2018 24 Hours Of Lemons New Zealand - Team Hooncorp's Shot At History!!

[Nismonath5]

And now for a "Beater or Sleeper" style review of the Pulsar! If you're not familiar with this, over on the GT6 Car Of The Week thread I would do reviews of each week's car that were more in depth than just "I liked this car", or "This car is good", or "This car really sucks!" So, as @Obelisk requested, I shall do one such review on my very own Pulsar!

When life gives you Lemons...
...go motor racing!

Coming over the crest of turn 3, one of the more fun and dangerous parts of the circuit, especially wet! (Pic cred StreetStyle Photography)

Considering I'm a Nissan guy, it only made sense to enter a Nissan into the 24hr Lemons. And considering about 85% of my motorsports experience lies within an N15 Pulsar, (wether it was my Dirt Track VZ-R or this Autech), it only made sense that this was the car I entered. Hooncorp's Nissan Pulsar Autech, which was once (And probably still could be) a normal, road going car. It did grocery shops. It dropped children off at school. It probably did a few traffic light drag races. But then we found it. All the way down in Wellington, which is a 1600km (1000mi) round trip from Auckland. We snapped it up for an agreeable sum, brought it home, and the rest is history!

The team for the Pulsar consisted of
-Myself
-Shaun Stewart
-Craig Coffey
-Trevor Rooderkerk
-Peter Van Breugel
-Carl "Muntar" Van Dam

Now, the first thing to talk about is the rarity of this paticular beast. The N15 Pulsar Autech Version was only made in a supercar-sized portion of 576 cars. They were avaliable exclusively from Japan, and featured a 2.0 litre 4 cylinder SR20 DE motor with unique valve springs, portwork and pistons to push the compression ratio up. Rated at 180bhp stock, it also had some unique visuals like a rear spoiler that looked awful, I'm so glad this one's is missing. To top it off, a small Autech badge on the rear and one on the gauge cluster.

So really, it's quite the sleeper, passing off as a reuglar Pulsar to all but the few who know what to look for... Luckily, the "BS Judges" (The people who penalise competitors if their car is especially high spec'd, and it's up to teams to BS their way out of penalties, mainly by saying "Oh, nah, they all came out with that turbocharger..." for example) weren't part of those few, and as far as they were concerned, it was a normal N15 Pulsar.

On track, well it really was dominant in the wet! Front wheel drive, relatively light and very manouverable, I dodged a few hairy crashes and even avoided a spin myself. Coming too hot into turn 1, I dabbed the brakes, the rear stepped out on me, and in a near-instant reaction, I counter steered then let the wheel go, praying it would right itself. Amazingly, it did and I continued on without actually stopping. So technically I drifted a front wheel drive. (Beat THAT @Vic Reign93!!! )

The top speed I saw coming over the front stretch was 170km/h, which is incredible for a little FF hatch, in the damp, slipstreaming a Honda Prelude. According to the telemetry (Links of which I'll be sharing in the upcoming article), our average speed over the whole 24 hours was 106km/h, which is incredible when you consider that's including the times it was stopped getting gas, or swapping drivers, or even during the couple of red flag periods we had!

Peter Van Breugel belting up for an hour and a half's worth of racing!

The Pulsar was easy to get used to, and I quickly found myself in a rythm of when to brake, how hard to brake, racing lines, and of course when to drop the hammer! Despite being 5 speed, it didn't really need 5th, I could rev it out in 4th on the front and back straights and go just over the 6000rpm shift we'd all agreed on before having to brake. Shifting to 5th just meant extra footwork for bugger all gain. With the rain coming and going, it remained surprisingly stable and the surface water never compromised it's agility and ability to duck past opponents, lunge up the inside of opponents, or just straight up out-drag opponents! It was also amazingly efficient on gas, lasting over 3 hours on a single standard 50L sized tank!

This car was well and truly blessed throughout the whole race. We had no mechanical issues, the gearbox was awesome, the engine kept going, the suspension remained intact, our only small strife was, as mentioned earlier in this thread, when the track dried out and the temperature rose, the brake pads chewed out much faster than perhaps they should. We fitted some race compound pads in the end, but in retrospect that should have happened a lot sooner. Oh well, now we know!

It's not the fastest car in the field, but it sure wasn't the slowest either! Without trying too hard, the little Pulsar's consistency and reliability put it well into the top half of the pack and earned it a respectable 16th placing!!! It's a sleeper from me! :tup:

We did it, Dad..

