Nissan only make 1 series of GTiR ?
Mazda stop making the Familia GTR ?

And why did Ford stop making Cortinas?

The Ford Cortina was a midsize car sold by Ford of Britain. The Cortina was produced in five generations from 1962 until 1982, when it was replaced by:
- Ford Sierra 1982 (Brittain)
- Ford Pinto 1971 (US)
- Ford Meteor/Telstar (Australia)

So I guess they retired the name, made new cars (Pinto & Sierra) or rebadged other makers (Meteor is a Mazda 323 Sedan).

Seems the GTiR was a bomb on the rally circuit, and prone to understeering 'cos of too much weight up the front, so Nissan ditched the line and concentrated on their other cars instead (IE. Skyline).

sierra's are so much better than cortinas anyway!
GTiR and familia were fun cars but I guess they just didnt sell enough to keep them in production...??

Look here for the answer to one of your questions...

http://forum.gtiroz.net/

As far as the understeering goes it is a simple problem fixed by minor suspension modifications. And the GTIR was actually quite succesful in the rallying events that nissan chose to enter them in.

Woody

Manufacturers could see the possibility of their awd pocket rockets fitted with lift kits and snorkles. Perfect for the soccer mums and the ricers who want to do deep creek crossings.
Isn't that right steve

LOL ! Yeah mate, so much carry over between GTiR and Patrol, much closer than Skyline's

323 was a laser which replaced the escort as a small car.
626 was meteor/telstar replacing the cortina as mid-sized.

wonder why ford didn't take the 929 as the new falcon.. hahahhahahaha

cos the 929 would be too classy for a Falcon?!? =)

Three words: Front Wheel Drive.
That, and it was too "small" in the eyes of the Aussie public.. yeah it was Commodore size at the time, and yeah Falcon's outsold Commodore's 'cos they were bigger . 929's lack of adoption was purely because the large family sedan market wanted, well, LARGE family sedan's with big engine options and RWD. The Commodore's failed on the LARGE aspect, which is why we have the big Holden's again.

i dunno bout the 626/meteor thang. any of the service manuals i had for me kc tx3 had meteors in them to0. ie being of sedan origin, and laser heritage, which if i recall, failed miserably :/

the guy i bought my car off also had a familia...it was club spec or some sort of spec from japan...300bhp...damn sexy car

looks very similar to a proton

If you read my post above, the Meteor is rebadged 323 sedan