GT-Time

GT-Time GT-Time

Nissan also repurposed S30 240Z for its rally racing whims, which has always seemed a little weird to us given how sexy ...
31/10/2022

Nissan also repurposed S30 240Z for its rally racing whims, which has always seemed a little weird to us given how sexy and sporty the Z is seen as. But with motorsports versions of the platform's L24 inline-6 under the hood, the car did well, winning the prestigious Safari Rally in '71 and again in '73, proving the S30's mettle. As a result, more and more drivers began driving the Z-car at rallies.

Above any other motorsport of the '70s, Nissan staked its claim as a top-tier brand in professional rally racing. The su...
29/10/2022

Above any other motorsport of the '70s, Nissan staked its claim as a top-tier brand in professional rally racing. The success it saw in the '80s was a carryover from efforts that began in the '50s and '60s and matured the decade after, and the RWD Datsun Bluebird was sort of where it all started. This battered beaut (we love how Nissan left these cars as is, warts and all) was the 510 that broke through at the '70 East-African Safari Rally and gave Nissan its first big internationally recognized wins in the sport.

Nissan's first FF was the Cherry, and it came with the same A10 and A12 inline-4 engines that were in the Sunny. This on...
27/10/2022

Nissan's first FF was the Cherry, and it came with the same A10 and A12 inline-4 engines that were in the Sunny. This one was prepped for the Minor Touring class of the '72 Fuji Speedway Grand Champion series, another support race, and was armed with a 1.3L A12 making just under 150hp.

The '80s had Super Silhouettes, but the '70s launched Tokusyu Touring Car racing, more commonly referred to as TS race, ...
25/10/2022

The '80s had Super Silhouettes, but the '70s launched Tokusyu Touring Car racing, more commonly referred to as TS race, a special series of support competitions at Fuji International Speedway that featured little cars with little engines (well, maybe not so little for Japan in the '70s). Like Silhouettes, these things were wildly popular, and Nissan through its Datsun brand did incredibly well in the motorsport, especially with FR Sunny Coupes like the ones above, which won TS championships from '71 through '74 and also in '77, '79, '80 and '82.

The '80s also saw the start of Nissan's prototype racing endeavors with the introduction of the Lola Cars-chassis GTP ZX...
23/10/2022

The '80s also saw the start of Nissan's prototype racing endeavors with the introduction of the Lola Cars-chassis GTP ZX-Turbo for the IMSA series in the US. Developed by Electramotive Engineering, the sleek racer was equipped with a turbo VG30 V-6 making 641hp, motivation similar to what came in the R85V in '86 (top photo above), Nissan's debut into the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The VG30T era gave way to the turbo VRH V-8 phase later in the '80s, first in 3.0L and then in 3.5L form, while Lola and March Engineering seemed to alternate in chassis development as Nissan challenged in Japan and around the globe.

The '80s were a culmination of sorts for Nissan rally racing. In the early part of the decade the Violet continued to sh...
21/10/2022

The '80s were a culmination of sorts for Nissan rally racing. In the early part of the decade the Violet continued to shine, especially in the hands of Shekhar Mehta, who drove a Nissan A10 (first as a Datsun 160J, then as a Violet GT) to four Safari Rally titles in a row, concluding with the victory in '82 when the Group 4 ruleset was phased out. The latter wins came with LZ20B 2.0L inline-4 power in the engine bay, but that same year everyone got a glimpse at the future with the S110 and its FJ motivation. An S110 Silvia finished third (with an LZ20B) in the '82 Safari Rally, while over in the WRC the above S110 240RS was built for a little something called Group B competition, outfitted with a 2.3L FJ24 generating 240hp plus from the factory. Later in the '80s, VG30 V-6-powered 300ZX and S12 Silvia made a splash in rally.

