V8 Supercars brothers Todd and Rick Kelly have selected a rare piece of Nissan road car history to venture up to Mount Panorama this week.

Following a road trip tradition that the pair has held true for over a decade, the former Bathurst champions will arrive at the famous circuit today in a unique Nissan Bluebird TRX – one of six cars built by Nissan Australia as promotional vehicles in 1982.

Kindly loaned by car owner and restorer Peter Rowlston, the Kellys will cover 800 kilometres on their way to Bathurst.

And to ensure authenticity, Todd and Rick got dressed up in their best 1980s gear for their journey.

“We’ve done a lot of cool things in motor sport, but one of the coolest things is to do our once a year road trip,” Todd Kelly said.

“We get to dress up, we’ve done lots of different themes, and this is another cool one from the ’80s.

“This is one of the more comfortable cars that we’ve ever taken, so we’re looking forward to the trip. It always allows us the time to get in the right frame of mind for the big race.”

The Kellys – owners and drivers at Nissan Motorsport’s V8 Supercars operation – will be joined at Mount Panorama by Nissan’s six other drivers. All are aiming to taste success in Australia’s greatest motor race.

“I can’t wait to get back to the mountain, that’s for sure,” Todd Kelly said.

“There have been a few rounds that we’ve been to this year that we were expecting to be quite challenging for us, but we’ve actually gone a lot better than expected.

“So that’s always a good gauge of not only car handling, but where we really sit with top line speed.”

The Bluebird TRX is a continuation of Nissan’s celebrations ahead of this weekend’s race, where the car company will honour the 30th anniversary of George Fury’s record-breaking, pole-sitting lap time in the 1984 Bathurst 1000.

Fury’s turbo-powered Bluebird stunned the field in the 1984 event, breaking the lap record in Saturday’s traditional Bathurst top 10 shootout with a time of two minutes, 13.85 seconds. 

It was the first time a manufacturer other than Ford or General Motors had earned pole position for the Bathurst 1000.