>>Nissan R89C

Nissan R89C

The Nissan R89C was a Group C race car was developed by Nissan to participate in the World Sportscar Championship and All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, as well as the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Development

Replacing the original March built series of prototypes that Nissan had used, the R89C was part of Nissan's increased involvement in the project. Developed in conjunction with the Lola firm, the R89 featured a Kevlar and carbon-fibre based monocoque chassis (named T89/10 by Lola). Nissan's new twin-turbo VRH35Z 3.5L V8 DOHC engine was mounted in a stressed installtion for better chassis rigidity and produced up to 950bhp. The VRH35Z was an improvement on the 3.0L VRH30 used in previous years.

Racing history

In the 1989 World Sportscar Championship season, Nissan struggled to find not only reliability, but also pace from the new chassis and engine. With this, the R89C was only able to score points in three races, but was able to finish the season fifth in the team's championship. In the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, the R89C suffered the same fate, unable to compete with its developed Porsche and Toyota opponents, leaving Nissan to finish the season third in the championship. Meanwhile, at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, three R89Cs were entered into the race. However, all three failed to finish the race due to mechanical problems.

For 1990, the R89C was campaigned by Nissan for the first race of the World Sportscar Championship until it was replaced by both the R90CK and R90CP. R89Cs would be passed on to privateer teams, with Courage Compétition managing to finish 22nd in the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans with an ex-factory R89C.

Two R89Cs were also upgraded for the 1990 season. R89C chassis #02 was rebuilt as an R90CP for use by Nismo, while chassis #03 was modified by Team Le Mans to become known as R90V. It ran JSPC with a best result of sixth before being retired.