Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo
This project will see the rebuilding of a car with a chequered history. Built by Electromotive Engineering in 1988, the car made it's debut late in the season, at the Portland 300km IMSA event, qualifying and finishing in 2nd position. Sister car to the dominating chassis #01 car being driven by Geoff Brabham and John Morton, the car went on to have three further successful meetings in '88 bringing Nissan to within a single point of winning the constructors championship, even after missing two complete events.
Nissan dominated the 1989 season, with eight wins for chassis #01 and two for this chassis #03. For the complete 1990 season, the car was prepared and raced by privateers Jim Busby and later David Seabroke with it's distinctive colourful livery, whilst the newly renamed NPTI team continued to run #01 and a newly built #04, alongside the development of the GTP ZX-Turbos replacement, the NPT-90.
Nissan debuted the new NPT-90 at Topeka in May 1990 and ran it alongside chassis #04 for the majority of the season. With Toyota also debuting it's Eagle HF89 in Topeka, the GTP ZX-Turbo's competitive era had effectively come to an end.
The car changed hands a couple of times until 1998 when it was bought by Michael Lauer, who started to race it in historic events. Sportscar enthusiast and collector, Wayne Jackson bought the car in 2002 and was maintained by Kevin Jeannette of Gunnar Racing.
On Thursday April 25th 2002, the car was involved in an accident while being tested by Bob Akin at Road Atlanta in preparation for the HSR Walter Mitty Challenge. Bob sustained severe injuries and passed away some days later.
We acquired the car as a bare tub and a pile of parts and have been slowly rebuilding it over the last couple of years.
Some bodywork and suspension mounted to the tub...
Engine and transmission mounted, plus rear suspension and intercooler...
The body is now complete and ready for paint preparation. Gone will be the Nissan red and blue, to be replaced by the striking Miller / BF Goodrich livery.
Coming in to autumn, our paint team was finally able to concentrate on finishing the paintwork on the 88-03, but with multiple colours and stripes flowing throughout the car, it wasn't going to be an easy task.
The rear bodywork was rebuilt by our carbon fibre specialists using the remaining good half of the original body. They put it back in the mould and laid up the other side to create a complete panel.
One original door survived the crash and was used on the right side. A new door was made for the other side.
The car had to be fully painted in white before being assembled and adjusted to ensure correct alignment of the striping once reassembled when finished.
Now the car is fully assembled and looking amazing with a new windscreen and new perspex for the doors and lights. With the decals applied it pulls the whole thing together and now the car we've spent months looking at in old photographs is now a reality.
