My 1992 Nissan R32 Skyline GTR

But to appreciate the story of how restaurateur and part-time racer Terry Ashwood secured the cars, we need to go back to 1983.

"It all basically started when I belonged to the Porsche Club of NSW and had a fully imported car Porsche Ruf Turbo," says Ashwood, 62.

"It was similar to a Brock Commodore where it comes out of the production line and goes to another production line for additional motorsport modification, although it was perfectly street legal. The Porsche Club was very track oriented, but this was quite a valuable car ($200,000) so I never raced it.  I started to feel a little bit left out so I bought a Datsun 1600, modified it and got to the stage where it could beat most of the Porsches I was competing against."

Ashwood owned several Porsches over the years and even competed in the Porsche Cup with a GT2 and ran in the top 10 from 1995 until the 1999 Gold Coast Indy. "It was just too just expensive," he says. "Unless you had a factory built race car you couldn't compete so I elected to bow out.

"By that time I had grown quite fond of Nissan owing to the respect I had for the 1600."  So he bought an ex-Nissan motorsport HR31 GTSR two-door coupe - the model before the GTR - and raced by Mark Skaife for Gibson Motorsport.

"During the ownership I got to know Fred Gibson very well because he used to help me with info on the car as it was so hi-tech.  It was over lunch with Fred that I asked him about his collection. He used to keep the last model of all the cars he raced from 1984 to 92. He had a collection of seven.

"Over a bottle of red wine at Cavellies Restaurant in Melbourne, which was a Lotus dealership as well, he said he needed to sell them because he was in association with Ford Motor Company and they weren't prepared to allow him do anything with them.  I said I'd buy them all and display them in my restaurant and we did the deal on a paper napkin that day over a handshake." 

Ashwood promised not to divulge the amount he paid.  "It was a lot of money and people consider I was stupid spending so much on the cars, but I've since sold three and got my money back three-fold."

He opened his TrackSide restaurant in West Gosford in 2003 and has been rotating his collection through it ever since.  The only car he still races is the original 1992 R32 Skyline GTR nicknamed "Godzilla" and considered by Nissan as a "globally significant car".

Skaife won the 1992 Australian Touring Car Championship in the car and won Bathurst that year with Jim Richards.  Ashwood now runs it in the historic racing class only at flowing circuits such as Phillip Island, Eastern Creek, Sandown, Lakeside and possibly Morgan Park, in Warwick, now that the circuit has been extended.

"It has to run with the same livery and mechanicals it had back in its days, so no modification in any way, shape or form is allowed," he says.  "It costs about $100,000 to run a four-race series and you might end up with a little plastic trophy at the end."

The car was recently valued by Wheels magazine at $1.3m, but cost $700,000 to build in 1992.  It is powered by a 2.6-litre 24-valve DOHC twin turbo straight six rated at 640hp, but was detuned under the original CAMS regulations to 450hp to keep it competitive.

"It was too good in its day for the others so CAMS tried to nobble it with restricted power and extra weight," Ashwood says.  The four-wheel-drive car now weighs 1500kg. 

"It's certainly different to drive. It understeers heavily which I quickly found out at Lakeside last year at the Carousel. I went off and it took the oil cooler off."  Ashwood will return to Lakeside this weekend (AUGUST 7-8) for the Lakeside Classic Speed Fest.

The Gisbon race car inventory

1984 Bluebird driven by George Fury. It held the Bathurst lap record for eight years. Now for sale for $220,000.
1987 Gazelle in which Mark Skaife won the two-litre championship, his first title-winning Nissan.
1992 Nissan Winfield GTR driven by Skaife in which he won the Australian Touring Car Championship and claimed a controversial Bathurst win with Jim Richards when the race was stopped.
1992 Formula Holden open wheeler in Winfield livery in which Skaife won the Drivers' Championship and Gold star Championship.
1986 DR30 4-cylinder Skyline driven by Fury and Terry Shields. Sold to another racer.
1990 HR31 Skyline 2L 6-cylinder single turbo driven by Jim Richards in which he won the ATCC.
1984 Nissan Pulsar EXA driven by Christine Gibson, Fred's wife, and Glen Seton. Sold.