The Nissan R381 was a racing car developed by

Nissan Motors , trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands ...

in 1968 for use in the

Japanese Grand Prix The Japanese Grand Prix ( ja, 日本グランプリ, Nihon-guranpuri) 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 Gran ...

. It was the successor to the Nissan R380-II, which had been originally developed by the

Prince Motor Company The Prince Motor Company ( Japanese: ) was an automobile marque from Japan which eventually merged into Nissan in 1966. It began as the Tachikawa Aircraft Company, a manufacturer of various airplanes for the Japanese Army in World War II, e.g. ...

Development

Following the defeat of the Nissan R380-II at the 1967 running of the Japanese Grand Prix, Nissan set about developing an improved car for the 1968 event. Aware of the new CanAm series in North America that ran under the new

Group 7 Group 7 may refer to: * G7, an international group of finance minister *Group 7 element, chemical element classification *Halogens (alternative name) *Group 7 Rugby League, rugby league competition in New South Wales, Australia *Group 7 (racing) G ...

classification, the new R381 became a much more powerful and faster car in comparison to the previous model. Knowing that the original Prince GR8 Straight-6 would not be powerful enough, Nissan planned to use a new

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

-built V12. However the engines was not completed in time (partially due to this being the first time Nissan or Prince had constructed a V12), so the company turned to a Chevrolet 5.5L V8 which produced nearly 450 hp, twice the amount of the Prince GR8. Also borrowing from CanAm, most notably Chaparral, large rear wings were placed on the new design. These dual wings placed side by side could be driven by hydraulics that moved either the left or right wing up or down in order to increase cornering ability. For bodywork, the R381 was initially an evolution of the R380's coupe design. The rear tail was lengthened and the engine cover made flat in order to increase rear downforce in conjunction with the rear wing. The back of the car was also made flat, with a Kamm tail effect. However, upon becoming aware of the new

Toyota 7 The Toyota 7 was a series of racing cars developed by Toyota Motor Company in cooperation with Yamaha Motor Corporation. Designed primarily for use in FIA Group 7 competition, it was Toyota's first purpose-built racing car project. Design 7 (415 ...

car which also ran in Group 7 rules, Nissan chose to cut the roof of the R381 off. A thin windshield was all that remained, while a tiny rollbar was placed on the engine cover.

Racing history

Debuting at the fourth

, three R381s fought alongside three older R380-IIs as well as three of the new Toyota 7s. Several Porsches also made up the field. The entire Nissan contingent performed well, taking five of the top six spots, with a

Porsche 910 The Porsche 910 or Carrera 10 was a race car from Porsche, based on the Porsche 906. 29 were produced and were raced in 1966 and 1967. The factory name for the 910 was the 906/10. The 910 was considered the next sequence in the 906 line. Histor ...

taking second. The R381 of Moto Kitano took the race win. Following the Japanese Grand Prix, the R381 was replaced by the newer R382, which featured an entirely Nissan-built engine. 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 ...

restored an R381 and now currently runs it in exhibition events along with the rest of the R380 series.

External links

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