Nissan R391
| Nissan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| R391 | |
| Production period: | 1999 |
| Class : | race car |
| Body versions : | Coupe |
| Engines: |
Otto engine : 5.0 liters (462 kW) |
| Length: | 4650 mm |
| Width: | 2000 mm |
| Height: | |
| Wheelbase : | 2750 mm |
| Empty weight : | approx. 900 kg |
| Previous model | Nissan R390 GT1 |
| successor | Nissan GT-R LM NISMO |
The Nissan R391 was the prototype of a racing car that Nissan and its motorsport department Nismo built for the 1999 Le Mans 24-hour race . It replaced the R390 GT1 , which no longer complied with the regulations for the series-based class.
history
After Nissan's return to the 1995 sports car championship, the Nismo motorsport department slowly climbed the class ladder and eventually reached the top class, Le Mans Prototype . Nismo started with the Skyline GT-R in 1995 and developed the R390 GT1 in 1997 , which was actually as close as possible to a prototype, but was still street legal.
Due to the massive rule changes in the GT class in 1999, many large manufacturers were no longer able to build homologated special vehicles that looked more like a prototype than a real GT. Mercedes-Benz , Toyota , Panoz , BMW and Audi limited themselves to the prototype class and built either cars with an open cockpit or those with a closed cockpit, which were actually derivatives of the earlier GT cars. Nissan believed that a specially developed prototype would have to be superior to a further developed GT, and decided on a car with an open cockpit.
Nissan turned to UK-based company G-Force Technologies , which designed and built the R391. Nigel Stoud took care of the construction. Nissan also entered into a partnership with a long-standing customer for used factory racing cars, Courage Compétition . Part of the contract between the two was the delivery of the charged 3.5-liter V8 engine VRH35L (which was left over from the R390 GT1) to Courage for use in their own prototype, while Nissan was advised by Courage for use in the new R391 . Nissan also bought a Courage C52 chassis for their own racing team in case the mechanics of the new R391 should cause difficulties, after Le Mans was the first race with the new vehicle.
Nissan decided that the R391 should get a new version of the VH machine that no longer had a turbocharger like the VRH35L. Instead there was a new naturally aspirated engine, the VRH50A. With its larger displacement of 5.0L, the engine overcame the loss of the turbocharger and still offered the advantages of the original VRH35L design.
Race results
Nissan wanted to use the two R391s together with the Courage C52 (still with the older VRH35L engine) in the 1999 Le Mans 24-hour race . In the official test runs for Le Mans in May, the R391s achieved the tenth and thirteenth fastest times, beating some Mercedes-Benz , Audi and BMW cars , but couldn't do anything against Panoz and their arch-rival Toyota .
The Nissan were also quick in qualifying; a car finished twelfth. The second car, driven by Eric van de Poele , had an accident in the first qualifying run so that it could no longer be repaired. Van de Poele suffered a fractured vertebra in this accident, but recovered from it. Nissan had to compete with just one R391.
During the race the remaining R391 was able to work its way through the whole field to fourth position, but after only 110 laps the car had to give up with an electrical problem on the engine. Nissan's remaining car with a Courage chassis and the older V8 engine finished the race in a respectable eighth place. This was exceeded by the '' Courage Compétition '' car, which - also equipped with the older Nissan V8 turbo - came in sixth overall, eight laps ahead of the Nissan works car.
Later that year, the R391 was used again in a race, the Fuji 1000 km race , which was announced by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the host of the Le Mans race. The winners of this race should automatically get a starting place in the next 24 Hours of Le Mans . Although the race was mostly run by Japanese teams, so that other large factory teams were missing, Nissan was faced with arch-rival Toyota , who fielded its GT-One , a car that had beaten the R391 at Le Mans. Both teams only named one car each, but Nissan got the upper hand; the R391 beat the GT-One by just one lap, which Nissan earned great merits in the Japanese sports car scene.
retreat
Although Nissan automatically had a place in the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2000 with the victory at Fuji , the management decided that the motorsport program was no longer worth the high costs, especially because Nissan is being restructured under the new boss Carlos Ghosn should. Since only one victory could be achieved in the sports car competition since 1995, it was decided to end the R391 project in early 2000, so that Nissan was only involved in the JGTC . Nissan thus gave up the grid position it had won for Le Mans.
It wasn't until 2005 that Nissan returned to the sports car racing scene when they wanted to support the British sports car racing team Rollcentre Racing with a modified V6 turbo engine for the 2005 Le Mans Endurance Series and the 24-hour race in the same year . The machine turned out to be unsuccessful and Nissan quickly withdrew from the program.
