Nissan R390 GT1

The Nissan R390 GT1 was a racing car built in Atsugi, Japan. It was designed primarily to gain a suitable racing entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997 and 1998. It was built to race under the grand touring style rules, requiring a homologated road version to be built. Therefore, the R390 was built originally as road car, then a racing version of the car was developed afterwards. Only one R390 road car was ever built and is stored at Nissan's Zama facility, although one of the race cars was later modified for road use. The road car was claimed to be capable of attaining a top speed of However, this claim has never been proven.

After returning to sports car racing in 1995, Nismo (Nissan motorsport) had some measure of success with their Skyline GT R LM which had competed in the GT1 class. However, these cars were quickly outpaced by the influx of new manufacturers who were using loopholes in the GT regulations to build racing cars that bore little resemblance to their GT1 class competitors, examples being the Mercedes Benz CLK GTR and the Porsche 911 GT1. Nismo's Skyline GT R therefore needed to be replaced with a purpose built racing car. Turning to Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), Nismo began developing a prototype of the R390 GT1, named to follow in the tradition started in the 1960s with Nissan's R380. The first decision for Nismo and TWR was the choice of engine. The previous Skyline GT R LM had used the trusted RB26DETT Inline six engine, but the design was old for a racing car, employing an iron block which added weight and had a high center of gravity. Nismo instead chose to resurrect an engine from the Nissan R89C, a racing car from the Group C era. Its powerplant, the VRH35Z, was a V8 engine which used an aluminium block, as well as having a lower center of gravity and a better ability to be used as a stressed member over the RB26. Thus the engine was modified and designated VRH35L and would produce approximately at 7,000 rpm. Following the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, rules for the GT classes were changed, mostly to end the number of manufacturers attempting to use loopholes. Instead of LMGT1, an LMGTP prototype class for closed cockpit cars was introduced for the 1999 Le Mans 24h that allowed more race specific construction without any road going considerations. With Mercedes and Toyota going to improve their already faster GTs, Nissan was forced to either modify the R390 to a prototype GT, or abandon it like Porsche did with the GT1. Nissan instead turned to the open cockpit LMP classes, developing the R391 prototype for 1999 with European collaboration. After mixed results, that included a win over Toyota in Fuji, this program would also be short lived. Nissan discontinued Le Mans style racing at the end of 1999. A total of eight R390 GT1 race chassis were built over the two years of the program.

Only one R390 road car was ever produced by Nissan as a prototype for the development of the race cars and was never intended for sale, although Nissan did offer to build further versions at a value of US$1 million. The lone R390 GT1 is currently stored at Nismo's Zama warehouse, along with the #32 R390 GT1 race car from 1998. The vehicle is powered by the same twin turbocharged VRH35L V8 engine as the race car, generating a power output of at 6,800 rpm and of torque at 4,400 rpm (although Nissan claimed lower figures of "over " at 5,200rpm and "over " of torque at 4,000 rpm). All of this power is sent to the rear wheels via a six speed sequential manual transmission. The car is able to accelerate from in 3.9 seconds and complete the quarter mile in 11.9 seconds.