NISSAN – The GTP & Group C Racecars 1984-1993: Lightning Speed

INTRODUCTION

A great era of racing took place in the eighties and early nineties. Blindingly fast GTP and Group C cars were created to run on either side of the Atlantic and the Pacific. They battled it out across America, Europe and Japan.

In Europe, these latter day Sports-prototypes, with their genesis being the Porsche 917’s, Ferrari 512’s and Lola T70’s of the late 1960’s, gained ground effects, turbocharging and, later on, electronically controlled engine management systems to make the most of every last drop of fuel allocated.

This latter innovation was important for cars needing to make pitstops and take on fuel. It was especially important for the Group C prototypes of Europe and Japan, where a fuel allocation formula was in force, making a necessity of frugality, combined with speed.

In America, John Bishop’s IMSA sanctioning body would have nothing to do with the European idea of fuel allocation, but that didn’t stop a brilliant electronics engineer, Don Devendorf, from developing his own, highly superior electronic engine management system, arguably the finest of its day.

And to which car did Don Devendorf’s company, Electramotive, fit this electronic marvel? Why, a Nissan. It was Devendorf who brought Nissan to the fore in International racing, winning them three straight IMSA Championships. Of course, under the skin, the car was a much-developed Lola with a Hewland gearbox and an engine built by Electramotive but with Nissan footing the bill.

In Europe and at home, Nissan commissioned March Engineering of Bicester, England to build Group C Sports-prototypes from 1983 onwards and then switched to Lola chassis in 1989 and 1990 in their quest to win Le Mans. They may have failed in that particular endeavor, but they left their mark: The fastest qualifying lap ever at Le Mans, in 1990.

These were, and are, great cars. Very powerful, with over 1000 horsepower on occasions, very fast, endowed with the greatest downforce of any of these cars and with an aura about them that reeked of serious intent.

JOHN STARKEY

1

ELECTRAMOTIVE – The American Nissans

Victory once again for the Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo in their incredible run of success in 1988. [Photo: Courtesy of Ashley Page.]

Nissans have been raced for far longer than most people think, and those who raced them have stayed remarkably true to the marque. In 1971 the BRE Datsun team comprised: John Morton and Pete Brock as drivers (John also worked as a fabricator with BRE); John Caldwell, who built the engines, and John Knepp, who looked after the gearboxes. The engineer in charge of the suspension was Trevor Harris. Yoshi Suzuka also worked for BRE. All of these people would stay with Nissans and later take part in their triumph in GTP racing, employed by Electramotive.

Hand-in-hand with the commercial success of Datsun’s 240Z in the States came success on the racetracks. Various 240Zs were modified to take part in the GTU (Grand Touring Under 2.5-liters) class of IMSA, starting in 1973. The most notable of these were driven by Bob Sharp, Paul Newman, Sam Posey, and a young electronics engineer, then employed by the Hughes aircraft company of California, named Don Devendorf.

Don Devendorf and his friend, fellow racer and partner in the venture, John Knepp, started Electramotive Engineering of California in 1974. Knepp had his shop situated very closely to Don Devendorf’s place, and the pair had long known each other.

John Knepp, in an interview with the author, recalled: "I actually started with Pete Brock’s team in 1969. We developed the two-liter roadster, the 510 and the Z car. We also built a pick-up and went drag racing!

Pete Brock lost interest in racing and went hang-gliding, and so I started Electramotive Engineering. Dick Roberts of Nissan had had his eye on Don Devendorf, as he was a rising star on the racetrack. We worked out a deal, built a B210, and Don won the SCCA Championship with it."

Trevor Harris, later to be so instrumental as Electramotive’s ‘in house’ designer, remembered: In 1972, Nissan developed their little sedan, the 1200. They asked me to design a rear suspension package for a private driver. That driver turned out to be Don Devendorf. He won pole position and every race that year in his SCCA division.

