NISSAN'S PRIME ERA

NISSAN’S PRIME ERA

SIR,

I read with interest your article on the Nissan NPT GTP IMSA cars, having seen them run at Watkins Glen in every season in which they raced.

Full marks to Nissan for funding this bunch of hot-rodders (designer Trevor Harris had built a particularly interesting chopped and channelled street coupe), race engineers and rocket scientists toward the breaking of the impressive but ultimately boring Porsche 956/962 domination of American road racing.

It bears mention, though, that I believe Geoff Brabharn and the other drivers were spectacularly underwhelmed by the `Nissan-ised’ NPT-90 updated car, and perhaps it is this, as much as the Toyota competition seeing the light, that spelled the team’s doom.

I also recall that the drivers and team thought that the `house staff’ had gotten top-heavy and weren’t contributing to the actual racetrack effort. Sounds like Jaguar Racing in Formula One, doesn’t it?

At any rate, the NPT-88 was a marvellous race car to witness on the tack: long tail whipping past the collection of GTP, GTU, American sedans (yes, Oldsmobile Cutlasses!) and other cars on its way to an inevitable win.

It was quite an era. JAM, YOURS ETC, NORMAN GAINES, flARTSDALE, USA