This 950 HP Nissan NPT-90 Was One of IMSA’s Fastest GTP Cars and Is Now Up for Sale
Only six NPT-90s were built, yet this car racked up multiple championships in the early nineties. Now one’s heading to auction.
Nissan's final IMSA GTP racer, the NPT-90, was arguably its best in terms of speed and reliability, not to mention one of the fastest GTP cars ever created. Now one of just six NPT-90s ever made is being auctioned off, and it can be yours if you have the cash.
This 1990 NPT-90, chassis number 90-01, is up now on Stratas Auctions. The car itself has been in storage for nearly seven years, so you'll need to have a full once-over done before it returns to the track, but you'd have a ton of fun with it then. It's powered by a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 based on that in the 300ZX Turbo that can crank out over 950 horsepower. that feeds through a Hewland five-speed transaxle. Chassis No. 90-01 was one of just three of the six that was never wrecked, so the tub should be in fine structural condition, too.
According to Stratas' listing, Nissan had just won the 1989 IMSA championship with its Electramotive-prepped GTP ZX-Turbo when the NTP-90 came to be. Electramotive had hit a financial rough patch, so Nissan Japan stepped in to give them more funding to keep building and running winning race cars under the new Nissan Performance Technology Incorporated name, or NPTI for short. NPTI moved into a new facility in Vista, Calif., that year, that had a wind tunnel, composite shop, engine room and on-site facilities for fabrication and engineering.
The NPT-90 was NPTI's first race car, and the rest was history. It continued to race under the GTP ZX-Turbo name, but it was really a new car. Trevor Harris served as the chief designer and trackside engineer of the NPT-90.
Chassis No. 90-01 debuted with Derek Daly and Bob Earl driving at the 1990 Camel Grand Prix of the Heartland in Topeka. In that first season, Geoff Brabham drove it to win three races and claim the GTP Driver's Championship from splitting time between the GTP ZX-Turbo and the NPT-90. Better yet, it won Nissan the 1990 Manufacturer's Championship. This car had a repeat performance in 1991, scoring another drivers' championship for Geoff Brabham and another manufacturers' championship for Nissan.
The car was supposed to be retired after that, but after two other NPT-90s wrecked in the first half of 1992, the car was updated to the 1992 spec and once again, contributed to another Nissan manufacturer's championship. Its last race was the Del Mar 2 Hours race on October 11, 1992, and it is being offered for sale in that 1992 spec, which has upgraded bodywork for more downforce. In its 22-race lifetime, Chassis No. 90-01 won three races and podiumed in 15. You can view the full run-down of the car's racing history on its for-sale listing here.
Canepa Motorsports offered this car for sale earlier this year for an undisclosed amount, but clearly there were no takers. Could you score a screamin' deal on one of the nineties' raddest race cars now that it's up for auction? If you think so, head to the auction listing here and purchase a true dream car. The auction ends on Oct. 16, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. PST.
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