There are rally cars, and then there are cars that form part of rallying history.

This is one of the latter.

Built for Nissan Motorsports’ 1987 World Rally Championship assault, this genuine Group A Nissan 200SX comes from one of the final and most fascinating periods of Nissan’s international rally programme.
Its early competition history is particularly significant, having been driven by Shekhar Mehta, the legendary East African rally driver and five-time Safari Rally winner.

Mehta’s 1987 Nissan campaign included the Safari Rally, Acropolis Rally and Olympus Rally USA, with the 200SX competing against the emerging generation of four-wheel-drive machinery. At Olympus, Mehta and Yvonne Mehta brought the Nissan home in an impressive 8th place outright. 

It was an important moment in Nissan’s competition history.

The Group A 200SX was Nissan’s weapon for a rapidly changing WRC landscape, competing against cars such as the Lancia Delta, Toyota Supra, Mazda 323 and Ford Sierra RS Cosworth as four-wheel drive began to fundamentally change international rallying.

Mehta’s 200SX was no mere privateer special.
It was part of Nissan Motorsports International’s factory-backed 1987 WRC programme. 

Following its Nissan works career, the car made its way to New Zealand where it was subsequently campaigned by Paddy Davidson, before later being associated with David Johnson.

Its competition history is documented in the New Zealand Rally Car Database, which records the car under Mehta in 1987, Davidson from 1987–88 and Johnson in 1997. 

The car eventually found its way to Australia, where it has spent many years.
Remarkably, it has seen very little competition use in modern times and has spent an extended period in storage.
After more than two decades largely out of the spotlight, the car has now been carefully recommissioned and returned to running and driving condition.

Importantly, it has not been transformed into a modern interpretation of a Group A car.
It remains an historic competition car.
The current car retains approximately 90% of its original specification, together with a substantial collection of genuine period spares.
For the collector, this is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the car.
It is possible to restore an ordinary 200SX.
It is possible to build a very convincing Group A replica.
But it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a genuine 1980s Nissan works rally car with documented international competition history and an association with one of rallying’s most significant drivers.
This car represents the brief period between the end of Group B and the arrival of the dominant four-wheel-drive Group A era — a period that produced some of the most interesting and now highly collectible rally cars of the 1980s.

Today, genuine works rally cars from this period are increasingly being recognised as significant historic motorsport assets rather than simply old competition cars.

This Nissan offers several possible futures.

It could be preserved exactly as it stands as an important piece of Nissan Motorsport history.

It could undergo a sympathetic, concours-level restoration.

Or it could be returned to historic competition and once again be used for its original purpose.

Either way, the important part is already there.

The history cannot be recreated.
The chassis, the competition pedigree, the period components and the names in its history are what make this car special.

This is not a replica.
This is not a recently constructed historic rally car.
And it is certainly not simply another modified 200SX.

It is a genuine Nissan Group A competition car from the company’s 1987 World Rally Championship programme, with documented history connecting it to Shekhar Mehta, Paddy Davidson and David Johnson.

Cars of this calibre rarely become available outside the hands of serious collectors.
A genuine piece of Nissan Motorsport history, now ready for its next custodian.

Many more photos, videos etc are available

Car is located in Sydney, Australia and can provide expert packing and logistics to your port worldwide.

Priced at $200,000 AUD

Serious enquiries only.