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54-593: After returning to sports car racing in 1995, Nismo ( Nis san mo torsport) 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

108-424: A longer rear tail, a new rear diffuser, and on racing versions, a new rear wing placement for less drag. Although Nissan was easily beaten in qualifying by Mercedes-Benz CLK-LM , Toyota GT-One , Porsche 911 GT1-98 and BMW V12 LM for places 10, 13, 14, and 19, Nissan was able to achieve considerable success in the race after all Mercedes and BMW had to retire early. With this, all four Nissan were able to finish in

162-721: A new company called Nissan Motorsports & Customizing Co., Ltd. . The merge was completed on April 1, 2022. Products include the GT-R, 370Z, Sentra, Frontier, and the Juke Nismo. Soon to be added to the range is the hatchback Nissan Pulsar Nismo and the electric Nissan Leaf Nismo designs and manufactures a range of aftermarket performance parts for Nissan cars including aerodynamics parts such as spoilers and diffusers , alloy wheels , engine and suspension parts. The 2017 Infiniti Q60, being much criticized for its mild exhaust sound, about six months after its introduction had

216-409: A reserve list, in case an entry from the list of 48 withdrew prior to the event. These entries were allowed to join the race entry list based on the fastest pre-qualifying times from the same group and class as the withdrawn entry. Before the race, two LMGT2 entries from the first pre-qualifying session were withdrawn. First to be withdrawn was the lone Cirtek Mustang which had qualified, which promoted

270-414: A session- and class-basis. The pre-qualifying results were as follows: Morning session (7:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.) It was an expectedly tight session for the GT1 cars, with 7 strong entries competing for 5 slots on the grid. In the end it was the unfortunate Larbre and Zakspeed entries that were out of luck despite trying hard with in the case of number 38 spectacular moments. Slowest of all in GT1

324-538: A specially tuned Nismo muffler made available through Infiniti dealers as an aftermarket item. Most Datsun , Nissan, and Infiniti branded cars have performance parts available from Nismo, either in production or as old stock. For example, Nismo sells parts such as unground cam billets, performance cams, pistons , etc. for the KA24E engine, which was used in the Nissan small pickup truck for several years and also used for

378-503: A stressed member over the RB26. Thus the engine was modified and designated VRH35L and would produce approximately 650 PS (478 kW; 641 hp) at 7,000 rpm. For the road going version, the engine was detuned to 558 PS (410 kW; 550 hp). The car's styling group was led by Ian Callum of TWR. The mechanical and aerodynamic design was led both by Tony Southgate , also of TWR, and Yutaka Hagiwara of Nismo. Southgate

432-525: Is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan . Nismo was initially a company, Nissan Motorsports International Co., Ltd. ( ニッサン・モータースポーツ・インターナショナル株式会社 , Nissan Mōtā Supōtsu Intānashonaru Kabushiki-gaisha ) , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departments, being the in-house tuning, motorsports and performance subsidiary of Nissan. It has competed in JSPC , JTCC ,

486-453: Is able to accelerate from 0–97 km/h (0–60 mph) in 3.9 seconds and complete the quarter-mile in 11.9 seconds. The top speed is rated at 354 km/h (220 mph) by the manufacturer; however, none of the road tests featuring this car have been carried out for the purpose of top speed. Initially built in 1997 with a red paint scheme and given the UK registration number "P835 GUD", the car

540-514: The 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona . They currently participate in Super GT and Formula E . Nismo ceased to be a company in April 2022 by being merged with sister company Autech into a new Nissan subsidiary, Nissan Motorsport & Customizing. The Nismo story began in 1964 when a local company called Prince Motor Company realized that they could boost their sales by going into

594-767: The Blancpain Endurance Series . Nismo has also developed production class Nissan GT-R cars for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring . They also have a pool of drivers, known as the Nismo Global Driver Exchange . This allows factory drivers the chance to race in big events such as the Le Mans 24 Hours , the 24 Hours of Dubai and the Bathurst 12 Hour . Nissan's first LMP1 Hybrid which was unsuccessful and caused Nissan and Nismo to withdraw Le Mans entirely. From 2011 to 2016, Nissan

