1987 Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo Information and History

1987 Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo pictures and wallpaper

Designer: Yoshi Suzuka
Chassis Num: 90-07

This Nissan GTP car is chassis number 90-07 and is the last of the nine factory built NPT-90 tubs. During its IMSA racing career, the car finished 3rd at Phoenix and 2nd at Del Mar. On both of these occassions, the car was piloted by Geoff Brabham.

The Electramotive Engineering Company of California was created by an scientist and racing enthusiast named Don Devendorf. He was aided in this venture by his friend, John Knepp. Devendorf had experience running in IMSA and had some success in the 1970s and 1980s racing modified Datsun/Nissan cars.

Before long, the Electramotive Engineering Company became renowned for their abilities to prepare and modify Datsun/Nissan cars for various types of road racing. When the Japanese company, Nissan, decided to enter GTP competition, they turned to Devendorf to lead the project. Devendorf began with a Lola T810 and adapted it to accept a Nissan engine. Changes that were necessary the bodywork and the installation of additional cooling. The bodywork was designed by Yoshi Suzuka. In total, two examples were created.

John Knepp was tasked with modifying the V6 engine, which was also used in the production 'Z' cars at the time. In stock form, the engine featured an iron block and aluminum heads. Knepp added a turbocharger, aluminum block, and many changes to the engine electronics.

The Nissan ZX-T made its racing debut at the Laguna Seca in May of 1985. The car had many growing pains its first year and was met with little success. The following year, the fortunes changed. The car sat on the Pole at Portland, after Geoff Brabham had driven it faster than any other car of the day. During the race, Brabham was joined by co-driver Elliot Forbes-Robinson; together they lead most of the race. They were running in first place when they ran low on fuel and had to return to the pits for a quick re-fuel. The term 'splash' of fuel would seem appropriate. When they returned to the race, they found themselves in third place, and that is how the race would conclude.

In 1987, Lola continued to provide chassis and the Nissan project was ongoing. The Hewland gearbox was now replaced with a Weismann unit. The Nissans had proved to be very fast machines, but they were also unreliable. This would be the cars Achilles heal.

At Miami in 1987, a Nissan driven by Brabham and Forbes-Robinson beat Rahal/Mass and their Porsche 962 and claimed the vehicles first overall victory. Throughout the season, the car would secure four more pole positions, but would not claim any more victories.

The IMSA introduced new regulations for the 1988 season which reduced the horsepower in the GTP category. Many of the cars in this group were beginning producing an excessive amount of horsepower from their turbo-charged engines, making safety a concern. Another possible reason for the restrictions were to give the American V8 engines an advantage. Restrictor plates were fitted to the engines intakes and horsepower became regulated. John Knepp was able to side-step this drawback by adapting an electronically-controlled turbocharger wastegate in the engines management system. This gave the Nissan cars a big advantage and soon they were dominating the system. During mid-season, the IMSA introduced another rule change which gave the pushrod-powered cars a weight advantage, but it was not enough to keep the Nissan's from winning. They were especially quick on the short, sprint races. For this reason, they did not enter cars at the Daytona or Sebring endurance races.

In the hands of Geoff Brabham, chassis number 8801 was driven to a victory in nearly every one of its outings. The car racked up a total of 9 victories, including eight consecutive wins. At the conclusion of the season, Nissan had captured the Manufacturers' Title and Geoff Brabam had earned the IMSA GTP Drivers' Champion.

Brabham and Nissan repeated their domination the following year. This time, a new car had been created, wearing chassis number 8802. It proved to be just as capable as 8801.

In 1990, the team was reorganized and given a new title, 'Nissan Performance Technology, Inc.', or NPTI for short. 1990 was another prosperous season for Nissan and Brabham.

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