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

Nissan Motor Company , 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 bra ...

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

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 Overvi ...

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

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

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 engines are often categorize ...

(with "H" being the eighth letter of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

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 is a Japanese politician who currently serves as Minister for Foreign Affairs since November 2021. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he also serves in the House of Representatives for the Yamaguchi 3rd district since 2021. Early life ...

and renamed the VRH30. Changes included increasing the displacement 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. A 3.0-litre variant of the VRH35Z was also used in the 1998

Courage Courage (also called bravery or valor) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in battle. Physical courage is bravery in the face of physical pain, ...

-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 b ...

. 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 motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formu ...

, where it served as the basis of their M838T and M840T engines (which were used in all of McLaren's line-up since the

McLaren MP4-12C The McLaren MP4-12C, later known simply as the McLaren 12C, is a sports car that was designed and manufactured by McLaren Automotive. It was the first ever production car wholly designed and built by McLaren, and their first production road ...

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 (not to be confused with a twincharger setup, which is a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger) refers to an engine in which two turbochargers work in tandem to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case ...

(

IHI Ihi, Ehee (Nepal Bhasa:ईही) is a ceremony in the Newar community in Nepal in which pre-adolescent girls are "married" to the Suvarna Kumar which is a symbol of the god Vishnu, ensuring that the girl becomes and remains fertile. It is beli ...

) *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 (

) *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 ca ...

, fielded a VRH35L in the R390 GT1. *Cylinder Block: Aluminum *Aspiration: Twin-Turbo (

) *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 is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Nissan. Infiniti officially started selling vehicles on November 8, 1989, in North America. The marketing network for Infiniti-branded vehicles included dealers in over 50 countries in ...

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

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ...

-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 and is made gas-t ...

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 and large two-stroke piston driven internal combustion engines. The dry-sump system uses two or more oil pumps and a separate oil reservoir, as opposed to a con ...

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

VRH40ADE

The VRH40ADE was used by

in their Indy 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 conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo G ...

HN-1 *Weight:

Other VRH engines

The VRH34A and VRH34B are naturally aspirated engines used by

Nissan , 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 bra ...

in their GT-R

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

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