1969 Nissan R382

The Nissan R382 sports racing car was built to comply with Group 7 regulations and to compete in the Japanese Grand Prix. The project began in the mid-1960s by the Prince Motor Company. They built the Prince R380 and following the merger of Nissan Motors and Prince Motor Company in 1966, the R380 became the Nissan R380-II, also known as the R380 MK.II.

The Prince Motor Company came in second at the inaugural 1964 Japanese Grand Prix, with their modified Prince Skyline GT powered by an inline, six-cylinder engine. A Porsche 904 had won the race.

Fueled by their desire to achieve victory and with promising results from the Skyline GT, Prince set out to develop one of Japan's first purpose-built race car, resulting in the Prince R380. It was built using a Brabham BT8 mid-engine chassis, and Shinichiro Sakurai, head of Prince Motors engineering, developed a new engine loosely based on the Skyline GT engine originally developed for the Gloria sedan. The engine, known as the GR-8, displaced 1996 cubic centimeters and offered 200 horsepower. The inline six-cylinder unit was mated to a 5-speed racing gearbox.

The 1965 Japanese Grand Prix was canceled, so Prince used the R380 to perform high-speed aerodynamics, which led to the car breaking five E-class land speed records in 1965. The following year, at the 1966 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway, Prince entered four R380s. Despite stiff competition from three Porsche 906s, the Prince R380 took the overall victory, with Yoshikazu Sunako's R380 ahead of Hideo Oishi's second place R380.

For 1967, the R380-IIs finished in second, third, fourth, and sixth at the Japanese Grand Prix, behind the Porsche 906.

An improved car followed for the 1968 season, dubbed the Nissan R381. It was powered by a new Prince-built V12 engine. Unfortunately, the engines were not completed in time to compete in the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix, so a Chevrolet 5.5-liter V8 was installed. With 450 horsepower, it was twice the amount of the Prince GR8.

Several design features from the CanAm series were employed, including the large rear wings in a similar fashion to Chaparral. These dual wings were placed side-by-side and could be driven by hydraulics that would move the left or right wing up or down to improve cornering ability.

Initially, the R381 bodywork was an evolution of the R380's coupe design. After becoming aware of the new Toyota 7 car, Nissan decided to remove the roof of the R381.

For the 1968 Japanese Grand Prix, three R381 and three R380-IIs raced against several Porsches and three of the new Toyota 7s. A Porsche 910 took second, and the R381 of Moto Kitano claimed the overall victory.

With the completion of the V12 engine, now named GRX-3, it was installed in the new Nissan R382. It was given new bodywork by Shinichiro Sakurai. The design was new and it shared nothing with the R381. The rounded front of the R381 was replaced by a wide rectangular design. The adjustable rear wings of the R381 were not used as they had been outlawed by the FIA. Instead, a wing was designed into the bodywork of the tail.

For the 1969 Japanese Grand Prix, the Porsche factory brought their new 917s with drivers Jo Siffert and David Piper. Various other Porsches contested the event. Toyota raced their 7 and Isuzu entered for the first time with their R7-Chevrolets. Nissan entered three R382s.

At the completion of the 320-mile race, the Nissan R382 driven by Motoharu Kurosawa had taken the checkered flag. The first and second-place finishers, both Nissan R382s, finished a lap ahead of the third-place Toyota 7.

by Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2018