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55-422: Following Nissan's return to sportscar racing in 1995, motorsports division Nismo had been slowly climbing its way up the competition ladder to finally reach the top Le Mans prototype class. Starting with Skyline GT-R LMs in 1995, Nismo turned to developing the advanced R390 GT1 in 1997, which was effectively as close to a prototype as possible while still remaining street legal. With major rule changes in

110-631: A turbocharged Toyota 503E inline-4. The second entry was a purpose-built racing car, with a small number of production cars built to meet homologation regulations. Powered by a turbocharged Toyota 1UZ V8, this car was modified heavily from the Toyota MR2 , and became known as the SARD MC8-R . The overall design of the Porsche 911 GT1 was also imitated by the MC8R (wherein the front chassis parts are modified from

165-617: A basic interior. One was put into a museum in Japan, and the other is displayed at Toyota Motorsport GmbH headquarters in Cologne. Introduced in time for the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT-One first appeared during the official testing period for the race held in May. Three GT-Ones appeared, setting the 2nd, 5th, and 10th best times and easily beating out dedicated Le Mans Prototypes (LMPs), which were meant to be

220-404: A customer, typical driver luxuries could be left out. Toyota also learned about a loophole which Mercedes-Benz had exploited. All GT-class cars were required to have storage space capable of holding a standard-size suitcase in order for the car to be considered not only production-based, but usable by the public. Mercedes exploited this by putting a small cubby hole into an unused area underneath

275-556: A large amount of production vehicles for the GT classes and eliminating the original loopholes in the system. Toyota were thus forced to make changes to the GT-One, as were all their competitors in the class. Mercedes-Benz opted to evolve their CLK LM into the CLR in the closed cockpit LMGTP prototype class, while Nissan and Panoz opted for open-cockpit LMPs. Porsche dropped out of competition altogether. Newcomer Audi decided to build cars for both

330-711: 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

385-568: A new version of the VH engine , opting to no longer use turbocharging as they had on the VRH35L . Instead, a modified naturally aspirated version would be constructed, named the VRH50A . At a larger 5.0 liters, the engine was able to overcome the loss of its turbocharging while still maintaining the benefits of the original VRH35L design. At the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nissan planned to enter two R391s along with

440-508: A single car, but Nissan was able to come out on top, with the R391 defeating the GT-One by a single lap, earning Nissan bragging rights in sportscar racing in Japan. Although Nissan was able to gain automatic entry to the 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans with their win at Fuji, Nissan officials decided that the motorsports program was no longer worth the cost, especially with Nissan attempting to restructure itself under new leader Carlos Ghosn . With only

495-573: A single entrant appearing in the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km . Although the race mostly consisted of Japanese teams, thus leaving out most of the manufacturers that had competed at Le Mans, Toyota still had to compete against rival Nissan, who entered an R391. In the end, the GT-One would fall short once again, finishing 2nd and only one lap behind the winning R391. However, Toyota won the LMGTP class (the R391 being an LMP), which would have granted them automatic entry to 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans had they continued

550-479: A single victory for their sportscar program since 1995, it was decided that Nissan would immediately end the R391 project in early 2000, leaving Nissan's only motorsports program to be in JGTC . Nissan would therefore turn down its automatic entry to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 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 ,

605-519: A snowfall. In the official testing session at Le Mans, the GT-Ones were again fast, taking the 1st, 3rd, and 5th fastest lap times. This pace continued in qualifying for the race, as the three GT-Ones took 1st, 2nd, and 8th positions. Throughout the race, the GT-Ones battled for the lead with BMW and Mercedes. Unfortunately, the GT-One was hampered by higher fuel consumption (1 or 2 laps less per stint than BMW) and by failures of its Michelin tires throughout

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660-530: 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

715-515: A third Courage C52 with the older VRH35L motor. In official testing for Le Mans in May, the R391s were able to set the 10th and 13th fastest times, beating out some entries from Mercedes-Benz , Audi , and BMW , although they were not able to beat Panoz or their main rival, Toyota . Come the actual race, Nissan was again quick, with one entry able to qualify 12th. Unfortunately, the other R391, while being driven by Eric van de Poele , crashed during

