Rocky Auto R380: A street-legal Prince race car appears at Tokyo Auto Salon

Built to conquer purpose-built racing Porsches, the Prince R380 was Japan’s first prototype race car. It never had a road-going counterpart and was retired after it fulfilled its reason for being, but now a street-legal version can be yours. At the Tokyo Auto Salon restomod shop Rocky Auto showed off a stunning and faithful replica of the R380.

The Prince Skyline GT ignited a movement when it briefly passed a Porsche 904 at the 1964 Japan Grand Prix. The low-slung Porsche overtook the family sedan and ultimately won the race, but the Skyline legend was born. Shinichiro Sakurai, who had created the Skyline GT by cramming a straight-six into Prince’s mid-range sedan, vowed to return with something on the Porsche’s level and claim the checkered flag for Japan.

The 1965 race was canceled, but in 1966 Sakurai and Prince Motors returned with the mid-engined R380 (above). They gave the spectators a rousing fight against the race’s lone Porsche 906. Though eager for a rematch til the checkered flag, the 906 ended up retiring due to an accident and the R380 claimed the top two spots.

Rocky Auto, famous for recreating entire cars like the classic Toyota 2000GT but with a modern powertrain, or the V8 Hakosuka, took on the project after being approached by an enthusiast from northern Kanto. Turns out, this individual had the original Prince body molds and documentation used to create the R380.

Apparently, Sakurai had officially obtained them from Nissan after retiring from Nissan and they had been lying dormant for nearly 60 years. Rocky Auto confirmed with Nissan that there would be no rights issues and was given the go-ahead. The molds were then used to create a the first new R380 in six decades.

Having the original molds made creating pieces like the clamshell hood and engine cover possible. However, the chassis required the construction of a tube frame matching the dimensions of the original 1966 version.

The Prince GR8 straight-six is extremely rare so for now the car is equipped with a Mugen racing engine and Hewland gearbox. When produced for customers, Rocky Auto intends to offer two production engines, an inline-six and a four-cylinder, though the manufacturer has yet to be revealed. Customers will also get a choice of 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters.

The car weighs only 680kg (1500 lb), so either engine will be plenty. Incredibly, Rocky Auto has already obtained a license plate for the neo-R380. For inspection the car can be raised to have a 9cm ground clearance, but for racing it can be lowered to 2cm.

 

Rocky Auto is currently accepting orders for the R380. The cost for the six-cylinder is expected to be around ¥50 million ($320,000 USD) and the four-cylinder one will be cheaper, but no price estimate has been announced yet.

That actually seems surprisingly inexpensive considering the work involved. We don’t know how many customers there are likely to be for a car like this, but we hope it’s a lot. There would be few things as mind-blowing as seeing a 1960s Prince race car shoot by on the road. Production will begin later this year.

 

permalink.
This post is filed under: Tokyo Auto Salon and
tagged: , , , , , , .

7 Responses to Rocky Auto R380: A street-legal Prince race car appears at Tokyo Auto Salon

  1. BlitzPig says:

    Very cool.

  2. Lee L says:

    Wow that is so cool! Adding to my list of cars to buy if I ever win the lottery.

  3. Jim Daniels says:

    One of the sexiest cars ever designed. Would love to have one and even though the price for what you would be getting seems low it would still be out of my price range.

  4. Franxou says:

    That is amazing! I would order it with the 4 cylinder in order to spend the more time possible with wide open!
    To be able to lay your hands on original tooling over 60 years old, probably made by hands in order to create a small series of sports cars must be a wild feeling.

  5. thelacerati says:

    I now have a new dream car.

  6. Negishi no Keibajo says:

    A was lucky to see an R380 in the flesh year ago at the Nissan Crossing in Ginza. Absolutely gorgeous car. The only sin was the graphics on the side saying Nissan. It’s still a Prinz to me. The showcased model was an A model, post-merger with Nissan.

  7. Kenny says:

    This is obviously a Formula 3 racecar wrapped in the R380 body panels. It has central driver position and tall cockpit walls on both sides

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *