Chris Butcher is set to bring history back to life in this year’s Probite British Rally Championship, having entered his Nissan Sunny GTI F2 in the National Rally Title category.
The ex-Nissan Motorsport Europe car is a faithful recreation of the 1997 British Championship-winning example driven by Mark Higgins which Butcher has painstakingly restored over several years, contesting a series of smaller events whilst the development has been ongoing.
Now, the Newport driver will step into the BRC for the first time with the iconic machine, evoking memories from a key period of the series which saw manufacturer-supported entries and the scream of high-revving normally aspirated two-wheel-drive Formula Two cars.
“It’s a light, nimble and high-revving car that tends to draw the crowds” says Butcher who will be co-driven by Jon Hawkins in 2024.
“For a lot of people, it brings back nostalgia for the BRC in the 1990s and early 2000s. It is well suited to fast-flowing lanes and we hope to put on a bit of a spectacle and enjoy bringing something a little bit different to the stages for people to see! We are hoping that speed and consistency will be key to our championship campaign.
“The car is a Nissan Motorsport Europe built example for an Irish customer in the early 1990s as a Group A car and was used successfully in Ireland for a number of years, competing in events such as Donegal, Killarney Rally of the Lakes, The Circuit of Ireland and Lurgan Park. In more recent years, it has been converted to full Kit-car specification, including an engine producing around 270hp, sequential gearbox and remote suspension. The colour scheme is mostly associated with the 1997 NME blue and white ‘freckles’ – the colour scheme that Mark Higgins used when winning the BRC in 1997. Nissan has a good history in the BRC, with Higgins’ 1997 championship victory that went down the last round on the Manx, as well as Alistair McRae winning the BRC in 1995 in a Group A Sunny GTI.”
The pairing will be supported by Severnside Defibs, JJP Media and RVG Automotive.
We are very excited to see this on the lanes!