Don Devendorf mortgaged his house to provide funds to start Electramotive. There were two companies housed under one roof: Electramotive Engineering being the race team (75% owned by Don Devendorf), whilst Electramotive Inc. was the engineering side (75% owned by John Knepp).

Electramotive became America’s leading specialist in the sale and preparation of road and racing Nissans, and when the Japanese company decided to enter the GTP category, they naturally approached Devendorf to run the project. First of all, Devendorf approached March Engineering of Bicester, England, but they had too many commitments to be able to supply what Electramotive needed.

Don Devendorf with his wife, Alice, and their children.

Trevor Harris, the gifted designer, and his wife, Freddie. Note the T-shirts.

Mike Ferrari, Electramotive’s tire engineer. On the back of this photo, Ashley Page wrote: The Best!

Road America, 1988. Four of the Nissan’s Electramotive crew take time out for a photo. From left, they are: Hersey Mallory, Joe Tobin, Kevin Scham and Ray Guna.

Wes Moss and John Christie. [Photos: Courtesy of Ashley Page.]

Don Devendorf: We were doubtful about March’s capacity to design in enough cooling for a turbo car. Having run the Nissan straight-six engine up to 8500 rpm for 24 hours, we knew how much cooling the new V6 engine would need in turbocharged form. March had never really succeeded in making their turbocharged engines in their Group C and GTP cars last, but Eric Broadley of Lola was fully cognizant of this requirement and willing to design a chassis around the engine.

So Electramotive then contacted March’s rival, Lola, and commissioned Eric Broadley, the owner and chief designer, to design and build the T810 rolling chassis, which was based on a T710 monocoque, the tubs built for GM for their ‘Corvette GTP’ project. The T810 had slightly different detail modifications (to the T710) to allow for the Nissan engine, cooling and bodywork installations. The two chassis shared similar suspension installations and physical dimensions.

Trevor Harris, later to figure most prominently in the Nissan/Electramotive story commented: When Lola did the T810, Nissan was led to believe that the car was unique, however, a lot of that car was interchangeable with the T710 Corvette GTP car. Our project must have been a real profit center for Lola.

The Lola T810 was designed by Eric Broadley and Clive Lark. In Electramotive Nissan form, the car ran under the name Nissan GTP ZX Turbo. There were four chassis originally built by Lola.

A front view of the first Electramotive Nissan GTP ZX Turbo (Lola T810) in the Lola factory awaiting paint. [Photo: Courtesy of Ashley Page.]

Two of the T810s were delivered to the Le Mans Company in Japan for use in the Japanese Sportscar Championship. The other two, sent from Lola on April 11th and May 15th 1985 to Electramotive, had been assembled by, amongst others, Laurie Bray.

Laurie, who has been with Lola since the its inception, (he is today the company’s historian and archivist) remembered: That was a very difficult car to build. We were given dummy Nissan engines and worked around them in the chassis. I remember the water-cooling pipes having to be armored as the water pressure system used the then unheard of pressure of 60 psi. And the fuel pumps! There seemed to be batteries of them.

Another problem that we had was with the bodywork. Because carbon fiber was so new, we used the same sort of moulds that we had used previously for fiberglass bodywork. After the first body had been built, the moulds shifted. I had the devil of a job to make the bodywork fit the second, third and fourth cars made!

Ashley Page of North Carolina became Electramotive’s first Crew Chief in 1984. When I started with Electramotive, the Lola was not even started on. John Bright, when he had worked at Lola, did a great deal of work on the T600 and I flew to England with him and we had to finish the car up in the factory.

Don Devendorf (left) with Ashley Page. [Photo: Courtesy of Ashley Page.]

John Knepp: We (Electramotive) had contracted with Nissan, Japan, to supply their Marches and the Le Mans Company’s T810s, with V6 race engines. The engine used a single Garrett TO3 turbocharger and our own fuel-injection system. By 1985, we were already getting close to a thousand horsepower from the V6.

"I remember that when the team went to the first race, Ashley Page watched them as they left and said: ‘Look at ‘em all gung-ho. They think they’re going to win straight away. They don’t realize what