GT-Time

Above any other motorsport of the '70s, Nissan staked its claim as a top-tier brand in professional rally racing. The success it saw in the '80s was a carryover from efforts that began in the '50s and '60s and matured the decade after, and the RWD Datsun Bluebird was sort of where it all started. This battered beaut (we love how Nissan left these cars as is, warts and all) was the 510 that broke through at the '70 East-African Safari Rally and gave Nissan its first big internationally recognized wins in the sport.

Nissan's first FF was the Cherry, and it came with the same A10 and A12 inline-4 engines that were in the Sunny. This one was prepped for the Minor Touring class of the '72 Fuji Speedway Grand Champion series, another support race, and was armed with a 1.3L A12 making just under 150hp.

Elsewhere in touring cars, the range-topping '87 Skyline GTS-R homologation special took dead aim at Group A racing and carried on the line's legacy in the category after the R30 began it a generation earlier. This particular HR31 was built by Nissan Motorsports Europe for the European Touring Car Championship and was propelled by an inline-6 RB but not the one you're thinking of - these racing machines sported RB20DET-Rs, a 2.0L version of the straight-6.

As you can probably tell from the ton of sports car prototype racers in the photo gallery, Nissan was heavily involved in both Group C-/GTP- and GT1-spec competition on an international scale in the '90S; they were running in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC), IMSA in America, and the World Endurance Championship/World Sports-Prototype Championship/FIA Sportscar World Championship (so many stupid names) in Europe. Chassis first came from Lola Cars and March Engineering before Nissan started building them on their own and depending on ruleset came with everything from twin-turbo V-8s to the naturally aspirated V-12 you'd find mounted in P35 prototypes. Much success was had in these machines.