How McLaren Engines Started Life Inside A Nissan V8 Race Car
The world automotive industry is full of surprises that never seize to amaze. Almost like a thriller novel, there is always something intriguing going on under the layers. Speaking of which, next time when you meet a bloke at a bar (or a café, I am not a judgmental kind) bragging about his McLaren and how it effectively thrashes the competition by its performance, you should congratulate him by saying, “Well mate, your Nissan sounds impressive”… Why you would say something like that, you’d ask. Well, to start off, it’s the truth, that’s why, almost. The thing is, I came across a rather interesting fact about the origins of the brilliant McLaren engines that power their range of cars. In this story, Japanese maker Nissan happens to be the godfather of every visceral sensation that we know a McLaren for. To be precise, the granddad was known as Nissan VRH35L.
Around 20 years ago, when yours truly used to ogle at a Ducati 916 poster, (also, Kate Winslet), the blokes at Nissan were doing more relevant stuff by finishing the final iteration of the twin-turbo 3.5-litre aluminium V8 engine. This was destined to power the outright bonkers GT1 category endurance Nissan race car for Le Mans, the R390 GT1.
Comments
It’s a shame the R390 didn’t see much light. Although we probably wouldn’t have the stream of amazing McLarens today if it did
Hmm very interesting