The Prince R380 is a

racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including ...

built in 1965 by

Prince Motor Company The Prince Motor Company (Japanese language, Japanese: ) was an automobile manufacturer, automobile marque from Japan which eventually merged into Nissan in 1966. It began as the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, a manufacturer of various airplanes fo ...

to compete in the

Japanese Grand Prix The Japanese Grand Prix () is a motor racing event in the calendar of the Formula One World Championship. Historically, Japan has been one of the last races of the season, and as such the Japanese Grand Prix has been the venue for many title-de ...

. Following the merger of Prince Motor Company and

Nissan Motors 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 ...

in 1966, the R380 was modified into the Nissan R380-II (also known as R380 Mk.II).

Development

In 1964, Prince entered their new S54 Skyline GTs in the second Japanese Grand Prix, hoping to prove the performance potential of the car's new G-7

straight-6 A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

. Although the cars performed well, they were defeated by a privately entered

Porsche 904 The Porsche 904 is an automobile which was produced by Porsche in Germany in 1964 and 1965. This coupe, manufactured from 1963 to 1965, was street-legal under road traffic laws, allowing it to be driven not only on race tracks but also on public ...

, leaving the Skylines to take second through sixth positions. Realizing the superiority of the

mid-engine design In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout o ...

used on the Porsche 904, Prince decided that a custom-built sports car would be needed to win the Japanese Grand Prix. A new aerodynamic body was built on a Brabham BT8 chassis; alloy panels were fabricated with exposed buttresses over the rear engine cover and fitted to Brabham chassis number SC-9-64. For an engine, Prince used the same G engine that the Skylines had used, but adapted it specifically for racing. The new unit, known as GR-8, was a 1,996 cc straight-6 that produced . A

Hewland Hewland is a British engineering company, founded in 1957 by Mike Hewland, which specialises in racing-car gearboxes. Hewland currently employ 130 people at their Maidenhead facility and have diversified into a variety of markets being particul ...

5-speed racing gearbox was used in the transmission. When Nissan took over the project, the bodywork of the R380 was completely redesigned. The rear buttresses were replaced with a flowing cockpit and engine cover, while the vents and ductwork of the car was further refined. Nissan was able to increase power in the GR-8 engine to .

Racing history

Due to the cancellation of the Japanese Grand Prix in 1965, the R380 was used by Prince to test high speed aerodynamics. This led to the car being used to break five E-class land speed records in late 1965. 380916

For the 1966 Japanese Grand Prix at

Fuji Speedway is a motorsport race track standing in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Oyama, Shizuoka, Oyama, Suntō District, Shizuoka, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early 1960s. In the 1980s, Fuji Speedway was used for the ...

, Prince entered four R380s, while a trio of newer

Porsche 906 The Porsche 906 or Carrera 6 is a street-legal racing car from Porsche. It was announced in January 1966 and 50 examples were subsequently produced, thus meeting the homologation requirements of the FIA's new Group 4 Sports Car category to th ...

s were also entered. In the end, the R380s took the overall victory, with

Yoshikazu Sunako was a Japanese motorcycle racer and racing driver. Sunako was a works rider for Yamaha during the late 1950s and early 1960s. After racing in Japanese events, Sunako made his Grand Prix motorcycle racing debut in the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix, w ...

's R380 ahead of Hideo Oishi's second place R380. Following the rebuilding of the R380s by Nissan, four cars were once again entered in the Japanese Grand Prix. However, the 906s were able to overcome the previous year's loss, leaving the R380-IIs to settle for second, third, fourth, and sixth. The margin of victory was nearly two minutes. Nissan later used an R380-II to set new land speed records, breaking seven records in October of that year. Following Nissan's development of the newer R381 in 1968, the R380s were sold to

privateers A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

. Three were once again entered in the Japanese Grand Prix, where they took third, fourth, and fifth places. Two factory-entered R380s went on to finish first and second in the

1969 Chevron Paradise 6 Hour The 1969 Chevron Paradise 6 Hour was an endurance race for Sports Cars and Touring Cars. The event was held at the Surfers Paradise circuit in Queensland, Australia on 2 November 1969.Surfers Six To Datsun, Australian Motor Manual, January 1970, ...

race at the

Surfers Paradise International Raceway Surfers Paradise International Raceway was a motor racing complex at Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The long circuit was designed and built by Keith Williams (developer), Keith Williams, a motor racing enthusiast w ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

.Racing Car News, December 1969, pages 60-62 1969 saw one R380 taking second place in the

1000 km of Fuji The 6 Hours of Fuji (formerly the Fuji 1000 Kilometres) is a sports car race held at Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Shizuoka, Japan. The race was held for the first time in 1967, and in 1977 became part of the new Fuji Long Distance Series. In 1982 a se ...

race, and yet another second place in 1970 at a event at Fuji. In 2005,

Nismo , abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...

would restore an R380-II and use it for exhibition events, running alongside other cars in the R380 series.

References

External links

* * * * {{Nissan Sportscar Racers R380 Nissan racing cars Group 6 (racing) cars