Gibson team manager Alan Heaphy has led the project to essentially build a historically accurate tribute to the lost car using a replacement body shell.
The first Group A GT-R to race in Australia arrived midway through 1990, contesting the final three ATCC rounds, the Bathurst 1000 and the Australian Grand Prix support event in Adelaide.
Skaife crashed heavily in qualifying at the AGP, hurting his back and writing off the car.
Heaphy says the idea to ‘rebirth’ the famous machine, presented in Tooheys 1000 guise, came out of left field.
“A good eight years ago, I got a phone call out of the blue 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.”
Heaphy set about locating original parts for the car and sourced a replacement body shell.
“We found an original gearbox, then various suspension parts that were part of the car as well,” Heaphy continued.
“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.”
The car will be on display at this weekend’s Adelaide Motorsport Festival, which features a shortened version of the street circuit that claimed the original.
“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,” said Heaphy.
“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.”
Peter West, an engine builder for the team in period, was project manager for the recreation, while Skaife inspected the car ahead of its trip to Adelaide.
“The last time I saw the car, it was very average,” said Skaife.
“It was pretty damaged and to walk in here and to see it, see the level of detail and how much work’s gone into making it so authentic is extraordinary.”
Watch below a mini-doco on the rebirth of the car
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