Headed to Japan soon? If you’re a car enthusiast, you might want to make a stop at Yokohama, because Nissan is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Nissan Motorsports International – commonly known as Nismo. The in-house tuner and motorsports arm was inaugurated on September 17, 1984 in Omori, Tokyo and has been the driving force behind the carmaker’s extraordinary racing efforts ever since.
Nismo may not hold the stature it once did, but its past giant-killing exploits are well-known. Motorsports fans of a certain vintage will remember the utter domination the company wreaked in both domestic and international racing with the Skyline GT-R (there’s a reason why those cars were nicknamed “Godzilla”, after all). It even dabbled in top-class endurance racing with prototypes in the ’80s and ’90s.
Off the track, Nismo developed several tuned Nissan models of the Silvia, GT-R and Z, including the highly sought after R34 GT-R Z-Tune, built to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary. Sadly, there’s no special performance model being built to commemorate this year’s milestone, but Nissan is holding an exhibition at the Nissan Global Headquarters Gallery in Yokohama instead.
Visitors will be treated to a display of six jaw-dropping historic race and tuned vehicles, such as the iconic Calsonic R32 Skyline GT-R Group A from the Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC). Also on display are the 1992 24 Hours of Daytona-winning R91CP and the R390 GT1 that scored a podium finish at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans.
As for the road cars, they include the ultra-rare S14 Silvia-based Nismo 270R and R33 GT-R-based Nismo 400R, of which just 20 and 44 were made respectively. The Nismo Fairlady Z Type 380RS, based on the Z33 350Z, is also being shown.
These venerable cars will be juxtaposed next to Nissan’s current race machinery, including its Formula E Gen3 car and the Fairlady Z GT500 (known to you and me as simply the Nissan Z) from the Super GT series. You’ll also find Nismo’s (fairly lacklustre) current road car lineup – the Ariya Nismo, Note Aura Nismo and Z Nismo.
President of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing (NMC) Takao Katagiri, who’s also the boss of Nissan global motorsports, hinted at a brighter future for Nismo. “Our aim is to deliver exhilaration for fans at the circuit and embed the learnings from the racetrack into products customers can buy. Our long-term goal is to progressively expand our business globally, delivering more exciting Nismo models to customers around the world,” he said.
The Nismo 40th Anniversary Exhibition will be held until October 15; entrance to the Global Headquarters Gallery is, as always, free. This year’s Nismo Festival at Fuji International Speedway on December 1 will also be dedicated to the company’s anniversary celebrations.
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