The Unknown Car of 1999

[Foster]

The first 24 Hour's of LeMans that I ever saw was the race of 1999. It was the first year the cable company offered at the time Speedvision, and coming from a family of racer's we picked it up.

So as I look back on the race with a little more knowledge, I have come to ponder one thing. What was the deal with Nissan? They had there own car, and powered two Courages.

So now comes the question? What was the deal with the Nissan R391? Why was this car never raced after? Why did Nissan pull the plug?

http://racingsportscars.com/photo/19...-06-13-022.jpg

[nsxr]

yeah it beat the highly favored toyota Gt-One at the Suzuka 1000kms in "99. And this was developed by G-force in england????

[jhansen]

Actually it was the 1000K of Fuji. The car was driven by Erik Comas, Satoshi Motoyama, and Masami Kageyama. It was second on the grid with a 1:16.814. By comparison the Toyota had pole with a 1:16.349 and Goh's BMW-Dome was third on the grid with a 1:18.941. The Nissan finished first with 228 laps completed, the Toyota was second one lap down, and the BMW finished third six laps down.

Seems like the car had pace. Shame it wasn't raced more.

[fausto]

the car was built by G-Force, now part of Panoz empire...

[Raglanparade]

Wuld it have been to do with Nissans poor financial performance around 1999-2000 and the consequent merger with Renault that ended the sportscar program ?

[Dauer 962]

Originally Posted by jasonhill9884

Wuld it have been to do with Nissans poor financial performance around 1999-2000 and the consequent merger with Renault that ended the sportscar program ?

I think that was the main reason for the cancellation of this programme.

I remember that the design and test period for this car was very, very short.

I don´t know if the Nissan board wasn´t convinced about this car, but to make sure they gave some engines and sponsorship also to Courage.

After all I think the car was never able to show his full potential.

[Aerodynamic]

This is an interesting question from the history books. The NISMO programme was indeed terminated through Nissan budget cuts. The car was actually designed by Nigel Stroud ( at GForce ) who you will recall designed the surprise Mazda Le Mans winner ( 1992 -I believe ). There was an unfortunate incident at le Mans pre-qualifying when the No.2 car was written off after a mechanic left a spanner in the footwell, which prevented the brake pedal from operating. The engine was heavy and nearing obsolescence but the Fuji 1000k was a great finale. The car now resides at the workshop of Nova Engineering in Japan ( in the shadow of Mount Fuji) under the stewardship of the great Moto Moriwaki. Maybe it will be restored one day and see the light of day meanwhile no immediate plans to emerge from under the dustsheets.

[nsxr]

but the car still runs at the NISMO festival. along with all the classic NISMO cars from the past. They still have a few running R390 GT1's out and about.

[BSchneiderFan]

A couple of observations and recollections. The project was put together very, very late: when NISMO arrived at the Test Day in 1999, the cars weren't even painted. As for the Courage link, I seem to recall that NISMO was impressed by the pace of the Nissan-engined cars and so took one under its wing as a kind of 'belt-and-braces' operation. Oh, and van de Poele's shunt at Tertre Rouge probably set the LM race effort back a bit.