History of the Nissan R390 GT1
Few people know, but several years before the arrival of the Bugatti Veyron hypercar with its fantastic performance and mind-boggling price tag, owners of thick wallets could buy equally expensive cars. And not only in England or Germany, but also in Japan. Moreover, from a company that had always positioned itself as a manufacturer of mass-market automobiles.
A Japanese with British genes
Despite the fact that in the mid-nineties the Japanese automotive industry was confidently conquering the world, and Japanese engines had earned a good reputation in Formula 1, in the most prestigious 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans the Japanese achieved rather modest success. In 1991, the rotary-powered Mazda 787B secured the first and, at that time, only victory for Japanese teams, and, of course, this state of affairs did not satisfy the Japanese.
In 1996, Nissan’s management decided to create its own sports prototype in the LMGT-1 category and enter it in the 24-hour race at Le Mans the very next year. True, it immediately became clear that developing the car in-house would take a lot of time and they might not meet the deadlines. And that was, to put it mildly, not very good, because their “sworn friends” at Toyota were also busily preparing to conquer Le Mans.
It cannot be said that the Japanese had never faced the problem of lack of time. For example, when they were developing the Nissan R89C sports prototype in the late eighties, its creation was decided to be entrusted to the British firm Lola Cars, which promised to meet a tight deadline. The English kept their promise. True, Nismo, Nissan’s factory team, was not thrilled with such cooperation, as the car did not show the results expected of it. Nevertheless, this time too the Japanese decided to look for partners in England, or more precisely, they entrusted the car’s development to Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR). At that time, this firm could boast not only of its own Formula 1 team, Arrows, but also of excellent designers such as Ian Callum and Tony Southgate. The former had participated in the development of the Aston Martin DB7, while the latter’s track record included two Jaguar sports prototypes – the XJR-9 and XJR-12, which had won at Le Mans in 1988 and 1990. Southgate was considered one of the most experienced designers, having worked on numerous Formula 1, IndyCar, and other racing series cars in his time. Therefore, it can be said with complete confidence: when the Japanese chose TWR as their partner, they definitely went to the right address and could expect a very good result.
But while there were no problems with funding and engineering personnel, the shortage of time was keenly felt. However, Southgate and Callum were no strangers to creating cars under tight deadlines, and they, without putting things off, set to work on the sports prototype named the Nissan R390 GT1.
The car was developed in England, at TWR’s base, while final tuning was handled in Japan by Nismo engineer Yutaka Hagiwara. To save time, a slightly modified Jaguar XJR-15 monocoque was used as a base, the engine – a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V8 VRH35L – was found in Nissan’s stores, and a six-speed sequential Xtrac gearbox was borrowed from Jaguar. The result was a mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports prototype with a carbon-fiber body, weighing 1,098 kg, measuring 4.58 m in length, 2.00 m in width, 1.09 m in height, and with a wheelbase of 2.72 meters.
The bureaucrats’ doing: the road-going Nissan R390 GT1
Since the Nissan R390 GT1 belonged to the LM-GT1 sports prototype category, under existing rules it had to have not only a racing but also a road-going version. This rule had always greatly irritated automakers, as it was frankly pointless and clearly did not benefit motorsport. Apparently, officials were trying to adhere to certain “unshakable foundations” and the “spirit of Le Mans,” trying to prove to the whole world that not only aristocrats and wealthy owners of factories, newspapers, and steamships could participate in motor racing, but also ordinary people. All this may have been relevant up until the mid-sixties of the twentieth century, but then, when motorsport turned not so much into a sport as into a multi-billion-dollar business, this rule began to smack of outright archaism, and at times stupidity. Sports prototypes were little inferior to Formula 1 cars in their characteristics and degree of uniqueness, yet it would never have occurred to anyone to demand that Formula 1 teams also create road versions. All that remained far in the past, in the era of Tazio Nuvolari or Jack Brabham, but in the mid-nineties no one was thinking of abolishing this essentially absurd rule requiring a road version.
Rules are rules, and Nissan, or rather TWR, first created the racing sports prototype Nissan R390 GT1, and then presented its road version, deciding to limit itself to a single example. Fortunately, the rules did not specify exactly how many cars had to be built. So the Japanese decided to take advantage of this loophole, especially since the project’s budget was not unlimited.