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648-547: 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

702-675: The Supercars Championship with Kelly Racing fielding four Nissan Altimas . The factory backing concluded at the end of 2018, although the Altimas continued to be privately entered in 2019. In 2009, Nissan entered the FIA GT1 World Championship with a Nismo-developed Nissan GT-R . Krumm and Lucas Luhr were 2011 drivers champions. Since 2011, Nismo has produced the GT-R GT3, which has competed in

756-413: The inaugural season of Formula E , DAMS (as e.dams) partnered with sister company Renault to form Team e.dams Renault, where they became the first Formula E Team's Champion. At the end of the 2017-18 season , Renault decided to focus on Formula One with Nissan taking over Renault's place in the partnership with e.dams to form Nissan e.dams for the 2018-19 season . In April 2022, Nissan announced

810-504: The #65 Roock Racing 911 GT2 into the race. Secondly Viper Team Oreca, which had a total of four Vipers qualified for the race including their automatic entry, withdrew Viper #52. This promoted the #58 RJ Racing Helem into the race. Of the 48 cars entered for the race 47 would take part in practice and qualifying. The Helem V6, which had been promoted following the withdrawal of the #52 Viper, ultimately failed race week scrutineering checks because of non-complying structural differences between

864-708: The 1980s, the manufacturer entered the Fuji Grand Champion Series with Group 5 Bluebird, Skyline and Silvia silhouettes and the Japanese Touring Car Championship with production Skyline models. In the 1990s, Nissan competed in Supertouring championships around the world with the Nissan Primera , winning the 1999 British Touring Car Championship with Laurent Aïello . From 2013 onwards Nissan competed in

918-565: The 1989 and 1990 model years of 240SX , a popular car among Import scene enthusiasts (especially Drifters ) in North America. In Japan, the V35 Skyline and Z33 Fairlady have both received several levels of Nismo tuning packages (E-Type, S-Tune, R-Tune, and S1 packages), with a full track spec Fairlady Z debuted at the 2005 Nismo Festival of Speed held at (formerly) Fuji International Raceway. In February 2007, Nismo announced

972-639: The 1997 season of the FIA GT Championship and the Le Mans Autumn Cup. Entries with a blue background were granted entries, but did not accept their invitations. A total of 63 entries, including those already automatically qualified, were presented for scrutineering on Saturday, May 2. 61 cars passed the scrutineering checks, but two entries - the #37 Newcastle United Lister Storm and the #59 Pilbeam Racing Designs Lotus Esprit , were denied on technical grounds. With no time to effect

1026-448: The 24 Hours of Le Mans began on 2 May with technical inspections, before initial pre-qualifying on 3 May. The race week began on Monday 1 June with renewed technical inspections. 1998 saw a significant increase in manufacturer involvement. Porsche and Mercedes-Benz remained, with upgraded cars in both GT1 and LMP. Toyota sent three of their new, extremely fast GT-One racing cars, while BMW, in association with WilliamsF1 , launched

1080-629: The Konrad K8 by 0.08 seconds and thus made the race. The other prototype not to progress was the other WR which never managed to set a competitive laptime. GT2 was again dominated by the Oreca Vipers. 8 of the 10 entries would make it through, with the two non-qualifiers being the second Cirtek Mustang and the third Roock Racing 911 GT2. Note: Pink background denotes non-qualifiers, green background denotes entries automatically pre-qualified. The entries which failed to pre-qualify were placed on

1134-686: The LMP1 cars was the already-qualified Courage #24. The GT2 group consisted of 11 entries competing for 8 slots. The lone LMP2 entry to the race, the #22 Debora, had been grouped into this category in the absence of any other competition. The predicted Oreca Viper benefit, 4.3 seconds clear of the fastest 911 GT2. The non-qualifiers were two 911 GT2's and the Helem PRV V6. Note: Pink background denotes non-qualifiers, green background denotes entries automatically pre-qualified. Afternoon session (2:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.) The afternoon session saw

