One Of The Coolest Imported Cars You’ve Never Heard Of Is This Tiny Nissan

Each year at roughly about this time, journalists love to tell you about the hot cars you can import beginning next year. You could just go with any number of popular cars like Honda Beats or any Kei truck. But what if you want something a bit different? This 1994 Nissan March Impul Edition isn’t just a spicy import, but it’s a hot-ish hatch you’ve never heard of tuned by a racing driver’s company. Even better? You don’t even have to import it because it’s already in America.

It’s easy to talk about an import legend. Lots of car enthusiasts have heard about the Autozam AZ-1 and Kei trucks like the Honda Acty can be found in America from sea to shining sea. The Honda NSX has been talked about nearly to death and even Nissan’s Pike cars get a decent bit of coverage. But there’s a whole world of more obscure imports waiting to come to America.

One of them is this 1994 Nissan March Impul Edition, a tuner car that we never got in America and looks equal parts hot and adorable. Yes, this engine made all of 84 HP when stock, but you’re looking at a tiny pocket rocket today. It’s also rare enough that you’re unlikely to find someone else with one.

Nissan’s Successful Small Car

For most people, there isn’t much to talk about when it comes to the March, which is also known as the Micra. The first Micra made its debut in 1982 in Japan and 1983 in Europe. Its whole deal was to compete with the B-segment cars like the Honda City as well as competing with the best of what Europe had to offer. There’s a rumor that the original Micra’s design was penned by Giugiaro for Fiat before it was tossed to Nissan.

The hottest thing about the original Micra was the Super Turbo variant, which combined a supercharger and a turbocharger to produce 108 HP from an all-aluminum 930cc four-cylinder. That’s not a lot of power, but the little guy scooted to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds, which was quick for a car from the ’80s!

In 1992, Nissan launched the second-generation Micra, dubbed the K11. The big news with this one was, as Hagerty notes, Nissan embracing retro design like it had with its famous Pike cars. The new Micra was unapologetically round and piled on the technology, too. To call the 1992 Micra a home run would be an understatement. The Micra won the Automotive Researchers’ and Journalists’ Conference Car of the Year, Car of the Year Japan 1992, and a Good Design Award in Japan, where people fell fully in love with the tiny hatch.

In the modern day, people care so little about the March K11 that one sold on Bring a Trailer for just $1,800 before fees.

Sadly, Nissan didn’t go nuts with the new Micra. The hot version in Japan was the Super S, which added some spicy-looking parts and 1.3-liter four good for 75 HP. Devotees of speed in Japan had another way to go fast in a cute Micra or March.

Hot Little Cars

This March is the work of Impul, the company founded by Nissan factory racing driver Kazuyoshi Hoshino in 1980. The company’s first products were tuning parts for Nissans, but in short order the company began tuning whole cars. Impul’s first tuner car was the Impul 630R, a hopped-up version of the Nissan Cedric and Gloria. Impul’s had its hands on everything from the Juke to the Skyline GT-R in addition to having its own racing team.

Impul rolled into the 1993 Tokyo Auto Salon with the Impul March and the Impul March Classic. What was the Impul March? it was a March K11, but decked out in Impul’s catalog of exclusive parts. The Impul March’s changes were dramatic and included everything from a body kit to a wing and Impul March-specific wheels.

There were additional changes under the hood, where Impul fitted March vehicles with a custom ECU, stainless steel headers, a custom muffler, a performance cam, a 150 mph speedometer, a rollbar, and more. The breadth of parts was honestly impressive. The Impul March offered performance brakes, a sport suspension, wide flares, and little trinkets like a custom shift knob and metal pedals. Impul made most of these parts itself and you could either buy whole custom Impul cars from your Nissan dealer, or buy individual parts from Impul.

The stated goal, according to a brochure, was to turn the March into a hot “boy racer” type of car and I think the mods achieve that. Impul sold a few different versions of its hopped-up March. One had a 1.3-liter CG13DE four good for 79 HP while this one has a 1.0-liter CG10DE four supposedly good for 84 HP.

We aren’t talking about high power numbers, but the CG10DE came from Nissan making 54 HP, so Impul made some fantastic gains here. Sadly, I have not found any published performance figures, but Impul says this car weighs around 2,392 pounds and should be about a couple of inches wider than the car’s original 62.8-inch width.

In other words, the Impul March was about as close as a Japanese buyer was able to get to buying a March hot hatch. Even weirder was the fact that Impul also sold a March Classic version that gave the March the face of an old Alfa Romeo. If you were feeling particularly quirky, you were able to soup up the Classic as well.

One Of A Couple

This particular example has had further modding done to it. Someone’s added an RSR strut tower brace and an APEXi intake, plus a non-Impul exhaust system. The car was imported by the Import Guys in 2021 and was purchased by the seller on Cars & Bids later that year. Since then, the current owner has done his own modifications:

I’ve added a bunch of modifications that I had to order in from overseas. Its lowered on Gizfab coilovers, has an adjustable Gizfab lower bar in the rear along with the Gizfab rear strut tower Xbrace. Has a gizfab short throw shifter as well. Also 3-year ceramic coat.

I’ve been able to make my own observations as well. It appears the owner scraped the front lip up a bit or perhaps the paint has been coming off. There’s now some scaffolding in the trunk area as well. But, the Impul is largely as it came off of the boat.

When the vehicle was sold in 2021, it had 44,000 kilometers, or the equivalent of 27,300 miles. The seller now reports that the mileage is 55,000, but it’s not clear if we’re talking about kilometers or miles here.

What we do know is that this car has a five-speed manual, a working air-conditioner, and apparently has more than enough power and legs for American highways. The Micra/March isn’t a Kei car and that comes with the benefit of being a bit more comfortable at going down an Interstate!

When new, an Impul March sold for 1,760,000 yen, or more than double the price of a base model March. That’s worth about 1,993,894 yen today, or $13,307. These cars were basically affordable transportation but with an extra little kick. Think of this Impul as being something like a European-spec Smart Brabus. We’re not talking about actual hot hatch levels of performance here, but what sounds like some real good fun.

Back in 2021, this car sold for $7,000 on Cars & Bids. The seller swears that this is the only Impul March in America. The Import Guys, the company that imported this Impul March, is advertising a 1996 Impul March for sale, so this one isn’t by itself. But it seems American enthusiasts don’t know about these, so there can’t be many here.

The seller is looking to get $14,500 for this 1994 Impul March. While $14,500 is practically a steal in the JDM space nowadays, I do question if the added mods double the car’s value. There’s nothing stopping you from hiring the Import Guys to find you an Impul March in Japan and you’ll probably come out cheaper than buying this one. But there is a lot of convenience to buying a car that’s already here and doesn’t have to spend two months getting to America. I’ll let you decide if the price is right.

What I really want to see is more cars like this one landing in America. Again, I love seeing Honda Beats and the like, but even the forgotten and unloved imports need some love, too. I’d also love to see more tuner madness like this. Let’s put more bulging flares on tiny cars!

(Images: Seller, unless otherwise noted.)