770-521: 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 ,

825-492: The 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans to be able to develop a new GT car for 1998. (A MC8-R was entered for the 1997 race, but failed to qualify.) Turning to Toyota's European arm based in Cologne, Germany , Toyota Team Europe (TTE) and Dallara were tasked with development of the new GT car. With the one-year hiatus, TTE was able to observe what the competition was developing for the GT class, and exploit it to their benefit. In 1997, both

880-508: The 1998 and 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans . Following the end of the Group C era around 1994, Toyota decided to alter its plans in sports car racing by moving to the production-based grand touring (GT) classes for 1995. Toyota decided to use a two-pronged approach with two different competition car models. The first was a heavily modified Toyota Supra , referred to as the Supra LM, which would use

935-505: 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

990-597: The Audi R8C , no LMGTP entrants appeared in the next year's race; only Bentley continued to compete in the class until it was abolished as a result of an LMP class restructuring in 2006. Marlboro was the Toyota GT-One sponsor in 1999 (hence the white chevron with red body livery), though an anti-tobacco law in France meant that no Marlboro logos appeared anywhere on the car. In pictures of practice sessions, Marlboro barcodes across

1045-456: The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The winners of this race would be able to earn automatic entries to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although the event was mostly made up of Japanese teams and thus lacked most major manufacturer teams, Nissan did still have competition from Toyota , who brought out their Toyota GT-One which had beaten the R391 at Le Mans. Both teams entered

1100-734: 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

1155-468: The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and the Porsche 911 GT1 were dominant cars in their class that exploited loopholes in the rules. Each car was a custom-built supercar, and only a handful of production cars were built to homologate them. TTE realized that they would actually only need to build a single production car in order to meet homologation requirements; since the resulting car would never be sold to

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1210-644: 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

1265-413: 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

1320-671: 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

1375-552: 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

1430-451: The GT in 1999, major manufacturers were no longer able to build homologation specials which resembled prototypes more than true GT cars. Thus Mercedes-Benz , Toyota , Panoz , BMW , and Audi turned to the prototypes class, either using open cockpit prototypes or closed cockpit cars which were actually evolutions of their former GT cars. Nissan , believing that a purpose built prototype would be superior to an evolved GT car, decided to go

1485-560: The GT-One program. The GT-One program would not be continued into 2000, Toyota instead turning TTE into the leaders of the new Toyota F1 team. This would mark the end of Toyota's attempts at Le Mans, which had started in 1985, until its return in 2012 with the TS030 Hybrid closed-cockpit LMP1 prototype in the FIA World Endurance Championship . With Mercedes-Benz pulling out and Audi discontinuing their LMGTP competitor,

1540-449: The GT-One. TTE designed and manufactured the car's carbon fibre chassis and bodywork in-house, while Toyota supplied a heavily upgraded version of the engine they originally used on their Group C cars, the twin-turbocharged 3.6 L (220 cu in) R36V V8. TTE also developed the only two GT-One road cars built, required in order for the race car to qualify as a road car-based grand tourer. They were painted red and fitted with

1595-705: The GTP and LMP classes, while BMW continued in the LMP class as before. Toyota decided to follow the route of Mercedes and evolve the GT-One into a GTP class prototype. Although the CLK-LM required extensive modifications to become the CLR, the GT-One was already close enough to a prototype that an extensive redesign was not needed. Toyota began an extensive testing program, including a long distance test at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium soon after

1650-448: 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

1705-782: 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

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1760-506: The R390 GT1) to Courage for use on their own prototype, while Nissan would in return gain expertise from Courage for use on the R391. Nissan would also buy a Courage C52 chassis to run under their own team in order to have reliability in case the R391s suffered from mechanical gremlins, with the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans being their first race with the C52. For the R391, Nissan would decide to use

1815-460: 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) Toyota GT-One The Toyota GT-One (model code TS020 ) is a racing car initially developed for Group GT1 rules, but later adapted into an LMGTP car. It raced in

1870-522: 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

1925-491: The first qualifying session, damaging the car beyond repair. Van de Poele also suffered a broken vertebra in the accident, but would be able to recover. Thus Nissan would be forced to race with only a single R391. During the race, the remaining R391 was able to climb its way up the field, running as high as 4th overall before an electrical problem in the engine caused the car to be retired after it had completed only 110 laps. Nissan's remaining entrant, their Courage chassis with

