These days, there are supercars and hypercars everywhere, all of which offer scintillating performance and a cool factor that is difficult to imitate. But very few cars are based on true racing machines. That wasn't the case in a bygone era when monsters like the McLaren F1 LM and Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR ruled the roost. Japan also tried its hand at creating road-legal racecars, and one of the most famous was the Nissan R390 GT1, a legend of Nismo history.
Penned by celebrated designer Ian Callum, only one roadgoing version was ever officially made, although its 3.5-liter engine formed the basis for the McLaren V8 that is in circulation today. Luckily, a former racing driver converted a racing version and brought it out to wow the crowds at last week's Concorso d'Eleganza, at Lake Como's Villa d'Este.
In the above video, we get to hear the rowdy racecar start up and idle with the door open, showing off its nifty helmet storage pocket. We also get to see it stall, but we won't dwell on that. After warming up for a couple of minutes, it finally moves on its own power, and because this isn't some fragile experimental prototype like the Bugatti Bolide, the driver gives it a few gratuitous revs too. Fantastic. We also get to see the rear clamshell open, exposing the pushrod suspension, massive turbochargers, and other systems attached to the magical engine. By the way, that engine had the codename VRH35L and was co-developed with Tom Walkinshaw Racing.
The 3.5-liter twin-turbo V8 produced 550 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque back in 1998, all of which was channeled to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential transmission. It weighed roughly the same as a current-gen Mazda MX-5 Miata, tipping the scales at just 2,420 pounds, which translated to a 0-60-mph sprint time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 220 mph. The quarter-mile could reportedly be dispensed with in just 11.9 seconds - not bad for something designed for endurance racing.
Sadly, Nissan never followed through on its promise to bring it into mainstream production, and this remains one of two street-legal examples ever made and the only one not owned by Nissan. If only something this cool could be made from the current Nissan GT-R.