 

[Obelisk]

And now for a "Beater or Sleeper" style review of the Pulsar! If you're not familiar with this, over on the GT6 Car Of The Week thread I would do reviews of each week's car that were more in depth than just "I liked this car", or "This car is good", or "This car really sucks!" So, as @Obelisk requested, I shall do one such review on my very own Pulsar!

When life gives you Lemons...
...go motor racing!

View attachment 738459
Coming over the crest of turn 3, one of the more fun and dangerous parts of the circuit, especially wet! (Pic cred StreetStyle Photography)

Considering I'm a Nissan guy, it only made sense to enter a Nissan into the 24hr Lemons. And considering about 85% of my motorsports experience lies within an N15 Pulsar, (wether it was my Dirt Track VZ-R or this Autech), it only made sense that this was the car I entered. Hooncorp's Nissan Pulsar Autech, which was once (And probably still could be) a normal, road going car. It did grocery shops. It dropped children off at school. It probably did a few traffic light drag races. But then we found it. All the way down in Wellington, which is a 1600km (1000mi) round trip from Auckland. We snapped it up for an agreeable sum, brought it home, and the rest is history!

The team for the Pulsar consisted of
-Myself
-Shaun Stewart
-Craig Coffey
-Trevor Rooderkerk
-Peter Van Breugel
-Carl "Muntar" Van Dam

Now, the first thing to talk about is the rarity of this paticular beast. The N15 Pulsar Autech Version was only made in a supercar-sized portion of 576 cars. They were avaliable exclusively from Japan, and featured a 2.0 litre 4 cylinder SR20 DE motor with unique valve springs, portwork and pistons to push the compression ratio up. Rated at 180bhp stock, it also had some unique visuals like a rear spoiler that looked awful, I'm so glad this one's is missing. To top it off, a small Autech badge on the rear and one on the gauge cluster.

So really, it's quite the sleeper, passing off as a reuglar Pulsar to all but the few who know what to look for... Luckily, the "BS Judges" (The people who penalise competitors if their car is especially high spec'd, and it's up to teams to BS their way out of penalties, mainly by saying "Oh, nah, they all came out with that turbocharger..." for example) weren't part of those few, and as far as they were concerned, it was a normal N15 Pulsar.

On track, well it really was dominant in the wet! Front wheel drive, relatively light and very manouverable, I dodged a few hairy crashes and even avoided a spin myself. Coming too hot into turn 1, I dabbed the brakes, the rear stepped out on me, and in a near-instant reaction, I counter steered then let the wheel go, praying it would right itself. Amazingly, it did and I continued on without actually stopping. So technically I drifted a front wheel drive. (Beat THAT @Vic Reign93!!! )

The top speed I saw coming over the front stretch was 170km/h, which is incredible for a little FF hatch, in the damp, slipstreaming a Honda Prelude. According to the telemetry (Links of which I'll be sharing in the upcoming article), our average speed over the whole 24 hours was 106km/h, which is incredible when you consider that's including the times it was stopped getting gas, or swapping drivers, or even during the couple of red flag periods we had!

View attachment 738458
Peter Van Breugel belting up for an hour and a half's worth of racing!

The Pulsar was easy to get used to, and I quickly found myself in a rythm of when to brake, how hard to brake, racing lines, and of course when to drop the hammer! Despite being 5 speed, it didn't really need 5th, I could rev it out in 4th on the front and back straights and go just over the 6000rpm shift we'd all agreed on before having to brake. Shifting to 5th just meant extra footwork for bugger all gain. With the rain coming and going, it remained surprisingly stable and the surface water never compromised it's agility and ability to duck past opponents, lunge up the inside of opponents, or just straight up out-drag opponents! It was also amazingly efficient on gas, lasting over 3 hours on a single standard 50L sized tank!

This car was well and truly blessed throughout the whole race. We had no mechanical issues, the gearbox was awesome, the engine kept going, the suspension remained intact, our only small strife was, as mentioned earlier in this thread, when the track dried out and the temperature rose, the brake pads chewed out much faster than perhaps they should. We fitted some race compound pads in the end, but in retrospect that should have happened a lot sooner. Oh well, now we know!

It's not the fastest car in the field, but it sure wasn't the slowest either! Without trying too hard, the little Pulsar's consistency and reliability put it well into the top half of the pack and earned it a respectable 16th placing!!! It's a sleeper from me! :tup:

View attachment 738171
We did it, Dad..

That very last bit, that's just so sweet. Your dad must be proud of your efforts in that Pulsar.

 

[Nismonath5]

That very last bit, that's just so sweet. Your dad must be proud of your efforts in that Pulsar.

I was in the Pulsar, he was in the Commodore for the end of the race. At one point I caught up to him and went side by side, before play-battling for a few laps. That was special.