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Early Japanese racing
R381's and 2's
Nissan did well in Japanese racing with their Prince R380, R381, and R382 Group 7 grand prix cars.
The story of the development of the R380 is interesting. It actually started as a defeat for the
Prince Motor Company in the 1964 Japanese Grand Prix, the same race that saw victory for Nissan
in the Touring Sedan
Dr. Sakuri of Prince took his Skyline GT's out to race at the 64 GP, only to have them defeated by
a privately entered Porsche. Immediately after the race, Dr. Sakuri set up the Prince Motoring
Club and began development of the R380. The original car used a Lola chassis as its platform,
with 2.6 liter 6 cylinder Prince engine as its powerplant.
Prince R380 and R380-II race cars
The car was ready to race for the 66 Japanese GP, held on May 3 of that year. It creamed the
competition, taking 1st, 2nd, and 4th places, with a Toyota V8 landing in the third spot. This
was the last year these cars were raced as Princes. Nissan took over the company in August of
that year.
Nissan let Dr. Sakurai continue with the development of the R380's, which turned out to be
a wise move. At the 1967 Grand Prix, second generation R380's took spots 2,3,4, and 6, with
Porsche Carreras filling in the blanks.
In 1968, a closed coupe R380 set an E class world record with an average speed of 251 kph
over 200 miles. Third generation r380's and the all new V12 r381's were supposed to race in
the 68 Jap GP, but there was a small snag. The 6 cylinder 380's were ready, but the V12 for
the R381 was not. So what does a good racer do? Get another engine of course! Dr. Sakurai flew
to California and bought a few Chevy V8's from famed engine builder Dean Moon.
Three 6 cylinder R380's and three 430ci Chevy V8 R381's raced in 68...and won! A Chevy powered
V8 Nissan took first, with another taking 6th, and the Nissan 380's taking 3,4 and 5th places.
The last car suffered severe clutch damage early in the race and still managed to beat the
competition.
The more important development that year was a production deal signed with Austin to build licensed
versions of the Austin A40. These cars were manufactured in Japan, but still used some English
components.
R382
The Nissan V12, basically a melding of 2 inline 6's was ready for 1969 when Motoharu Kurosawa took
the checkered flag in the R382. Environmental concerns killed the program that year
"The first Roadster on the Suzuka circuit"
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