I'm on my third Cherry Turbo, I bought the first one in 1986. Just over a year old and 12k on the clock sold it in 2002 after buying one with an engine that had been built from all new genuine parts by a proffesional Nissan nut. All new electronic bits (dizzy, coil and p/transistor, airflow meter etc. etc.) all new hoses and re-cored rad, in fact just about everything. The gearbox had been totally re-built as well. Unfortunately the thing leaked like a sieve and early in 2004 when a friend offered me another car with a blown engine but a good body for the right sort of money, "come and get it and its yours" it was a chance too good to miss. The engine builder himself was in the process of rebuilding from the ground up his own Cherry needed a drivers door which I just happened to have (genuine Nissan, still in the box) so a trade was done for him to swap the mechanicals over and I would "donate" to him the door. The job was done and I now have a 1983 Cherry T with an engine that has done about 15k miles only. The only mods are a Tube Torque full S/S exhaust, Pipercross air filter, strut brace, Bailey Evo dump valve and Mintex 1144 pads in the front. It still brakes using the solid discs with no fade and tremendous stopping power from any speed. It has pulled 5,500 rpm in 5th so if you know the mph/1000rpm you know how fast that is. I've only done it once but it's nice to know the capabilities. I think I've owned on for long enough to know about them, in fact I'm probably one of (if not the) longest continuous owners of Cherry Turbo's as I haven't been without one for the last 18 years. So I will put a couple of points straight. The bronze over black was not a particularly rare colour although it might be now but then laets face it any Cherry T is a rarity now. There was never a 25th Anniversary model either, it was either pre-facelift or facelift and that was it. I have heard tales from people that they have the last one built because it has a late registration but it was not uncommon for some cars to have a couple of years between being built and finally being sold through a dealership. The craziest one I heard was that Octav Botnar had production stopped when his daughter was killed in one, she did die in a car crash in 1974!! So if it was a Cherry Turbo it must have been a turbo'd Datsun 100A. You can always tell a Cherry Turbo driver by the lunatic grin when thery're behind the wheel. I'm not bored with them yet and I don't think I ever will be.
i hammered so many darren and wayne hot hatches in my cherry it was a very rare colour metallic bronze over black mark 2 B914JVO ,i spotted B915JVO which was a nissan europe gti !.i had it back in 1989-90 and i paid £1850 for it.it also had the nice stripey blue interior and a rear spoiler, i myself added some nissan silvia alloys from my purchase the car started gaining a reputation in the area ,95% of people thought i was joking when i mentioned a cherry turbo.i hammered hot hatches on long stretches - which goes to show the power of it.it had a very advanced engine- efi turbo for the time and the car was not as reliable as more mundane jap cars that i have owned.also without p/steering the car had to be hauled thru bends ,put in the weight of the engine and the fat tyres and it became hard work.it was -probably is, one of the quietest hot hatches on the motorway with bizarre overgeared ratois pulling a luxury car 25mph/1000rpm in top -that equated to just 2250rpm at 70mph - which meant dropping a cog to get to the guts of the power band rather than waiting for the turbo to kick in- and when it did- you knew about it-with a seat shoving surge.also when pressed hard the engine was unrefined- not as smooth as say a ren5 gt turbo.equipment levels werent as generous as your usual jap giveaway- but better than tightfisted ford /vw/vauxhall.A lot later on my cousin caught the bug and bought a black mark1 a-reg his was unrelable until he did some minor performance mods and then it never gave him trouble.we did 6, runs to get an average acceleration time of 7.5secs- but that was to 0-65. cherry turbos were stopped suddenly from sale- the reason claimed is that nissan's md octav botnar's daugther died losing control of her cherry turbo.very rare on a d and e reg- probably only 1 or 2
Owned for 2 years.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2004.
Performance
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hi my names is dave i owned a 1984 25th aniversary model nissan cherry 1.5zx turbo after i tuned the engine and bolted on a slightly bigger turbo this car was pretty awsome the brakes i never uprated so after 120mph the thing didnt want to stop im not supprised being solid disc & drum none of my mates would race me in the end escort turbos r5 turbos golf gti all got their bonnets blackend from the flame from the exhaust after melting 3 exhaust manifolds some nice lady hit the rear of my car and wrote it off i was gutted if there is any good zx 15s out there il buy it there brill fun
Above average reliability & very advanced technology employed on this car for 1985 ! Engine is 'bullet proof' & easy to modify.
Owned for 6 months.
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