On my way to work last week, I happened to spot a rare-in-the-Midwest clean, stock Infinti G20 in write-me-a-ticket red. I’ve always liked the car’s clean lines and after my mind and my Internet browser wandered a bit, I came across this video of modern touring car legend and current Lada factory driver (No, really!) Rob Huff flogging around Donington Park a vintage British Touring Car Championship Nissan Primera—as the G20 was known almost everywhere else—that once was originally raced by BTCC legend Matt Neal.
Huff came to the BTCC too late for the Super Touring era, which is regarded by touring car enthusiasts as the series’ glory days, but he seems genuinely humbled by putting the Primera through its paces.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvOdoSdsTKk[/youtube]
Yeah, the video’s a bit long, but if you don’t have the time to watch the whole thing, skip forward to the 16:00 mark to watch Huff clock a lightning-quick 1:12 lap. How fast is that? The Aston Martin GT4 Challenge record on the same circuit is a 1:12.
Huffy fights understeer a little at times, but the car is obviously compliant and plenty powerful. It might have something to do with Huff’s driving ability—he is a World Touring Car Champion, after all—but the Primera keeps up in the twisty bits with formula cars that weigh half as much and gives several Porsche drivers all they can handle.
If you watch Huff’s debrief (around 20:00 in the video) with Anthony Reid, who helped propel Nissan to the ’98 BTCC Constructors championship, you can hear his glowing review. In part, he calls it:

“Proper. So much grip on the front end when you’re on the power! You can generate more grip when you’re on the throttle.”

Who says front-wheel-drive isn’t fun? Or nimble? Of course, it never hurts to be churning 320 horsepower out of the car’s highly tuned Nissan SR20 engine.
The 1998 BTCC season was one for the books. Swede Rickard Rydell won the driver’s title in a Volvo V40 over legendary touring car drivers Alain Menu, young Jason Plato, Yvan Muller, Peter Kox, and Matt Neal. The cars—Renault Laguna, Honda Accord, Peugeot 406, and Ford Mondeo to name a few—are similarly legendary.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpL_72hx3Js[/youtube]
From that season, there was perhaps no more exciting a touring car race as the wet Donington Park round.In the weekend’s second race, Nigell Mansell—making a guest appearance in a Mondeo—duked it out with the Primeras and the others. For many, there is no piece of racing footage so manic as the frenetic finish, embedded above for your enjoyment.
 
[Source: HarveyMushman240Z YouTube channel, Australian Autosport Community YouTube channel]