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1188-488: The LMP1 category to fight for the FIA World Endurance Championship against Audi , Toyota and Porsche . Following a disappointing performance in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans , the program's remaining schedule in 2015 was pushed back, with the team intending a regular rebut in the 2016 season; however on 22 December 2015, Nissan announced that it was shuttering the program altogether. In

1242-867: The Pulsar GTi-R, essentially these cars contained all of the NISMO Group N parts available at the time in a fully built car. In the 1960s, Nissan competed in the Japanese Grand Prix sports car race. Nissan joined the IMSA GT Championship in 1979, where it competed in the GT classes with the 240SX, 280ZX and 300ZX. From 1985 to 1993, they entered the main GTP class with the GTP ZX-Turbo and NPT-90. Geoff Brabham won four GTP drivers championships with Nissan from 1988 to 1991, and

1296-598: The R390 GT1 in order to meet homologation requirements. A red R390 prototype underwent wind tunnel testing and aerodynamic improvements in England, however, the final car was built and tested in Atsugi, Japan. Only one road legal R390 was built, which is currently in storage at Nissan 's Zama, Kanagawa facility. After all three cars failed scrutineering at the 1997 event, they had to be modified in order to be allowed to race. This subsequently led to overheating problems for

1350-513: The R390, the rear and front ends, and suspension were completely different and were designed to meet GT1 specifications, the R390's chassis was lower and wider, but slightly shorter in length than the Jaguar, making the R390 larger overall. Development of the car was achieved in a small amount of time, especially due to the use of an existing engine. Nismo and TWR also had to build a road legal version of

1404-558: The Top 10, at 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 10th overall, being beaten only by two Porsche 911 GT1. 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

1458-438: The acquisition of the e.dams race team and entered the 2022-23 season as Nissan Formula E Team . ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 66th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 6 and 7 June 1998. Events for

1512-752: The addition of a fixed rear wing instead of a ducktail spoiler. A second R390 GT1 was later registered for road use by Érik Comas . Unlike the original R390 GT1 road car, this example was modified from chassis VIN780009 after Comas purchased it from Nissan. The modification was done by Andrea Chiavenuto, who led a two year long restoration and street conversion project on the car. The car was claimed to retain 95% of its original racing car parts, but several parts such as door panels, glass windshield, cooling system and upholstery had to be installed in order to meet road regulations. Nismo Nissan Motorsports International ( ニッサン・モータースポーツ・インターナショナル株式会社 , Nissan Mōtā Supōtsu Intānashonaru ) , abbreviated as Nismo ,

1566-527: The competitive motorsport business. Nismo's first competitive motor sport debut was on 1 May 1964 − in their first race they ended up coming just short however it was bitter sweet as the Skyline took all positions from 2nd to 6th. In 1984, Nissan decided that it wanted to merge its two motorsport divisions, founded through the 1960s, they were Oppama Works  [ ja ] (known as Publication Division 3 ), based in its Oppama factory, responsible for

1620-566: 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 3.5 L (3,495 cc) V8 engine which used an aluminium block, as well as having a lower center of gravity and a better ability to be used as

1674-480: The final 9 GT1 entries competing for the remaining 7 slots on the grid. Fastest overall and in GT1 was the number 26 Porsche in the hands of Allan McNish after a titanic battle with Martin Brundle's Toyota in the closing hour, the difference ending up at only 0.09 seconds. The two who go no further in GT1 for this session were Hybrid Panoz and the second Zakspeed Porsche (meaning neither Zakspeed entry made it through to

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1728-460: The gearbox, and ultimately led to their failure during the race. That is why for 1998, the R390 was modified, most notably in the extension of its rear bodywork to create increased "luggage space" in order to satisfy the ACO, a new rear wing for racing models (the road legal version had no wing), and a rear diffuser for improved downforce were added. Completed in time for the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans ,

1782-560: The launch of the Nismo 380RS. The Nismo 380RS is a factory modified version of the Nissan Z33 Fairlady Z tuned by both Nismo and Autech. Two versions were released, the first was a track-only model called the 380RS-C (C for competition), the second is a street model being sold at Nissan dealers. Both versions use a Nissan VQ series V6 engine, bored and stroked to 3.8L. The track-only 380RS-C makes 400 hp (298 kW), and

