Chassis Number: R90C07
Born in 1982, Group C relaunched the World Endurance Championship and, for almost 10 years, this category attracted many competitors, both from major manufacturers and from more-modest craftsmen wanting to try their luck. Nissan was interested in this championship from an early stage, starting with the 1986 R85 V, fitted with a monocoque structure designed by March Engineering and a 3-liter V6 turbo engine. The model evolved over the years; for the 1989 R89C, a structure was built by Lola Cars, of Kevlar and carbon bodywork and a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V8 engine was fitted. With this car, Nissan took 5th place in the Constructors FIA World Championship.
The R90C is the culmination of this glorious design. Thanks to its powerful twin-turbo V8 engine, this model proved to be extremely fast: During the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1990, the car driven by Martin Brundle set a blistering best-lap time in practice, six seconds faster than its closest rival. Its qualifying engine was said to produce 1,000 horsepower. In late 1990, Nissan claimed 3rd place in the Constructors’ FIA World Championship, its best result. Additionally, this model won the All-Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC) three times.
For the 1990 season, seven T90/10 chassis were produced, six of which were with R90CK specifications and one (R90C07) set aside in reserve. This is the very last of 13 chassis manufactured by Lola, and it was put together in December 1990 by Nova Engineering (Japan) to R90CK specifications. In the yellow livery of its sponsor From-A, this R90C07 car raced in the 1991 JSPC in the hands of A. Nakaya and Volker Weidler. They claimed 2nd place three times: the 500 Km of Fuji, the 1,000 Km of Fuji and the 500 Km of Sugo. The only race this car entered outside of Japan was in 1992 at the 24 Hours of Daytona, where Volker Weidler, Mauro Martini and Jeff Krosnoff finished 8th.
