The
Nissan Z cars date all the way to 1970 with the Nissan Fairlady Z which
was called the Datsun 240Z in the USA. That original car had a
2.4 liter straight 6, but by 1984 it had become the 300ZX with a 3.0
liter turbocharged V-6. This is not that car. The IMSA
(International Motor Sports Association) GT Championship was a racing
series that lasted from 1971 to 1998. A version of the 300ZX was
entered in the GTO and GTS series by Nissan from 1989 through
1995. What did that racing version have in common with the street
version of the 300ZX? Virtually nothing. The racing car used
a tube frame chassis bearing no resemblance to the street car and while
the body bore a superficial resemblance to the street car, it was
actually a fiberglass racing shell using only the tail lights from the
real thing. The engine was vaguely based on the street
engine. The street car used the VG30ET V-6, a single overhead cam
engine with a single turbocharger making 200hp. The racing version
managed to bump that to 800hp with massive intercooled twin turbos and
dual overhead cams. The car would go on to win Daytona in 1994,
but given the release date of this model, it cannot be that car.
My research leads me to believe that this #75 GTO car is from 1990, the
first year it was driven by Steve Millen.The Nissan 300ZX is my third car using the Tamiya Group C chassis after the Ferrari F40 and Nissan R91CP. This was originally released as set 58091 in 1991 (the 2nd on the Group C chassis), several years before the real car won the 24 hour Daytona race. There were 9 models released on the Group C chassis in the '90s, then 4 of them were re-released in 2005 and 2006 with painted bodies. This was not one of them. This model was never re-released which would normally disqualify it for my collection. However, Lars from Tamiyabase was selling his personal model at a reasonable price and I was forced to buy it in a moment of weakness. As an original vintage car, and given that I have several other runner Group C's, this one will probably be reserved for the shelf. Note that although this particular model was never re-released, there is another version of the 300ZX IMSA car, the 58144 GTS version released in 1994 on the TA-02W chassis. This would likely be the Daytona winning model and uses a different body so it shares nothing with my model. The Group C chassis was still in production at that point, so it is interesting that Tamiya chose to release the later version on a different chassis. Maybe it's because the real car was never a Group C racer.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It has not been replaced.
 Page 1: Assembly |
 Page 2: Final Photos |