1836-642: The manufacturer won the 1992 24 Hours of Daytona and the 1989, 1990 and 1991 12 Hours of Sebring . In the 1980s and 1990s, Nissan raced at the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans with sports prototypes such as the R88C , R89C , R90C and R391 . They claimed the 1990, 1991 and 1992 JSPC titles, but they never won at Le Mans. Notable Nissan drivers in this era include Masahiro Hasemi , Kazuyoshi Hoshino , Masahiko Kageyama and Toshio Suzuki . In

1890-463: The necessary changes both entries would be unable to take part in pre-qualifying for the race. Pre-qualifying for the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans took place on Sunday, May 3. The entries were divided into two groups of qualifiers where the slowest entries in each class would be eliminated and thus not qualify for the race. A total of 49 starting slots were available for the entered cars, including those already automatically pre-qualified, and were divided on

1944-454: The needs of privateer teams and Ōmori Works  [ ja ] ( Special Car Testing Division ), within its Ōmori plant, responsible for its factory operations . The company's intention following the merger was to specialize in sportscar racing, but it also provided support for teams competing in the domestic F3 series . In 1988 the first dedicated race car by Nissan debuted, and saw incredible performance in circuit races. This vehicle

1998-465: The new BMW V12 LM . Nissan sent 4 of their new R390 GT1s . The United States was also represented properly with a two car team from Panoz , with Ford powered Esperante GTR-1s , and factory-backed Chrysler Viper GTS-R in the GT2 class entered by Oreca . Automatic entry to the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans was granted to teams that had performed well in the previous year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as

2052-533: The parts-conversion version, where the customer's Skyline GT-R's become the base car, sells for ¥ 13,125,000 ( US$ 108,500 , as of December 7, 2005). Due to rarity the GT-R Z-tune can exceed US$ 500,000 in the car market . The engine is an RB28DETT Z2 (a normal GT-R engine with a stroked displacement of 2.8 liters & Nismo parts designed specifically for the Z2). The car weighs 1,600 kg (3,527 lb). Nismo

2106-483: The race as the faster cars from Mercedes, BMW and Toyota retired with mechanical difficulties and accident damage. The remaining Nissans and outdated McLarens were unable to match the pace of the upgraded 911 GT1s. Following this race, Porsche went into a sabbatical, rumored to be part of a plan to allow Porsche's partner Audi to develop their own sportscar without competition from within the alliance. Porsche would return to Le Mans in 2014 ; they would eventually win

2160-423: The race car, generating a power output of 558 PS (410 kW; 550 hp) at 6,800 rpm and 470 lb⋅ft (637 N⋅m) of torque at 4,400 rpm (although Nissan claimed lower figures of "over 350 PS (257 kW; 345 hp)" at 5,200rpm and "over 490 N⋅m (361 lbf⋅ft)" 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

2214-592: The race). The two Nissans (one TWR, one Nova) and the 'conventional' Panoz made it comfortably, despite the #33 Nova Nissan spinning into a gravel trap after only 10 minutes of the session, later resuming with the spare rear bodywork from one of the TWR cars. In LMP1 there were 9 entries competing for 7 slots. Again a Ferrari was fastest, as the JB Ferrari beat the factory BMW and Porsche entries with 0.4 and 2.7 seconds respectively. The second Kremer K8 scraped home ahead of

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2268-458: The race, two of the three cars (#21 & #22) finally succumbed to mechanical failure and were withdrawn. The third R390 was able to survive the rest of the race (albeit with two complete gearbox changes along the way) finishing 12th overall and 5th in class, although many laps down from the race winners. For the 1998 Le Mans 24h , Nissan returned, this time with four cars. The cars were slightly upgraded, with more downforce able to be generated by

