1991 - 1992 Nissan Motorsport NL

You are at: My Life in Rallying ---> Nissan Motorsport NL

End of 1991 was the first time i had contact with Nissan Motorsport i had the pleasant surprise that they were starting to work with Barron Sports Development in the Netherlands.

For me this was perfect as i could stay in my home country, so i accepted to work with them.

Barron Sports Development was a company run by John Bosch, he was driving with a BMW M3 in the Dutch and European championship and they were now changing to Nissan.

They were the official Sattelite Team in Europe to Build and service the Nissan Sunny GTI-R Group N.

When i started working there were still a few of the beautifull M3 Group A rally cars in the workshop and my first rally with them was also the last Rally of the BMW M3.

I had the honnor to go and deliver the last Marlboro BMW M3 Group A to a client in the South of France.

We built the 1st Nissan Sunny GTR-N in time for the RAC Rally ( November 1991 ) and we did not have much time to test the car before the rally.

The Sunny GTi-R was a nice handling car and fast enough to challenge some Gr A 4x4 cars, and soon John was leading the Group N class.

Sadly most of the time the Gearbox did not last a complete Rally and it was almost impossible to change it during a 45 Minute service, but we trained a lot and soon we got it right.

In 1992 we did the Dutch championship and also some Rally's for the World and European Championship ( WRC Sweden, WRC Portugal , Madeira and Acores Rally's).

There were also cars being made for customers, like the son of the President of Amman, and 2 cars for the Portugese championship ( Madeira island ).

I was working with the Portugese team in Madeira and i spend a lot of time on the Beautifull island.

During one of these rally's in 1992 met my wife Sonia who was a co-pilot for the Peugeot Portugal team ( Peugeot 309 Gr A ).... one thing led to another and now i am Maried with her...:)...

Barron Sports Development was closed at the end of 1992, so i had to look for another team ( which i found: Ford Motorsport and RAS Sport)