The GTiR was first produced in 1990 and was only available in Japan, as a standard car it boasted a 2 litre 16 valve turbo-charged engine which produced 227 bhp and 200 lb/ft of torque, this was enough to push the car to 62 mph from a standing start in a mere 5.27 seconds.Apart from the ridiculous acceleration, the car also had a fairly sophisticated 4 wheel drive system involving differential torque split, which meant that normally the power is split 50/50 to the front and back , but if for example both the front wheels lost traction then 100% power would be fed to the rear wheels.The car had the usual extras such as ABS and Air conditioning but the Japanese car also had electrical folding mirrors and an umbrella hidden in the door.The top speed was a ' paultry ' 144 mph which was apparently a short geared top speed geared more for accelaration than top speed!

In 1992 the GTiR came to the UK , but rather than gain any extras it lost 7bhp, the electrically folding mirrors, and most importatly the umbrella! It also lost the cloth trimmed doors and roof , but it wasn't restricted to 112 mph like the Japanese cars, it also gained slightly in the 0-62 mph but this was negligable.It is differcult to decide which is the better car but i would have to say that its the import, but then i would as i own one .The Japanese car is also meant to be more tuable due to larger injectors.

The GTiR stopped production in 1994 in both the UK and in Japan, there are many left in Japan that are making their way into the UK, but as there were only about 70 brought to the UK as official UK cars , and many of those were stripped-out and prepared for rallying, it would seem fair to say that it's differcult to find a decent UK spec car.