2322-570: The rigours of Group A competition. The next Nismo release was the Skyline GT-R R34 'Z-Tune'. Intended to celebrate the 2005 20th anniversary of Nismo, the 2003 cancellation of R34 production meant that Nismo was only able to create 20 cars, all based on second-hand V.spec units purchased back from customers with less than 30,000 km on the odometer. The Z Tune sold for ¥ 17,745,000 ( US$ 146,600 , as of December 7, 2005) in Japan. However,

2376-434: The road car and the competition one entered in the 24 Hours. After barely scraping through on a reserve entry the car would thus not be allowed to take any further part in race proceedings. Qualifying took place over a combined four sessions held on Wednesday and Thursday evening, with the fastest times set at any time across all sessions determining the starting grid for the race. Class leaders are in bold . Porsche won

2430-407: The street version makes approximately 350 hp (261 kW). The Nismo 380RS was only sold in Japan. The first Nismo-branded car was the 1987 Skyline R31 GTS-R Group A evolution special limited to 823 examples. This was followed by the 1990 Skyline GT-R Nismo of which only 560 were produced. Both cars featured weight-saving, aerodynamic, performance and reliability improvements necessary for

2484-562: The three cars finished in a black and red livery were the fastest in their first competition, with Martin Brundle taking pole position in May's pre-qualifying with a staggering time of 3.43.15. At the race itself, one R390 GT1 (#22) was able to qualify in 4th on the grid and 2nd in its class behind a Porsche 911 GT1 , while its partners qualified 12th (#21) and 21st(#23). During the race both cars were able to perform admirably, but soon began to struggle with gearbox problems and, around halfway through

2538-470: 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 3.5 L (3,495 cc) twin-turbocharged VRH35L V8 engine as

2592-682: Was also responsible for the R33 Skyline 400R and S14 Silvia 270R models . Both featured comprehensive modifications to the drivetrain, suspension, brakes, chassis, and aero work. Very limited numbers of both models were sold in 1997, and both command high resale prices even today. These models stressed Nismo's link to street car tuning, and were developed (as was the Z-Tune GT-R) at their Chiba City tuning garage. Nismo street tuned vehicles have been sold at Nissan dealerships for years, and come with full warranties. Nismo also produced 21 versions of

2646-420: Was displayed at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans race. It was rebuilt in 1998 with a new front end and side vents, longer tail and a ducktail spoiler instead of a wing, and repainted blue. This car was given the fake registration number "R390 NIS" for photos and magazine articles (not a genuine UK number) and became known as the long tail version. These modifications were also incorporated on the race cars albeit with

2700-546: 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

2754-603: Was involved in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series as a LMP2 engine supplier. They have had success with Greaves Motorsport , Signature Team , OAK Racing , TDS Racing , G-Drive Racing and SMP Racing . In 2017, Nissan entered the DPi class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Extreme Speed Motorsports . Nissan announced in June 2014, that Nismo will enter

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2808-746: Was the GTC McLaren with the Mercedes (which had a stop on the Mulsanne at 12:30, reason unknown) splitting the two non pre-qualifiers. In LMP1 8 entries battled for 6 slots on the grid, with the Moretti Ferrari setting the fastest time. The non-qualifiers were the number 17 Kremer K8 (4:02) and the WR (3:56) which suffered a spin into the gravel trap at the Dunlop curve early in the session. Slowest of

2862-695: Was the designer of the Jaguar XJR-9 amongst other TWR sports cars, which had won at Le Mans. Due to this, the R390 GT1 bears a resemblance to the Jaguar XJR-15 , which was also developed by TWR and based on the XJR-9, and in fact used a cockpit - including the tub, greenhouse and roof line - from the very same tooling as the XJR-15, with some custom tooling blocks added to the XJR15 chassis mold, although for

2916-659: Was the iconic Nissan Skyline R32 , sporting the GT-R badge. In 1988, Nismo built its first car, the Saurus for motorsport use for its one-make series. The following year they developed the Skyline GT-R for racing as well as building the 500 evolution editions for road use. The R34, the R32's generational grandchild was the first car to be produced with a V-Spec. In December 2021, Nissan said it would merge Nismo and sister company Autech (a tuning and conversion operation) into

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