The Nissan VRH engine family consists of several racing engines built by

Nissan Motor Company is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house performance tuning pr ...

beginning in the late 1980s. All VRH engines are in a V8 configuration, with either

natural aspiration A naturally aspirated engine, also known as a normally aspirated engine, and abbreviated to N/A or NA, is an internal combustion engine in which air intake depends solely on atmospheric pressure and does not have forced induction through a turboc ...

forced induction In an internal combustion engine, forced induction is where turbocharging or supercharging is used to increase the density of the intake air. Engines without forced induction are classified as naturally aspirated. Operating principle Ove ...

. Some VRH engines are loosely based on Nissan's production V8

engine block In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure that contains the cylinders and other components. The engine block in an early automotive engine consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attach ...

s, including the VH and VK engines, while others were designed from the ground up for racing and share no components with production blocks. The name "VRH" comes from the engines' V configuration ("V"), their purpose as racing engines ("R"), and the fact that all of them have

eight cylinders The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engine, Wankel engines are o ...

(with "H" being the eighth letter of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

History

In 1987, Nissan began work on an engine exclusively for race use; the result was the VEJ30 engine, developed by Yoshikazu Ishikawa. This engine was based on old technology, and was not a success. For 1988, the VEJ30 was improved by Yoshimasa Hayashi and renamed the VRH30. Changes included increasing the

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

to . This engine was, however, still based on the obsolete VEJ30, and development of the all-new VRH35Super Car Chronicle Part 3 レーシングカーのテクノロジー was started in parallel with the VRH30. In 1989, the VRH35 appeared as a new development engine and was used in the

Nissan R89C The Nissan R89C was a Group C sports prototype developed by Lola Cars for Nissan. Development Replacing the original March built series of prototypes that Nissan had used, the R89C was part of Nissan's increased involvement in the project. Deve ...

. A 3.0-litre variant of the VRH35Z was also used in the 1998

Courage Courage (also called bravery, valour ( British and Commonwealth English), or valor (American English)) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in ...

-Nissan C51 at the

1998 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 66th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 6 and 7 June 1998. Schedule Events for the 24 Hours of Le Mans began on 2 May with technical inspections, before initial pre-qualifying on 3 May. The race week ...

. Both C51s failed to finish.Courage Nissan C51
/ref> The design of the engine was later sold to

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

, where it served as the basis of their

M838T The McLaren M838T engine is a 90-degree twin-turbocharged flat-plane V8, designed and developed in collaboration with Ricardo. Development McLaren bought the rights to the Tom Walkinshaw Racing developed engine, itself based on the Nissan VR ...

and M840T engines (which were used in all of McLaren's line-up since the

McLaren MP4-12C The McLaren MP4-12C, later rebranded as the McLaren 12C, is a sports car produced by the British carmaker McLaren Automotive. Manufactured between 2011 and 2014 and designed by Frank Stephenson, the MP4-12C was available as both a coupe and a ...

VRH30T

Nissan R88C front-left 2012 Suzuka Circuit Time Machine Exhibition

The VRH30T was used in the R88C. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum 90° V8 *Aspiration:

Twin-Turbo Twin-turbo is a type of turbo layout in which two turbochargers are used to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case of a direct-injection engine). The most common layout features two identical or mirrored turbochargers in ...

( IHI) *Valvetrain: DOHC, 4 Valves per Cylinder *Displacement: *Bore x Stroke: *Power: at 8000 rpm *Torque: at 5500 rpm

VRH35Z

The VRH35Z first appeared in 1990 in the R90C. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum *Aspiration: Twin-Turbo ( IHI) *Valvetrain: DOHC, 4 Valves per Cylinder Displacement: *Bore x Stroke: *Compression Ratio: 8.5:1 *Power: at 7600 rpm *Torque: at 5600 rpm *Engine Management: ECCS-R-NDIS *Weight:

VRH35L

In 1997, Nissan, working in partnership with

Tom Walkinshaw Racing Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was a motor racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976, in Kidlington, near Oxford, England, by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw. The company initially handled privateer work before entering works touring car ...

, fielded a VRH35L in the R390 GT1. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum *Aspiration: Twin-Turbo ( IHI) *Valvetrain: DOHC, 4 Valves per Cylinder *Displacement: *Bore x Stroke: *Compression Ratio: 9.0:1 *Power: at 6800 rpm *Torque: at 4400 rpm *Dry weight:

VRH35ADE

The VRH35ADE was used by

Infiniti (stylized in all caps) is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Nissan. The brand began on November 8, 1989, initially in North America. The marketing network for Infiniti vehicles included dealers in over 50 countries in the 201 ...

in their

Indy Indy may refer to: Computing and technology *Indy (software), used for Internet access to music *Internet Direct, or "Indy", a software library * SGI Indy, a computer workstation Periodicals *''The Indy'', shorthand for newspapers that include ...

race car. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum-alloy block and heads;

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mo (from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'') and atomic number 42. The name derived from Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ores. Molybdenum minerals hav ...

-coated

piston A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder (engine), cylinder a ...

s *Aspiration: Naturally Aspirated *Valvetrain: DOHC, 4 Valves per Cylinder *Displacement: *Bore x Stroke: *Compression Ratio: 13.8:1 *Lubrication System: Multi-stage

dry sump A dry sump system is a method to manage the lubricating motor oil in Four-stroke engine, four-stroke and large Two-stroke engine, two-stroke Reciprocating engine, reciprocating internal combustion engines. The dry sump system uses two or more o ...

*Oil Capacity: *Power: at 10700 rpm *Torque: at 10400 rpm

VRH40ADE

The VRH40ADE was used by

in their

race car. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum-alloy block and heads;

-coated

s *Aspiration: Naturally Aspirated *Valvetrain: DOHC, 4 Valves per Cylinder *Displacement: *Bore x Stroke: *Compression Ratio: 14.5:1 *Lubrication System: Multi-stage

*Oil Capacity: *Power: at 10700 rpm *Torque: at 8500 rpm

VRH34A

Motul Autech GT-R 2011 Super GT Fuji 250km

The VRH34A is one of two engines used in Nissan's GT500-spec GT-R. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum *Aspiration: Naturally Aspirated *Valvetrain: DOHC, 4 Valves per Cylinder *Displacement: *Bore x Stroke: *Power: *Torque: Over *Dry weight: ?

VRH50A

The VRH50A was used in the

Nissan R391 The Nissan R391 is a prototype racing car built by Nissan and their motorsports counterpart Nismo for competition at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was a replacement for the R390 GT1, which was no longer legal in its production-based class. Hi ...

. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum, Closed Deck *Aspiration: Naturally Aspirated *Valvetrain: DOHC, 4 Valves per Cylinder *Displacement: *Bore x Stroke: *Compression ratio: 14.0:1 (estimated) *Redline: 8000 rpm *Power: at 7200 rpm *Torque: at 6000 rpm *Engine Management: Nissan Electronics/

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

HN-1 *Weight:

Other VRH engines

The VRH34A and VRH34B are naturally aspirated engines used by

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

in their GT-R

Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a sports car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC), the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is the top level of ...

race car from 2010. The VRH34A is and produces and over of torque. The VRH34B is and produces and over of torque.

References

* * {{nissan VRH35 World Sportscar Championship engines V8 engines Engines by model Gasoline engines by model Group C