Nissan R380
The Prince R380 was a racing car manufactured by the Prince Motor Company for the 1965 Japanese Grand Prix . After the merger with Nissan in 1966, the R380 was modified to the Nissan R380-II (also R380 Mk II ).
development
In 1964, Prince had the new Skyline 2000 GT S54 compete in the second Japanese Grand Prix to demonstrate the capabilities of the new Prince G7 inline six-cylinder engine. Although the cars did not do badly, they were relegated to places two to six by a private driver's Porsche 904 GTS.
Prince recognized the superiority of the mid-engine concept in the Porsche 904 and came to the conclusion that a sports car specially built for this purpose would be necessary to win the Grand Prix. The car was redesigned from scratch and had a completely new chassis that was suitable for a mid-engine. The new car also had an aerodynamic body with visible struts above the rear bonnet.
Prince continued to call the engine the G-Series, as with the Skyline, but adapted it to the special requirements of racing. The new machine was called GR8 and was a six-cylinder engine with 1966 cm 3 displacement and an output of 200 hp (147 kW). The Hewland racing gearbox had 5 gears.
When Nissan took over the project, the body of the R380 was completely redesigned. The rear struts were replaced by a full-length cockpit with an engine cover, and the vehicle's cooling vents and air deflectors were further developed. Nissan managed to bring the power of the GR8 machine to 220 PS (162 kW).
Racing history
Because of the cancellation of the Japanese Grand Prix in 1965, the Prince R380 was used for high-speed aerodynamic tests. In these tests, the car broke five E-Class land vehicle speed records in late 1965.
In 1966, Prince gave four entries for the R380 at the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway , which was also attended by three of the newer Porsche 906s . Eventually the R380s took overall victory, with Giichi Sunako's winning and Hideo Oishi finishing second.
After the revision by Nissan, four cars were again sent to the Japanese Grand Prix. This time, however, the Porsche 906 had the upper hand and only the second, third, fourth and sixth place remained for the R380-II. The winner drove out a gap of almost two minutes. Nissan later used an R380-II to break new land vehicle speed records, breaking seven of those records in October of that year.
After the successor R381 was developed in 1968, the R380s were sold to private drivers. This year they again gave three entries for the Japanese Grand Prix and came third, fourth and fifth. Two factory-registered R380s took first and second place in the 1969 Chevron Paradise 6 Hour at Surfers Paradise International Raceway in Australia. In 1969 an R380 took second place in the 1000 km Fuji race and another second place in a 200 mile race in Fuji in 1970.
In 2005 Nismo restored an R380-II and used it for exhibitions together with other cars from the R380 series.
Web links
- Prince R380 at Supercars.net
- Nissan R380-II at Supercars.net
- Early Datsun - Prince Skyline and other vehicles
Individual evidence
- ^ Racing Car News, December 1969, pp. 60-62