Elsewhere in touring cars, the range-topping '87 Skyline GTS-R homologation special took dead aim at Group A racing and ...
19/10/2022

Elsewhere in touring cars, the range-topping '87 Skyline GTS-R homologation special took dead aim at Group A racing and carried on the line's legacy in the category after the R30 began it a generation earlier. This particular HR31 was built by Nissan Motorsports Europe for the European Touring Car Championship and was propelled by an inline-6 RB but not the one you're thinking of - these racing machines sported RB20DET-Rs, a 2.0L version of the straight-6.

The no-Fs-given approach to car creation made Super Silhouettes popular, so popular that singer/actor/racer Masahiko "Ma...
17/10/2022

The no-Fs-given approach to car creation made Super Silhouettes popular, so popular that singer/actor/racer Masahiko "Matchy" Kondo had a K10 March hatchback done up in the boxy widebody style in '82. Nissan took part in the category via Violet (710A10), Bluebird (910), Silvia (S110) and Skyline (R30), and all of them ran similarly built turbocharged LZ20B inline-4 making north of 560hp. (For an updated take on the Tomica R30, check out what Liberty Walk did with an ER34 Skyline 25GT for the '20 Tokyo Auto Salon.)

So much love is heaped on '90s cars that Super Silhouette racers of the '80s nearly always get overlooked, but dude! The...
15/10/2022

So much love is heaped on '90s cars that Super Silhouette racers of the '80s nearly always get overlooked, but dude! These things are cool! Super Silhouettes were short lived (raced just in the early part of the decade) and built to Group 5 "Special Production" touring car rules, meaning they were production vehicles with their native engine blocks and limited to 3.0 liters of displacement, and that's pretty much it. Teams could go as crazy as they wanted with every other part of the machine, and by the looks of it they often did. We even read that some engines could reportedly make more power than Formula 1 mills of the time.

As you can probably tell from the ton of sports car prototype racers in the photo gallery, Nissan was heavily involved i...
13/10/2022

As you can probably tell from the ton of sports car prototype racers in the photo gallery, Nissan was heavily involved in both Group C-/GTP- and GT1-spec competition on an international scale in the '90S; they were running in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC), IMSA in America, and the World Endurance Championship/World Sports-Prototype Championship/FIA Sportscar World Championship (so many stupid names) in Europe. Chassis first came from Lola Cars and March Engineering before Nissan started building them on their own and depending on ruleset came with everything from twin-turbo V-8s to the naturally aspirated V-12 you'd find mounted in P35 prototypes. Much success was had in these machines.

The '90s marked the end of the road for Nissan's involvement in the World Rally Championship, even though privateers con...
11/10/2022

The '90s marked the end of the road for Nissan's involvement in the World Rally Championship, even though privateers continued to champion the brand in the WRC and elsewhere well into the future. In the early '90s, Pulsar GTI-R compacts like this one from '92 led the charge, mainly because of the turbo SR20DET under hood (which engineers turned up to make nearly 300hp) and its ATTESA (Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All) four-wheel-drive system.

Since touring cars are in Nissan's '90s racing DNA, endurance racing is as well, and for it the automaker and its accomp...
09/10/2022

Since touring cars are in Nissan's '90s racing DNA, endurance racing is as well, and for it the automaker and its accomplices at NISMO used as their primary weapons Skyline GT-R of both the R32 and R33 variety. The ZEXEL BNR32 ran the Spa 24 Hours in Belgium from '90 to '92, while the no. 23 BCNR33 GT-R LM beneath it (a special version of the R33 GT-R) was part of a two-car 24 Hours of Le Mans effort by NISMO in '95 and '96. It rocked a 2.8-liter RB26 that made almost 600hp and kept its AWD configuration; its counterpart, the no. 22 (buried in the photo gallery), had a somewhat different approach to the French enduro classic, with power from a Group N-spec 400hp RB26DETT and a RWD setup.

Address

Kyiv
02000

Opening Hours

Monday 07:00 - 18:00
Tuesday 07:00 - 18:00
Wednesday 07:00 - 18:00
Thursday 07:00 - 18:00
Friday 07:00 - 18:00

Telephone

+380951963667

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when GT-Time posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to GT-Time:

Shortcuts

Share

Category