The sports prototype had its huge rear wing removed, mirrors were replaced, headlights were removed from the bumper, leather seats were installed in the cabin, and the dashboard was also upholstered in leather. The top speed was limited by an electronic “collar” to 270 km/h, which was 50 km/h less than the racing version, and the engine was detuned from 641 to 550 hp. The reduction in power allowed the car to meet the environmental standards in effect at the time. However, despite all the tricks, one glance at this car, 1.09 m tall with a ground clearance of 90 mm, was enough to understand: this was anything but a car for public roads. If there was anything road-going about it, it was only the headlights from the Nissan 300ZX. However, the Japanese certification authorities did not think so. Formally, all requirements for vehicle certification were met, and the car was issued the necessary documents allowing it to drive on public roads. It is worth noting an interesting point: the Nissan R390 GT1 became the third road-going sports car after the Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion and the McLaren F1 to carry a price tag of one million dollars. True, if the British supercar managed to find 71 buyers, the road-going version of the Nissan R390 GT1 was built in just a single example. Over the years, it gained another road-going brother, but more on that a little later.
A false start
On May 14, 1997, the 65th 24-hour marathon at Le Mans began, in which three Nissan R390 GT1 sports prototypes took part. During test runs, the car had shown decent results, but this did not cause much excitement, as the Nismo team and the creators of the sports prototype knew that at Le Mans, the car that demonstrated fantastic reliability and whose drivers made as few mistakes as possible would win. Usually, before a race, many cars look good, and many even look excellent, but far from all of them make it to the finish.
But even pessimists had no idea what surprises the Nissan R390 GT1 had in store for them. After the first ten laps, it turned out that the cars’ gearboxes were overheating – all three of them. It was a clear design miscalculation, and after two of the three Nissan 390 GT1s dropped out by mid-race, the Nismo team braced itself for a world-class fiasco. It’s one thing to lose one sports prototype, at most two, but when all the cars retire without even covering half the distance, that is truly a fiasco. True, the third car, number 23, driven by Japanese racers Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Masahiko Kageyama, and former Formula 1 driver Éric Comas of France, remained on track, but it was constantly on the verge of retirement. What saved it was that at the most critical moments the car was called into the pits, where its gearbox was replaced. There were two such replacements, and to say that the mechanics in the pits performed a true feat of labor would be an understatement.
In the end, the Nissan R390 GT1 did make it to the finish, but only in twelfth place. After that, Nissan’s management pondered: was it worth continuing the racing program with such dismal results and such reliability? However, Tom Walkinshaw convinced the Japanese to allow his engineers to refine the car without fuss or haste, because overall everything was working normally. And if the aerodynamics were perfected, then next year the Nissan R390 GT1 would undoubtedly show good results. Maybe even win.
Rehabilitation and retirement
Fortunately for Nissan’s management, there were smart people there who did not rush to conclusions or make far-reaching judgments. Funding for the motorsport program continued, Tony Southgate refined the car, paying special attention to cooling the brakes and transmission. The rear wing was moved slightly forward, the shape of the side air intakes was changed, the rear section was extended by 13 centimeters, and the Williams Formula 1 team shared its traction control system.
At the same time, to avoid nitpicking from the bureaucrats of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), responsible for organizing the Le Mans race, the road-going version was also refined, also receiving an extended rear section. Moreover, the Japanese went even further: they repainted the car from red to blue and changed the plates with serial numbers.
And although the improvements to the racing version were, at first glance, minor, it was precisely they that turned a good sports prototype into a truly competitive one. This was confirmed on June 7, 1998, at Le Mans, when all four Nissan R390 GT1s entered in the race made it to the finish. Moreover, car number 32, driven by the same Hoshino, Kageyama, and reinforced by the legend of Japanese motorsport Aguri Suzuki, finished third. It lost only to the Porsche 911 GT1-98, but managed to beat the McLaren F1 GTR and, importantly, the “sworn friends” from Toyota. The other three Nissan R390 GT1s finished in fifth, sixth, and tenth places.
Unfortunately, that was the end of the Nissan R390 GT1’s racing career. In 1999, new ACO rules came into effect, which the car no longer complied with. The single road-going car, like the seven racing cars, went to the Nissan factory museum. And there they would have slept an eternal sleep for long decades, but the impossible happened: French driver Éric Comas, having more than close relations with Nissan’s top managers, asked them to sell him one sports prototype. The Japanese always treated Comas very well, remembering his past merits, so they accommodated him. And the Frenchman, for an undisclosed sum, acquired the car that had finished fifth at Le Mans in 1998.
It took Comas another two years to convert the racing Nissan R390 GT1 into a road-going car. True, as he himself claims, only 5% of the original parts were replaced on the car, but that was enough to obtain permission to drive on public roads. Which Comas occasionally uses – for example, he exhibited the car at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in 2022. That is, he showcased the only road-going Nissan R390 GT in the world that can be bought. Of course, only if Comas decides to sell it, which seems unlikely.
Occasionally, Nissan also shows its museum Nissan R390 GT1 to the public. Sometimes the car is brought to one exhibition, sometimes to another, sometimes it is allowed to stay for a while at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. And even though this car never conquered Le Mans, it is still associated with very warm memories for the Nismo team. After all, finishing in the top three among the planet’s strongest sports prototypes is worth a lot.