1980-525: The front of the car (which also appeared on Ferrari Formula One cars during tobacco legislated races) were seen, although these barcodes did not appear on the final race car. The logos were also absent during the Fuji 1000 km race, which was held in Japan, a country with no tobacco sponsorship restrictions at the time. Other sponsors included Zent (#1), Venture Safenet (#2) and Esso (#3 and Fuji 1000 km). A total of seven GT-Ones were built over

2035-547: 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

2090-427: The lead, but suffered a tire failure while lapping traffic. Having lost the chance to challenge for the lead, it was forced to slowly continue along the track to return to the pits for a new set. The lone GT-One would finish 2nd overall, one lap behind the winning BMW. As a consolation prize, the GT-One would win the GTP class, although it was the only car in the class to actually finish. The GT-One would race once more,

2145-623: 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

2200-454: 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

2255-417: The older Nissan turbo V8, was able to survive the race and finish a respectable 8th overall. However even this would be bested as Courage Compétition 's entry, also using the older Nissan turbo V8, was able to finish 6th overall, eight laps ahead of Nissan's factory effort. Later in 1999 the R391 would race again, this time at the invitational Fuji 1000km event which was backed by the Le Mans ruling body,

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2310-496: The original road car, and the rear uses a custom racing structure). While the Supra performed admirably in 1995, the MC8-R would appear superior in 1996. With its development of high-powered GT race cars, Toyota decided that a car similar to the MC8-R, designed as a race car first and foremost, would be better suited to continue Toyota's GT racing efforts. Thus, Toyota announced they would skip

2365-524: 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

2420-419: The pits and being abandoned on the track. Halfway into the event, the #2 GT-One driven by Thierry Boutsen was lost in another tire puncture that led to a high-speed accident, destroying the car and ending Boutsen's racing career. This left the team with only car #3, which was still running at the top of the field. At this point, a large amount of the competition had been eliminated, with all Mercedes cars out of

2475-402: The race due to their famous accident and withdrawal. Audi had also lost two of their four cars, and Nissan had lost their factory-backed R391 , although an older Courage C52 campaigned by the team was still active. BMW and Panoz were the only teams continuing without major problems. During the final hour of the race, the lone GT-One driven by Ukyo Katayama was chasing the remaining BMW for

2530-454: The race, mostly caused by sharp gravel which had been accidentally brought onto the racing surface by other cars. The design of the GT-One's wheel wells allowed for a blown tire to cause extensive damage to the mechanical linkages inside; after only 90 laps, the #1 GT-One driven by Martin Brundle was lost when it suffered an explosive tire puncture and was damaged beyond repair, unable to return to

2585-417: The rear bodywork, although it was not as easy to access as a normal trunk. Toyota, in their interpretation of the rules, were able to convince Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) officials that the car's fuel tank, normally empty when the car is scrutineered before the race, qualified as trunk space since it could theoretically hold a suitcase. With these loopholes in place, TTE was able to set out in developing

2640-510: 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,

2695-521: The route of an open cockpit. Nissan turned to the UK based firm G-Force Technologies to design and build the R391. Nigel Stroud would head up the car's design alongside Doug Skinner as the chief designer and Glenn Elgood as the race team fabricator. Nissan also formed a partnership with a longtime customer of its second hand sportscars, Courage Compétition . As part of a deal between the two, Nissan would give VRH35L 3.5L turbocharged V8 motors (left over from

2750-407: 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

2805-411: The superior class. For the race week itself, all three cars performed admirably in qualifying by continuing their quick pace, qualifying 2nd, 7th, and 8th, and being beaten only by GT class competitor Mercedes-Benz . During the race itself, the #28 GT-One suffered from a high-speed accident halfway through the race, taking it out of competition. The two other entrants continued to race, both remaining in

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2860-516: The top 10. However, within the closing hours, the higher-ranked #29 GT-One suffered a gearbox failure in competition for the win, leaving Toyota to take 9th place in the race with the remaining #27 entry, which ended the race 25 laps behind the winning Porsche 911 GT1 . Following the success of the GT1 class as a whole over the LMP class, the ACO and FIA moved to change the regulations for the GT classes, requiring

2915-670: 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

2970-582: 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

3025-646: 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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