MOTORSPORT: Nissan GT-R NISMO LM gets retro livery

Nissan NISMO GT-R LM livery

One heritage car may be dead, but another lives on, sort of. Since its US debut at the Chicago Auto Show we’ve been immensely curious about the front-wheel-drive Nissan GT-R NISMO LM. And no, that is not a typo. The car with which Nissan intends to challenge the toughest enduro in the world is indeed front-wheel-drive. And now they’ve revealed its new livery, a throwback to Nissan’s 1990 Le Mans prizefighter, the R90C. 

Nissan R90CK

Twenty-five years ago, Nissan entered five of their 1,100hp R90C racers at Le Mans, built in two different garages on opposite sides of the world but all decorated in the company’s traditional blue-white-red tricolors. Only three of the five finished, with the R90CP — born from the same Oppama works that built the Skyline and Fairlady Z touring cars of lore and piloted by Japan’s legendary drivers Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, and Toshio Suzuki — finishing fifth overall. The car shown above is an R90C built by the UK works team for Daytona, but visually subtle changes in the livery and its black wheels matches the new car best.

NissanGTRLMNISMO 06

Will the Nissan’s fortunes change with the GT-R NISMO LM? Though it bears the name of a highly focused killing machine, Nissan’s latest race car is an automotive platypus. Engineers claim that by moving the drive wheels to the prow, it opens up the entire back half for aerodynamic voodoo. We will see how successful it is this year at Circuit de la Sarthe as it breaks every commandment in the motorsports bible.

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8 Responses to MOTORSPORT: Nissan GT-R NISMO LM gets retro livery

  1. Remember that the Lancia Fulvia was FWD and had quite the storied win record and that by 1925 there were FWD Indy cars.

  2. wantyerknobbies says:

    Ok where are all the parrots screaming RWD! RWD! RWD! ??
    btw most people with RWD cars don’t even know how to handle them at the limit haha

  3. Iwakuni91 says:

    Yessss! I don’t know about you, but I would much prefer a cool retro paint scheme to a cool retro car anyday!

  4. Dallas D. says:

    You know that part about F1 technology trickling down, in diluted form, to everyday vehicles? What are we going to get from this? 🙂

    Is Honda going to run a new NSX in a GT class?

    To their credit, they are trying something different, and pushing it forwards boldly. It’s cool to see new things happening. Change is inevitable, and if it didn’t happen, what would we be?

    • Kuroneko says:

      ‘All progress depends on the unreasonable…’ One of my favorite quotations, as if not for left field ideas and crazy ideas we’d all still be living in caves. Neko.

  5. Alan T says:

    The #84 car you’ve chosen to illustrate this with is a Nissan R90CK, and it’s in the livery it was wearing when it took part in the 1991 Daytona 24hrs race, not the 1990 Le Mans 24hrs race.

  6. creakyjoints says:

    Don’t be putting out misleading information. The Nissan is awd.

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