way through the door handle cutouts in the door-cards too.

I had a one of those sentra gt cup cars as a road car when i was young fella, they had no 180kph speed limiter and I got the thing to do 195 down one of those long big hills on way back from akaroa. It was whiteknuckle stuff, sounded like the world was coming to an end. Only every did it the once. I expect this to be every bit as terrifying at pace too haha 

[nick_m]

Grey parts car sold to free up some space in the garage to bring black car home. black car officially has a WOF. It’s been off the road since 2009! Will bring it home soon and blow all the interior out of it. Everything is filthy from years of sitting and going to the panel shop. Ive got a spare car full of interior so will go through everything and clean and reassemble. Massive milestone achieved

[yoeddynz]

What's the most common issues with these. Is it just the gearbox or the transfer case etc?

A friend had one in blenheim and we had some good fun ragging about in it. He got more stupid with his speed though until his meagre levels of talent finally ran out one day and he wrote it off in a spectacular crash near seddon. I suspect these cars saw many a similar fate as just so easy to go very very quick in. 

[nick_m]

1 hour ago, yoeddynz said:

What's the most common issues with these. Is it just the gearbox or the transfer case etc?

A friend had one in blenheim and we had some good fun ragging about in it. He got more stupid with his speed though until his meagre levels of talent finally ran out one day and he wrote it off in a spectacular crash near seddon. I suspect these cars saw many a similar fate as just so easy to go very very quick in. 

Yeah it’s pretty much just the gearbox being a total turd.
Tbh this will probably just do trips to coffees and cars with the my young fella. But I do have a spare gearbox that I’ll get rebuilt just in case. As I do want to warm it up a little bit once I’ve finished tidying everything up

[shizzl]

Theyr prone for the pedal box area cracking too.

bloody cool cars, totally under rated

[nick_m]

Yeah have spotted that too. Should probably check that out while I’m still working my way though job list. 
 

think my favourite thing about posting this up is just how many people have memories of them or their friends owning them and just generally having a great time in one at some point in their younger days

[shizzl]

I remember the first time I saw them at 4nR Nats 99 or 2000 when Justin Rood had the purple blue down down the strip hitting an 11 or 12sec 1/4. Everyone blew their minds. 
 

always wanted one, never had the pennies they were fetching. 

[HighLUX]

There was always the GTIR vs GTX/GTR beef in the drag train back when they were worth fuck all and gearboxes were plentiful. Mazda guys always said they would smoke a GTIR because they were heavy little whales. Nissan guys always said their gearboxes were stronger.

Both were always replacing gearboxes every 2nd weekend but a GTIR seemed to handle doing heli's for longer than a GTX

[Alfashark]

Bit of diesel to get the GTIR going in a heli and you were golden. GTX/GTR usually ended in tears, diesel or not.

[Mitch.W]

I know swapping in gt4 celica gearbox/transfer case is common in the gtx/gtr world to have a near indestructible driveline, is there any options for the gtir?

[nick_m]

Yeah guys are doing Evo swaps these days. Can buy kits but they are spendy. Theres a mental gtir that competes in roll racing in Oz. 1200hp holinger Evo sequential box. Billet block Sr22 with VE head. Just nuts. 

[Ja1lb8]

Side sharn. Used to car pool  with a chap with a gtir in the early/mid 2000s from whakatane out to kawerau every day.  About 60km round trip and old mate thought he was a race car driver.   Pretty sure he pissed off everyone else on the road.   Did go well to be fair.    Think it ended up getting Tboned  at the Tauranga turn off.   @vintage grumble may remember him.  Replaced it with a s14 silvia 

[MRWEST]

First turbo car i ever went in at about the age of 12 was a GTIR. nice job on the underside resto! cool little cars ya barely see anymore!