A Visual History of Nissan’s Racing Pedigree
Nissan’s Heritage Collection is a living museum of more than 500 cars dating back to the brand’s first model in 1947. It’s well worth a visit next time you’re in Japan, but don’t go expecting a museum like those architecturally-significant brand cathedrals BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz built in their hometowns. Instead, Nissan’s Heritage Collection is located in an ordinary low-rise industrial warehouse on the outskirts of Tokyo. The building is humble, but its contents are anything but.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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Meet the first-ever Nissan GT-R, a special-edition meant to give Nissan an edge in touring car racing. The company shoehorned an exotic straight-six motor from its R380 prototype racecars into this four-door family sedan, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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This is “Godzilla,” the car that gave today’s Nissan GT-R its nickname. This Skyline GT-R R32 Calsonic went undefeated, winning 29 races from 29 starts in the early ‘90s. Perhaps the most famous racecar in Japan.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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Meet the first-ever Nissan GT-R, a special-edition meant to give Nissan an edge in touring car racing. The company shoehorned an exotic straight-six motor from its R380 prototype racecars into this four-door family sedan, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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Meet the first-ever Nissan GT-R, a special-edition meant to give Nissan an edge in touring car racing. The company shoehorned an exotic straight-six motor from its R380 prototype racecars into this four-door family sedan, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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This is “Godzilla,” the car that gave today’s Nissan GT-R its nickname. This Skyline GT-R R32 Calsonic went undefeated, winning 29 races from 29 starts in the early ‘90s. Perhaps the most famous racecar in Japan.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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This is “Godzilla,” the car that gave today’s Nissan GT-R its nickname. This Skyline GT-R R32 Calsonic went undefeated, winning 29 races from 29 starts in the early ‘90s. Perhaps the most famous racecar in Japan.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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Group 5 racecars are some of the wildest-looking automobiles ever built, but even by Group 5 standards this 1983 Nissan Silvia Super Silhouette is something else, making over 560 horsepower. Fearsome.
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Nissan’s motorsport activities didn’t end when the tarmac did. This 1982 Violet sedan won the grueling 30th Safari Rally.
Stepping inside we couldn’t believe our eyes. Here in this anonymous warehouse is an automotive treasure trove to make anyone raised on racing games like Forza or Gran Turismo go weak in the knees. Fans of Nissan’s GT-R wouldn’t even know where to begin. Devotees of Nissan’s cult-favourite Z cars would have a field day. Us? Above all, we appreciate the daring, unafraid and unapologetic weird-streak that runs through Nissan’s entire back catalog. (Shoutout to the Nissan Juke and Cube, both criminally underappreciated and influential designs.)
“We have been a challenger for a long time, competing with bigger, stronger competitors.”
Ryuji Nakayama, manager of Nissan’s Heritage Collection.
“Nissan is always a pioneer, always entering a new category or new technology,” said Ryuji Nakayama, who has managed Nissan’s Heritage Collection since 2011. “And also we are passionate for driving, for high performance. We have been a challenger for a long time, competing with bigger, stronger competitors,” he added.
Nakayama wouldn’t go so far to say Nissan is a David figure in the auto industry, not exactly. But Nissan is certainly not among the Goliaths and yet it routinely goes toe-to-toe with them, often managing to hold its own, or better, on racetracks the world over.
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The fearsome Nissan GT-R Skyline R33 LM of 1995. This one-off roadcar was built to homologate Nissan’s fleet of R33s to compete in the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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It may look like a humble family sedan, but this Primera GT won 13 out of 26 races during the 1999 British Touring Car Championship, comfortably taking home the big trophy.
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These Skyline GT-Rs (R34) were a force to reconned with in the Japan GT Championship between 1999 and 2003.
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The Skyline 2000GT-R Racing Concept, unveiled at the 1972 Tokyo Motor Show. Sadly, this car never got to race, but a group of volunteers from Nissan fully restored it in 2007.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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The Skyline 2000GT-R Racing Concept, unveiled at the 1972 Tokyo Motor Show. Sadly, this car never got to race, but a group of volunteers from Nissan fully restored it in 2007.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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Nissan R-Series Group C endurance racers from the late ‘80s and ‘90s. In 1992 the R921CP became the first Japanese car to win the prestigeous Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Nissan’s Heritage Collection
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Nissan R-Series Group C endurance racers from the late ‘80s and ‘90s. In 1992 the R921CP became the first Japanese car to win the prestigeous Rolex 24 At Daytona.
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Exterior of the Nissan Heritage Collection in Zama, Japan.
Take the GT-R, for example. It began as a humble family sedan but it went on to annihilate every competitor that lined up against it on racetracks the world over. The GT-R dominated the Australian Touring Car Championships so completely — winning the 1991 and 1992 instalments of the beloved Bathurst 1000 endurance race — that the series’ organizers changed the rules to effectively outlaw the Nissan. It was local Australian reporters who gave the car its Godzilla nickname.
These and other giant-slaying racecars pictured here serve as a visual reminder of what makes Nissan, Nissan.
Photos by Hiroaki Kamohara, Squint LLC
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