The very first Nissan GT-R R32 – the car that reset the benchmark for touring cars in Australia – has been reborn and will be a feature vehicle at the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival this weekend.
The car, famous for being the first of its kind to race to Australia and earning the GT-R its ‘Godzilla’ nickname, crashed heavily in a spectacular qualifying rollover in the Group A support races at the 1990 Australian Grand Prix.
Since the incident that involved young factory Nissan rising star Mark Skaife, the car has not been seen.
But after a chance ‘find’ by Gibson Motorsport team manager Alan Heaphy and a meticulous restoration by Peter West, the original GT-R – tagged GMS 001 – has been reborn.
The first idea that the car could be brought back to life came some eight years ago. A door from the lost GT-R that was bought at a school fundraising auction many years ago came to the attention of Heaphy, who secured the item, among other components, and triggered the miracle recreation of the heroic car.
The chassis of the reborn car was secured from the owner of a genuine Japanese grey import GT-R that was, frankly, destined for the scrapheap.
But after a meticulous rebuild, and the use of Heaphy and his team’s incredible stockpile of genuine parts from the early-90s era, many of which were components from the original GMS 001 car, the vehicle will once again return to Australian race tracks – some 35 years since its Adelaide accident in 1990.
The GT-R Skyline R32 debuted in the hands of Skaife at the Mallala round of the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship.
Richards took control of the car for the final two events of that year’s championship, helping him secure the 1990 ATCC crown.
Skaife and Jim Richards combined to drive the car at the Bathurst 1000 that year and after qualifying outside the top 10, raced quickly to the front, with Skaife setting a new race lap record before a driveshaft problem halted their run.
It was at the next event – the non-championship support race at the Adelaide Grand Prix – where the car crashed heavily at Turn 10, on the entry to Brabham Straight, rolling it into the wall and bouncing back on track with the front on fire. It was the only Australian-built GT-R Skyline R32 that was heavily damaged.
The car returns to the track adorning the look that the car featured during the 1990 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst.
The car will be on display only over the Adelaide weekend, and Heaphy will be appearing with the GT-R in the Adelaide Marriott Grand Marquee at 9:15am on Sunday March 9, discussing the rebuild with the GT-R Skyline R32 on stage.
The 2025 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival will feature various categories, ranging from Formula 1 cars, V8 Supercars, sportscars, touring cars, motorbikes and more with the action non-stop without a break in track activity at any stage of the day. Off track there will be car displays, kids’ zones, bars and food trucks, exhibitors and traders, activations and more, in a picnic in the park setting.
Visit AdelaideMotorsportFestival.
QUOTES
Alan Heaphy
Team manager, Gibson Motorsport
“A good eight years ago, I got a phone call out of the blue one from a gent who said he had some parts for a Nissan Skyline that he’d bought in a school auction,” explained Heaphy.
“He was cleaning his shed out, and he didn’t want them anymore. So he found us and asked if we were interested in the things.
“One of the parts happened to be the front driver’s door of the first car that was ever built, which is the GMS 001 chassis.
“And we thought, right, where’s the rest of the thing? So it started the ball rolling. We found an original gearbox, then various suspension parts that were part of the car as well.
“We got to the point where we had the genuine mechanicals from the car, but we had no body shell, because based on the circumstances of the crash that the original chassis had to be crushed. So we then scoured the world and found a genuine R32 GT-R and brought it into Australia.
“The body was damaged, but it was all ideal for what we wanted, and then we had to build it and repair it and build it into a motorsport shell and it has been rebuilt by a lot of team members from the original group of that era.
“It has been a massive job, and it’s taken sort of a good few years for it to progress to where it is today.
“And the rebuild escalated from about mid last year, when then we thought we could get it going for the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival – the place where the car ceased its existence back in 1990. The Festival is the perfect place for it to be relaunched.”
Mark Skaife
Former Nissan GT-R driver, Supercars Hall of Famer
“I still remember the crash very vividly because it was qualifying and Jimmy Richards and I were battling for pole position,” recalls Skaife.
“It’s such an important corner. And it was really the start of track limits because the exit curb was a really big, aggressive exit curb. You weren’t allowed to run up and over and around it. You had to stay within the confines so you could use the curb, but had to stay two wheels on the road.
“So I come through the corner. It was on the slide, the left hand rear wheel hit the curb hard, broke the bottom of the wheel and turned it straight over on its roof.
“And it was skating along, going bloody fast. And it was on its roof because of the A-pillar angle, it started to wear through into my helmet and it ended up hitting the fence really hard. Spun back around, come back out onto the road. And because of the damage to the A-pillar and the amount of damage to the car, I couldn’t open the door and it caught fire.
“The last time I saw the car, it was very average. It was pretty damaged and to walk in here today and to see it, see the level of detail and how much work’s gone into making it so authentic is extraordinary.”