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Image courtesy of Japanese Nostalgic Car. Pay no mind to the different number!
The 80's were a wild time. Not just because of the shoulder pads, the cocaine, and the Don Johnsons. Racing was seeing all sorts of interesting stuff. IMSA was spitting out increasingly powerful, tube-framed racers. Group B was producing rally cars of such insane quickness that they could have theoretically qualified on the grid of a contemporary F1 race. Australia's Group C (not to be confused with the FIA's identically-named class), on the other hand, bore a little bit more resemblance to road cars.
Meet one of the meanest Pulsars you're ever likely to lay eyes on. This little guy was campaigned at the Bathurst 1000 in 1983 by Christine Gibson, wife of Fred Gibson. Called "the quickest woman in Australia", Christine had returned from a two year leave to tame a car that even her husband was afraid to race.
That was because of the insane 320bhp being sent to those little front wheels. Thanks to a loophole in the rules, the car was able to run with a big T03 turbo strapped to its tiny 1.5L engine, boosted to the tune of 26psi. This was the 80's, so the epic amount of lag was matched only by the lane-changing torque-steer. That loophole? In the car's documentation, someone had made a simple typing error, specifying the car came with the T03 instead of the smaller T02 actually fitted. The Gibsons took full advantage of this, even if it resulted in sprained wrists for Christine.
The car benefits from a full widebody kit and a serious wing, with gorgeous 3-piece, 16in wheels at all four corners wrapped in sticky 270mm Avon slicks. A locking diff and a curb weight of only 750kg ensures this won't be an easy drive. But it will be fast, provided you're able to keep it straight.
This is a literal one-of-a-kind car, and as a unique part of Australia's racing history, fits the Gran Turismo ethos quite nicely. It should also give folks like Akihiko Tan a lot of long nights trying to nail down an accurate simulation of the torque steer!
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