Let’s say that you don’t want or need to supplement your daily driver, but you don’t want to break the bank on a set of wheels to purely have fun with. How would you go about looking for the fun car? Ever thought about looking at an older race car? There is some research to be done in order to cover your backside on the purchase but there is no reason to avoid them if all is good. And if worse comes to worse, you could always go full-on Roadkill and go for broke. Hell with it, why not?

Take, for example, this Nissan Hardbody. It might look like a 1993, the ad claims that it’s a 1993, but there is a lot on the table that should leave you to believe that this is one a 1987 build that was meant for the SCCA Coors RaceTruck Challenge, an all-truck road racing series that went from 1987-1991. At some point after the chassis’ last known RaceTruck Challenge stint in 1989, the truck was wrecked and rebodied to it’s current 1993 layout. The Hardbody has been recently run in an autocross as an F Street Prepared racer, but as of right now needs a once-over, new belts, new window net and a fluid changeout before it would be ready to play in anger again.

But how fun would it be to play with a hot-rodded mini-truck? The 2.4L KA24E four-banger was reportedly built for Nissan by an outfit called Sunbelt Performance and other than cams and pistons, not much is known about the internals. A similar story resides out back in the axle: a limited slip or locked rear diff with a deep set of gears…think somewhere in the 5.** range, and you’ll be in the ballpark. At 2,733 pounds with “some fuel”, this featherweight would be a riot to ring out.

Walkaway price on this Hardbody is $5,000 even and comes with a pile of parts to go along with the truck as you see it. And we mean a pile: three complete sets of wheels and tires (along with three other wheels just for good measure), another block and some engine parts, another trans, three rears with different rear gears, and more. For a budget minded racer, this would be an excellent score. You might not like the noise of a pissed-off Nissan, but you’d be unwise to pass this up.

Craigslist Link: 1987-1993 Nissan D21 ex-SCCA Coors RaceTruck Challenge 

(Courtesy of Bring A Trailer)